The Fall of Communism

By John Smith 295

  • Mikhail Gorbachev takes power

  • Period: to

    Riots break out in Kazakhstan, dubbed "Jeltoqsan"

  • Ronald Reagan visits West Berlin to deliver the "Tear down this wall" speech

  • The new constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan enforced

  • Conflict breaks out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh oblast

  • Estonia declares sovereignty, becoming the first republic to do so

  • Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan, ending its 11-year conflict

  • Hungary opens the border fence with Austria, allowing East Germans to escape to Austria

  • Lithuania declares sovereignty

  • Latvia declares sovereignty

  • Azerbaijan declares sovereignty

  • The fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germans cross to West Berlin

  • Georgia declares sovereignty

  • Period: to

    Romanian Revolution - Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu are toppled and executed

  • Poland withdraws from the Warsaw Pact

  • Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet Union, restoring its de facto status

  • Latvia denounces the 1940 Soviet occupation as illegal, thus setting forth for its independence restoration

  • Estonia denounces the 1940 Soviet occupation as illegal, thus setting forth for its independence restoration

  • The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic issues a Declaration of Sovereignty

  • Uzbekistan declares sovereignty

  • Moldavia declares sovereignty

  • Ukraine declares sovereignty

  • Byelorussia declares sovereignty

  • Turkmenistan declares sovereignty

  • Armenia declares sovereignty

  • Tajikistan declares sovereignty

  • Abkhazia (Abkhaz Autonomous SSR) declares sovereignty, later rejected by Georgia

  • The proclamation of independence of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Transnistria)

    Transnistria was not recognised as a Soviet republic by authorities in Moscow or Kishinev.

  • South Ossetia (South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast) declares sovereignty

  • East Germany, which is in the process of reunification, withdraws from the Warsaw Pact

  • East Germany and West Germany reunified to form the united Federal Republic of Germany

  • Kazakhstan declares sovereignty

  • Kirghizia declares sovereignty

  • Period: to

    Soviet armed troops attack Lithuania, killing 14 civilians

    At the same time, over 15,611 Latvian citizens in Riga built several barricades to prevent the Red Army from reaching the city.

  • The referendum on preserving the Union passes as 77.85% in the nine republics affirmed it

    Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldavia refused to participate.

  • Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Warsaw Pact officially dissolved in Prague, ending 36 years of communist military domination

  • Day 1 of the Soviet coup d'état to oust Mikhail Gorbachev, who is on vacation in Foros, Crimea, by eight Communist Party hardliners

    The President of the Russian SFSR, Boris Yeltsin, defended the White House denouncing the coup by delivering a speech on top of a tank to the crowd. Gagauzia also proclaims independence

  • Day 2 of the Soviet coup sees the Red Army attempt to attack the White House

    People in Moscow and Leningrad protest against the coup. In Estonia, the Soviet troops try to attack the Tallinn TV Tower, only to withdraw later. That evening, in an emergency parliament session, Estonia fully declares independence from the Soviet Union, restoring its de facto status

  • In Day 3 of the Soviet coup, three civilians, Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov, and Ilya Krichevsky are shot in a tunnel accident

    Coup leaders are later arrested and Gorbachev returned to power. Latvia also declares its full independence from the Soviet Union, restoring its de facto status from 1918.

  • As a result of the coup events, Ukraine declares full-fledged independence from the Soviet Union

    That same day, a Felix Dzerzhinsky statue is toppled in Lubyanka Square, while Moscow citizens are part of the funeral of the three coup victims. Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the Communist Party, whilst remaining president of the state.

  • Byelorussia declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Moldova (formerly Moldavia) declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union abolishes the Communist Party in the entire Soviet territory

  • Azerbaijan announces its independence

  • Kyrgyzstan (formerly Kirghizia) declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Nagorno-Karabakh (former autonomous oblast) proclaims its independence from the Soviet Union

    The United States re-recognises the independence of the Baltic republics.

  • The Soviet Union grants full recognition of the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, ending the 51-year occupation

  • Tajikistan declares independence from the Soviet Union

    The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussia) is renamed to the Republic of Belarus (Belarus).

  • The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukraine) is renamed to the Republic of Ukraine (Ukraine)

  • Armenia declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Azerbaijan declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Turkmenistan declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • The self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria declares independence from the Soviet Union, a move unrecognised by Moscow authorities

  • Russian SFSR President Boris Yeltsin banned the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's activities on all Russian soil

  • South Ossetia (former autonomous oblast) secedes from the Soviet Union

  • 90% of Ukrainian citizens vote in an independence referendum that affirms Ukraine's full sovereignty as an independent nation

  • The heads of state from the Russian SFSR (Boris Yeltsin), Ukraine (Leonid Kravchuk) and Belarus (Stanislav Shushkevich) meet in the Bialowieza Forest near Brest Oblast to sign the Belavezha Accords

    These state that the Soviet Union has officially ceased to exist and begin the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place

  • Parliaments of the Ukraine and Belarus ratify the Belavezha Accords

  • The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ratifies the Belavezha Accords and denounces the 1922 Treaty of the Creation of the USSR that created the Soviet superstate

    The ratification also signals Russia's unofficial de facto declaration of independence from the Soviet Union

  • Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union

  • Leaders from 11 of the 12 remaining republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) gather alongside the presidents of the Russian SFSR, Ukraine and Belarus in Alma-Ata

    They agree for CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) membership by signing the Alma-Ata Protocls, thus rendering the Union's existence moot.

  • Russian SFSR President Boris Yeltsin sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar that Russia would assume the Soviet Union membership in the UN and other international organisations

    It also takes its seat in the UN Security Council.

  • Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union, handing over his powers to Russian President Boris Yeltsin

    The red flag is lowered from the Kremlin, replaced by the white-blue-red Russian tricolour that evening. The Russian SFSR officially legally changes its name to the Russian Federation. The President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, recognise the independence of the former Soviet republics as independent sovereign states.

  • The Soviet Union is officially dissolved by the Supreme Soviet, which recognises the independence of the former republics and ratifies the Belavezha Accords

    Thus the superstate permanently ceases to exist. This also ends the Cold War.

  • All of the remaining Soviet institutions - some of the ones not taken over by Russia - cease to function

  • War in the Pridnestrovian region (Transnistria) breaks out

  • Civil war breaks out in Tajikistan against the Islamic extremists

  • Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia, a move that is not recognised by the government

  • Czechoslovakia peacefully divides into two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia

  • Period: to

    Clashes between the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet of Russia

  • Georgia joins the CIS

  • The new constitution of the Russian Federation is officially adopted, abolishing the Soviet system of Government in place since 1917

    The lower house of the Russian Parliament begins to use the Tsarist-era title known as the State Duma.

  • The Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire takes effect

  • Gagauzia, a de facto independent state, is reintegrated into Moldova as an autonomous region

  • Russia divided into federal districts

    The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is abolished, as the region is reintegrated back into the Russian Federation
  • Period: to

    War between Georgia and Russia breaks out, resulting in the loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which later receive international recognition

  • Georgia withdraws from the CIS as a consequence of the Russian-Georgian conflict

  • Russia illegally annexes Crimea and the city of Sevastopol

    They become federal subjects. The move is condemned by Ukraine Belarus and most of the international community following the Euromaidan events.

  • The start of the War in Donbass

    Two pro-Russian separatist regions were proclaimed: The Donetsk People's Republic on April 6, and the Luhansk People's Republic on April 27