Dissolution of USSR

1.

Dissolution of USSR
How and why did it happen?

2.

Vocabulary
• Sovereignty – the ultimate
and independent authority
in the decision-making
process of the state
• Separatism – the ideas or
activities of a specified
group or territorial unit
advocating separation
from a state (country)

3.

Current Examples
of Separatism
• Scotland (UK)
• Northern Ireland (UK)
• Catalonia (Spain)
• Basque Country (Spain)
• Republika Srpska (Bosnia)
• Donbass and Crimea (Ukraine)
• Quebec (Canada)

4.

1991 Referendum
• The Referendum asked
whether to preserve
Soviet Union as a
renewed federation
• Over 77% of voters
supported
preservation

5.

Perestroika Violence
• Starting from 1986 several violent protests erupted in Soviet
republics. All of them were brutally crushed by Soviet army\KGB:
1986 – Almaty, Kazakhstan (“Jeltoqsan”)
1989 – Chisinau, Moldova
1989 – Tbilisi, Georgia (“April 9 Tragedy”)
1990 – Baku, Azerbaijan (“Black January”)
1990 – Dushanbe, Tajikistan
1991 – Riga, Latvia (“The Barricades”)
1991 – Vilnius, Lithuania (“Bloody Sunday”)

6.

Parade of Sovereignties (1988-1990)
• Conflict between Union center and
separatist national republics
Following republics declared
sovereignties:
1988 – Estonia
1989 – Lithuania, Latvia, Azerbaijan
1990 – Russia, Uzbekistan, Moldova,
Ukraine, Belarus, Turkmenistan,
Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan
• Gorbachev’s government did not
recognize any of these republics

7.

1991 August Coup Attempt
• Communist Party and KGB hardliners
Vladimir Kryuchkov and Gennadiy
Yanayev attempted to seize control over
Moscow
• They ordered army to move into the city
and to arrest Gorbachev (who was
actually vacationing in Crimea)
• They intended to crack down democratic
forces, stop Perestroika and maintain
Soviet Union as a unified centralized state
• Coup failed as army defected and sided
with democrats
• Failed coup was a final blow for hardliners,
Soviet disintegration was made inevitable

8.

1991 December Agreements
• December 8, 1991 – Belovezha
Accords (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus):
Aforementioned countries unilaterally
left Soviet Union
• December 21, 1991 – Almaty
Declaration (all Soviet republics except
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Georgia):
Commonwealth of Independent
Nations created
• December 25, 1991 – Official end of
the Soviet Union

9.

Focus Task: Investigating Reasons of Soviet
Collapse
• Read the text
• Sort the reasons of Soviet collapse on the following groups:
- Political factors
- Economic factors
- Social factors
- Military factors
- Nuclear factors
• Create a mind-map