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what happened to the soviet union in 1991

In 1991, the Soviet Union stopped existing as a country and broke apart into 15 independent states, ending the Cold War era and the communist superpower founded in 1922.

What actually happened in 1991?

  • On December 25–26, 1991, the USSR was formally dissolved by its own parliament (the Supreme Soviet), which declared the Soviet Union no longer a sovereign state.
  • Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR on December 25, saying the office no longer existed and transferring powers, including nuclear control, to Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
  • The red Soviet flag over the Kremlin was lowered and replaced by the Russian tricolor, symbolizing the end of the Soviet state.
  • The former Soviet republics became independent countries (Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, etc.), and most joined a loose association called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

How did it unravel so fast?

1. Economic crisis and stagnation

  • By the 1980s, the Soviet economy was struggling with low growth, shortages, and outdated heavy industry that couldn’t compete with Western, market-based economies.
  • Living standards were poor, consumer goods were scarce, and people spent hours in queues for basic items, eroding faith in the system.
  • Military spending and the arms race put huge pressure on the budget, leaving less for consumer needs and modernization.

2. Gorbachev’s reforms: perestroika and glasnost

  • Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and launched perestroika (restructuring) to decentralize and partially open the economy, and glasnost (openness) to allow more free speech and criticism.
  • These reforms were meant to save the system but instead exposed corruption, historical crimes, and inefficiencies, encouraging people to speak out and demand deeper change.
  • Partial economic liberalization without a full market or strong institutions led to chaos: higher prices, production problems, and more discontent rather than quick improvement.

3. Rising nationalism in the republics

  • The USSR was a multi-national federation; republics like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia, and others had strong national identities beneath Soviet control.
  • Glasnost allowed suppressed national histories and grievances to surface, fueling movements for language rights, autonomy, and ultimately full independence.
  • Starting with the Baltic states, republics began declaring sovereignty and then independence, steadily hollowing out the union from within.

4. The failed August 1991 coup

  • In August 1991, hardline Communist officials tried a coup to stop reforms and keep the USSR together, detaining Gorbachev and sending tanks into Moscow.
  • Massive public resistance and Boris Yeltsin’s defiance on top of a tank in Moscow turned the coup into a failure after three days.
  • The failure destroyed the authority of the Communist Party and central Soviet institutions; power shifted rapidly to the leaders of the republics, especially Yeltsin in Russia.

5. Belavezha Accords and Alma-Ata

  • On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus met in a forest residence in Belarus (Belavezha) and agreed that the USSR no longer existed, announcing the creation of the CIS instead.
  • On December 21, 11 of the 12 remaining republics (all except Georgia at that time) signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, confirming the dissolution and expanding the CIS.
  • With most republics gone and central institutions hollowed out, Gorbachev’s resignation and the Supreme Soviet’s final declaration on December 26 made the breakup official.

What changed after the Soviet Union ended?

  • Geopolitically, the bipolar Cold War world ended; the United States remained the sole superpower, and Russia emerged as the USSR’s main successor state.
  • Domestically in the new states, the 1990s brought sharp economic decline, inflation, privatization, and often severe social hardship, especially in Russia and some other republics.
  • New borders and unresolved ethnic and territorial issues contributed to conflicts in places like the Caucasus and parts of Eastern Europe.

Different viewpoints on “why” it collapsed

While the timeline is clear, people still debate the deeper causes:

  • Economic-structural view: The command economy was inherently inefficient and could not sustain modern industry, consumer expectations, and the arms race at the same time.
  • Reform-gone-wrong view: Gorbachev’s partial reforms loosened political control before building a workable new system, unintentionally accelerating collapse instead of gradual transformation.
  • Nationalist view: Long-suppressed nations seized their chance once Moscow’s grip weakened, so the USSR fell apart because it was an empire held together by force and central control.
  • Elite-political view: Power struggles between Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and republican leaders, plus the coup’s miscalculation, turned a reformable union into an irreversibly broken one.

Many historians today see it as a combination: deep economic and structural problems, unleashed by reforms, amplified by nationalism and elite choices, all converging in 1991 to end the Soviet Union.

TL;DR: In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed due to economic crisis, risky reforms, rising nationalist movements, and a failed hardliner coup, leading its own leaders to dissolve the country and replace it with a loose group of independent states.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.