Perestroika and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Gorbachev's reforms open up Soviet society, a hardline coup fails in August 1991, and by December the USSR has dissolved into fifteen states.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2014)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
When Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader in March 1985, the economy was stagnating, oil prices were about to fall and the war in Afghanistan was dragging on. He called for perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). The Chernobyl disaster of April 1986, which officials at first tried to hide, made openness feel urgent.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
A society wakes up
Censorship fell away. Banned books by Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn and Grossman were published; newspapers investigated Stalin’s crimes; people learned about the Katyn massacre and the secret protocol of the 1939 pact. In 1989 the first partly free elections produced a Congress of People’s Deputies whose debates were watched live by millions. That year Gorbachev also let Eastern Europe go: there was no Soviet intervention as communist governments fell from Warsaw to Prague, and the Berlin Wall was opened.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
But economic reform was half-hearted and chaotic, and shops emptied. National movements rose in the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and in Russia itself Boris Yeltsin built a power base as the elected leader of the Russian republic, demanding Russian sovereignty within the USSR.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2014)
August 1991
On 19 August 1991 hardliners placed Gorbachev under house arrest at his holiday home in Crimea and declared a state of emergency. Soviet television played Swan Lake on a loop. Yeltsin climbed onto a tank outside the Russian parliament, the “White House”, and called for resistance. Tens of thousands of Muscovites built barricades; three young men were killed. Within three days the coup collapsed.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2014)
The end
The coup destroyed what authority the centre had left. Republics declared independence one after another. On 1 December Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence, and on 8 December the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus met in the Belovezha Forest and declared that the USSR had ceased to exist. On 25 December 1991 Gorbachev resigned, and the red flag came down over the Kremlin.
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2014)
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
Historian Serhii Plokhy stresses that the end came less from Western pressure than from the Soviet republics, with Ukraine’s vote decisive. Vladislav Zubok argues Gorbachev’s own mistakes destroyed a state that might have been reformed.
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2014)
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
- Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin — Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, Brookings Institution Press (2015)
A great country was destroyed by weak or treacherous leaders and Western interference, leaving 25 million Russians stranded abroad. Polls have long shown a majority of Russians regret the USSR's collapse.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin — Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, Brookings Institution Press (2015)
The Soviet system was bankrupt and could not be saved. August 1991, when Muscovites stood in front of tanks to defend their elected government, was a moment of national courage and freedom.
- Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok, Yale University Press (2021)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
Independence ended centuries of Russian and Soviet imperial rule. On 1 December 1991, more than 90% of Ukrainian voters endorsed independence.
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2014)
- Ukrainian Independence Referendum (1 December 1991): results by region — Seventeen Moments in Soviet History (Michigan State University), Michigan State University (2015)
Why it matters today
Russians remember 1991 very differently from their neighbours. For Ukrainians, Balts and Georgians it was liberation. For many Russians it was the loss of a country, of status and of savings, which Putin in 2005 called "a major geopolitical catastrophe". For others, especially in big cities, it was the moment they became free.