This Week in Communism - The Collapse of the Soviet Union

This Week's Historical Theme: Communism

 

25 December 1991

 

A significant event throughout the history of communism that occurred in December is the collapse of the Soviet Union, after Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as the president of the nation. He had lost much of his power and prestige in the Soviet Union, and the economy was very unstable. No Soviet was pleased by Gorbachev, as some opponents demanded even more political freedom whereas hard-liners opposed any movement toward reform. He survived an attempted coup in August, but only through the assistance of Boris Yeltsin, the Russian Federation president. Yeltsin subsequently became a vocal critic of the slow pace of the country's economic and political reforms.

 

Despite this announcement, representatives from Soviet republics has already declared that they would no longer be part of the Soviet Union. Instead, they announced that they would establish a Commonwealth of Independent States. As the three Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had already declared their independence from the Soviet Union, only one of its 15 republics, Kazakhstan, remained. Gorbachev was ultimately disappointed in the dissolution of his nation, hence his resignation. Despite this, it was a peaceful end to a long and terrifying decade, known as the Cold War.

 

Want to find out more about the fall of the Soviet Union? Click here for a video with more information, or here for more about the history of the Cold War.