The collapse of the USSR was documented and officially signed on December 8, 1991 by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. From that moment, a new stage in the life of 15 former Soviet republics, which were previously part of a great power, began.
Turning point
1991 turned out to be a difficult and turning point in the history of the USSR. Perestroika, which marked the end of the 80s, was never able to solve the tasks set. The population of the state refused to live under the old regime, although, according to polls, the majority of the inhabitants of the USSR remained supporters of keeping the country united. And at that time there was no opportunity to change the existing system while maintaining a single power.
June 12, 1991 B. N. Yeltsin became the president of Russia. And on the night of August 19 of the same year, a group of officials consisting of Vice President G. Yanayev, KGB Chairman V. Kryuchkov, Defense Minister D. Yazov, Prime Minister V. Pavlov organized the State Emergency Committee (State Emergency Committee). A state of emergency was introduced in the country, the activities of democratic parties and electronic media were suspended. The so-called putsch took place, which put an end to the old system of government.
From that moment on, the fate of the great power was predetermined. To a greater extent, its leader M. Gorbachev, who met the August events at a dacha in Foros. In Russian historiography, there is no clear view of the question of whether the first and last president of the USSR was kept by force or it was his voluntary choice.
Preconditions for the system crisis
The USSR as a great power was formed in 1922. At first it was a federal entity, but over time it turned into a state with power concentrated exclusively in Moscow. The republican authorities, in fact, received orders for execution from Moscow. A natural process was their dissatisfaction with this state of affairs, at first timid, eventually turning into open confrontation. The outbreak of interethnic conflicts fell on the time of perestroika, for example, the events in Georgia. But even then the problems were not solved, but were driven even more inside, the solution of problems was postponed "for later", information about discontent was not available to ordinary people, because it was carefully hidden by the authorities.
The USSR was originally created on the basis of the recognition of the right of national republics to self-determination, that is, the state was built according to the national-territorial principle. This right was enshrined in the Constitutions of 1922, 1936 and 1977. It was exactly what prompted the republics to secede from the USSR.
The collapse of the USSR was also facilitated by the crisis that overtook the central government in the late 1980s. The republican political elites decided to seize the opportunity to free themselves from the “Moscow yoke”. This is what many republics of the former Soviet Union considered the actions of the central Moscow authorities in relation to them. And in the modern political world, the same opinion still exists.
The significance of the collapse of the USSR
The importance of the collapse of the USSR cannot be overestimated even after more than 20 years. And events of this magnitude, their possibility or impossibility, are difficult to determine "hot on the trail." Today we can say that, most likely, the disintegration of the Union was irreversible due to the fact that many processes that took place during the 60-80s acted as catalysts. 20th century.
The echoes of the collapse of the USSR will be heard for a long time. This is especially true of the fate of the Russian-speaking population remaining in the former Soviet republics.
