Dissolution of the Soviet Union

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Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Tanks at the Red Square during 1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt
Tanks at the Red Square during 1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt
DateJanuary 19, 1990—December 26, 1991
LocationSoviet Union
ParticipantsPeople of the Soviet Union
Federal government (AKA "the Centre")
Republican governments
OutcomeFall of the Soviet Union and independence of its republics
Post-Soviet states in alphabetical order:
1. Armenia, 2. Azerbaijan, 3. Belarus, 4. Estonia,
5. Georgia, 6. Kazakhstan, 7. Kyrgyzstan, 8. Latvia,
9. Lithuania, 10. Moldova, 11. Russia, 12. Tajikistan,
13. Turkmenistan, 14. Ukraine, 15. Uzbekistan

The weakening of the Soviet government led to a series of events that eventually caused the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a gradual process that took place from about January 19, 1990, to December 31, 1991. This process was characterized by many of the republics of the Soviet Union declaring their independence and being recognized as sovereign nation-states.

Early stages

Azerbaijani protests

Main article: Black January

Late at night on January 19, 1990, 26,000 Soviet troops stormed Baku in order to crush the Popular Front. In the course of the storming, the troops attacked the protesters, firing in the crowds. The shooting continued for three days. They acted pursuant to a state of emergency (which continued for more than 4 months) declared by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, signed by President Gorbachev. The state of emergency was, however, only disclosed to the Azerbaijani public hours after the beginning of the storming,[1] when many citizens already lay wounded or dead in the streets, hospitals and morgues of Baku. According to official data, between 133[2] and 137[3] people died with unofficial numbers reaching 300.[4] Up to 800 were injured and 5 went missing.[5] An additional 26 people were killed in Neftchala and Lankaran regions of the country.[6] The Soviet army soldiers used 5.45 mm caliber bullets with a shifted center of gravity designed to shear after entering the body thus causing an excessive physical damage to the body.[7][8]

In the resolution of January 22, 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR declared that the decree of the Presidium of USSR Supreme Soviet of January 19, used to impose emergency rule in Baku and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression.[9]

Multi-party elections

In February, 1990, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union agreed to give up its monopoly of power. Over the next several weeks, the 15 constituent republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections. Reformers and ethnic nationalists won many of the seats.

The constituent republics began to assert their national sovereignty over Moscow and started a "war of laws" with the central government, wherein the governments of the constituent republics repudiated union-wide legislation where it conflicted with local laws, asserting control over their local economies and refusing to pay tax revenue to the central Moscow government. This strife caused economic dislocation as supply lines in the economy were severed, and caused the Soviet economy to decline further.[10]

The pro-independence movement in the Lithuanian SSR, Sąjūdis, established on June 3, 1988, caused a visit by Gorbachev in January 1990 to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, which provoked a pro-independence rally of around 250,000 people.

On March 11, 1990, the Lithuanian SSR, led by Chairman of the Supreme Council Vytautas Landsbergis, declared restoration of independence. However, the Soviet Army attempted to suppress the movement. The Soviet Union initiated an economic blockade of Lithuania and kept troops there "to secure the rights of ethnic Russians."[11]

On March 30, 1990, the Estonian Supreme Council declared Soviet power in Estonian SSR since 1940 to have been illegal, and started a process to reestablish Estonia as an independent state. The process of restoration of independence of the Latvian SSR began on May 4, 1990, with a Latvian Supreme Council vote stipulating a transitional period to complete independence.

Barricade in Riga to prevent the Soviet Army from reaching Latvian Parliament, July 1991

On January 13, 1991, Soviet troops, along with KGB Spetsnaz Alpha Group, stormed the Vilnius TV Tower in Vilnius, Lithuania to suppress the nationalist media. This ended with 14 unarmed civilians dead and hundreds more injured. Later that month in Georgian SSR, anti-Soviet protesters at Tbilisi demonstrated support for Lithuanian independence.[12]

On March 17, 1991, in a Union-wide referendum 76.4% of all voters voted for the retention of the Soviet Union in a reformed form.[13] The Baltics, Armenia, Georgia, Chechnya (which was by now referring to itself as Ichkeria and despite previously being a region within Russia officially, had a strong desire to emulate the independence of its neighbors)[14] and Moldova boycotted the referendum. In each of the other nine republics, a majority of the voters supported the retention of the renewed Soviet Union. Following the results, Armenia indicated it wanted to rejoin in Union discussion.

On June 12, 1991, Yeltsin won 57% of the popular vote in the democratic elections for the post of president of the Russian SFSR, defeating Gorbachev's preferred candidate, Nikolai Ryzhkov, who won 16% of the vote. In his election campaign, Yeltsin criticized the "dictatorship of the centre", but did not suggest the introduction of a market economy. Instead, he said that he would put his head on the railtrack in the event of increased prices. Yeltsin took office on July 10.

On the night of July 31, 1991, Russian OMON from Riga, the Soviet military headquarters in the Baltics, assaulted the Lithuanian border post in Medininkai and killed seven Lithuanian servicemen. This further weakened the Soviet Union's position, internationally and domestically.

The August Coup

Main article: 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
Tanks in the Red Square during the 1991 coup attempt
File:1991coup2 ST.jpg
Mass demonstration in Moscow against the 1991 coup attempt

Faced with growing republic separatism, Gorbachev attempted to restructure the Soviet Union into a less centralized state. On August 20, 1991, the Russian SFSR was scheduled to sign the New Union Treaty, which was to convert the Soviet Union into a federation of independent republics with a common president, foreign policy and military. The new treaty was strongly supported by the Central Asian republics, which needed the economic power and common markets of the other Soviet republics to prosper. However, this meant the preservation of the Communist Party's control over economic and social life.

The more radical reformists were increasingly convinced that a rapid transition to a market economy was required, even if the eventual outcome included the disintegration of the Soviet Union into several independent nation-states. Disintegration of the USSR also accorded with the desires of Yeltsin's presidency of the Russian Federation as well as regional and local authorities, to establish full power over their territories and get rid of pervasive Moscow ideological control. In contrast to the reformers' lukewarm approach to the new treaty, the conservatives and remaining 'patriots' and Russian nationalists of the USSR, still strong within the CPSU and military establishment, were completely opposed to anything that might contribute to the weakening of the Soviet state and its centralized power base.

On August 19, 1991, Gorbachev's vice president Gennadi Yanayev, prime minister Valentin Pavlov, defense minister Dmitriy Yazov, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, and other senior officials acted to prevent the signing of the union treaty by forming the "General Committee on the State Emergency." The "Committee" put Gorbachev (vacationing in Foros, Crimea) under house arrest, reintroduced political censorship, and attempted to stop the perestroika. The coup leaders quickly issued an emergency decree suspending political activity and banning most newspapers.

While coup organizers expected some popular support for their actions, the public sympathy in large cities and in republics was largely against them. Russian SFSR President Boris Yeltsin was quick to condemn the coup and grab popular support for himself.

Thousands of people in Moscow came out to defend the "White House" (the Russian Federation's parliament and Yeltsin's office), then the symbolic seat of Russian sovereignty. The organizers tried but ultimately failed to arrest Yeltsin, who rallied mass opposition to the coup. The special forces dispatched by the coup leaders took up positions near the White House, but would not storm the barricaded building.

After three days, on August 21, the coup collapsed, the organizers were detained, and Gorbachev returned as president of the Soviet Union. However, Gorbachev's powers were now fatally compromised, as neither the Union nor Russian power structures heeded his commands.

Formation of the CIS and official end of the USSR

Map of the CIS

The final round of the Soviet Union collapse took place following the Ukrainian popular referendum on December 1, 1991, wherein 90% of voters opted for independence. The leaders of Slavic republics agreed to meet for a discussion of possible forms of relationship, alternative to Gorbachev's struggle for a union.

On December 8, 1991, the leaders of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian republics met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha and signed the Belavezha Accords declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and replacing it with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Gorbachev described this as an unconstitutional coup, but it soon became clear that the development could not be halted.

On December 12, 1991, Russia's secession from the Union was sealed, with the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratifying the Belavezha Accords and denouncing the 1922 Treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union.

On December 17, 1991, alongside 28 European countries, the European Community, and four non-European countries, twelve of the fifteen soviet republics signed the European Energy Charter in the Hague as sovereign states.[15]

Five double-headed Russian coat-of-arms eagles (below) substituting the former state emblem of the Soviet Union and the “CCCP” letters (above) in the facade of the Grand Kremlin Palace after the dissolution of the USSR

Doubts remained over the authority of the Belavezha Accords to affect the dissolution of the Soviet Union, since they were signed by only five of the Soviet Republics. However, on December 21, 1991, representatives of all member republics except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, in which they confirmed the dissolution of the Union. That same day, all former-Soviet republics agreed to join the CIS, with the exception of the three Baltic States and Georgia. The documents signed at Alma-Ata also addressed several issues raised by the Union's extinction. Notably, Russia was authorized to assume the role of the USSR in the United Nations, which meant inheriting its permanent membership on the Security Council. The Soviet Ambassador to the UN delivered to the Secretary General a letter by Russia's president, Boris Yeltsin, dated December 24, 1991, informing him that, in virtue of that agreement, Russia was the successor state to the USSR for the purposes of UN membership. After being circulated among the other UN member states with no objection raised, the statement was declared accepted on December 31.

On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR, declaring the office extinct and ceding all the powers still vested in it to the president of Russia: Yeltsin. On the night of that same day, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin. Finally, a day later on December 26, 1991, the Council of Republics (a chamber) of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union and dissolved itself (another chamber of the Supreme Soviet had been unable to work during some months before this, due to absence of a quorum). By December 31, 1991, all official Soviet institutions had ceased operations, as individual republics assumed the central government's role.

References

  1. ^ Human Rights Watch. “Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights”
  2. ^ 20 January
  3. ^ Elchin Khalilov (2001-08-15). "Eyewitness: A republic loses faith". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  4. ^ Blair, Betty (2001-08-15). "Black January: Baku (1990). Behind the Scenes - A Photojournalist's Perspective". Azerbaijan International. pp. 33–37. Retrieved 2010-01-20. {{cite news}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help); Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Shamkhal Abilov (2010-01-09). "20 January 1990: Black Face of the Red Terror in Azerbaijan". Turkish Weekly. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  6. ^ "Azerbaijan commemorates the anniversary of 20th January tragedy". Today.az. 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  7. ^ "20 January Tragedy Monstrous Crime Against Azerbaijani People Humanism and Humanity" (PDF) (Press release). Embassy of Azerbaijan Republic in Kazakhstan. January 17, 2006. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  8. ^ "20 января – день печали и надменности". 525-ci qazet. 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2010-01-20. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Kushen, Neier, p. 45
  10. ^ Acton, Edward,, (1995) Russia, The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy, Longmann Group Ltd (1995) ISBN 0-582-08922-0
  11. ^ From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe by Nina Bandelj, Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 0691129126 ISBN 978-0691129129, page 41
  12. ^ Hastening The End of the Empire, TIME Magazine, January 28, 1991
  13. ^ 1991: March Referendum SovietHistory.org
  14. ^ King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: History of the Caucasus
  15. ^ Concluding document of The Hague Conference on the European Energy Charter
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