DISSOLUTION OF THE SOVIET UNION

Often described as the inevitable outcome of the combined effect ofMikhailGorbachev’s policy triad ofperestroika,glasnost, anddemocratization, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was viewed by few in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or the West as likely a few years prior to its occurrence. However, the increasing instances ofethnic violencein theCaucasus, when combined with internal social pressures stimulated by the end of the one-party totalitarian system in theEastern Blocin 1989, the aftereffects of theChernobyl disaster, and dissemination of information onJosephStalin’s repressions, triggered a wave of centrifugal nationalism across theunion republics.

Spearheaded byBoris Yeltsin, self-styled Russian nationalists lobbied for increasing powers within theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, creating centripetal pressures on the USSR. Gorbachev worked diligently to hold the union together from 1990 to 1991. However, nationalist agitation in theBaltic StatesandGeorgia, combined with the rising tide of animosity toward theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU), made some reorganization of the union a political necessity.Ironically, the proposed renegotiation of the treaty of union, in effect since 1922, led to the failedAugust Coupof 1991.

In the wake of the crisis, the CPSU was outlawed, Russia recognized the independence ofEstonia,Latvia, andLithuania, and Gorbachev was marginalized. In early December, Yeltsin met with the heads of the Belarusian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics outside Minsk. There they signed theBelavezha Accords, effectively terminating the USSR and establishing the framework for theCommonwealth of Independent States(CIS). This occurred despite a national referendum that stipulated the majority of Soviet citizens’ desire to preserve some form of genuine union. Later that month, the leaders of 11 of the union republics—Russia,Ukraine,Belarus,Moldova,Armenia,Azerbaijan,Kazakhstan,Uzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan,Turkmenistan, andTajikistan—met in AlmaAta (Almaty), Kazakhstan, where they declared their independence and formalized the creation of the CIS on 21 December 1991. The so-called Alma-Ata Declaration finalized the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Georgia, while not represented at the meeting, ultimately acceded to the new commonwealth, though the Baltic States did not. Following the breakup of the USSR, theNewly Independent Statessought to redefine their relations with one another, and particularly with Russia, the successor state to the now-defunct USSR. The end of the Soviet Union proved especially difficult for the 25 millionethnic Russiansliving outside the new Russian Federation but within the former Soviet Union (in the ensuing decade, nearly 10 million would quit thenear abroadfor Russia or Third World countries).