The collapse of the USSR, 1989-1991
The Revolutions of 1989
When Gorbachev signalled that the Brezhnev Doctrine was dead — that Soviet tanks would no longer prop up unpopular communist governments in Eastern Europe — the result was a cascade of revolutions across the Soviet bloc in 1989. Poland held partly-free elections in June 1989 in which Solidarity swept to power. Hungary opened its borders with Austria, allowing East Germans to escape to the West. In November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell amid scenes of jubilation. Within weeks, communist governments in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania had collapsed. Romania's revolution was the only violent one: the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was executed on 25 December 1989.
These revolutions had an electrifying effect on the nationalities within the Soviet Union itself. If Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia could free themselves, why not Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania or Georgia? Nationalist movements that had been suppressed for decades began to demand independence openly.
In 1989, communist governments fell across Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989. These revolutions were made possible by Gorbachev’s refusal to deploy Soviet military force to save them — a decisive break from the Brezhnev Doctrine.
The Baltic States and the Rise of Nationalism
The three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — had been forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. In 1989 and 1990, all three declared their intention to seek independence. On 23 August 1989, approximately two million people formed a human chain — the “Baltic Way” — stretching from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, demanding independence on the 50th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
Lithuania declared independence on 11 March 1990 — the first Soviet republic to do so. Gorbachev imposed an economic blockade and sent in troops; a confrontation in Vilnius in January 1991 killed 14 Lithuanian civilians. But the independence movement could not be stopped. By September 1991, all three Baltic states had internationally recognised independence.
Boris Yeltsin had been a Communist Party official who fell out with Gorbachev in 1987 after publicly demanding faster reforms. He was expelled from the Politburo but won election to the Congress of People's Deputies in 1989. In June 1991 he was elected President of the Russian Republic in the first direct democratic election in Russian history — winning 57 per cent of the vote against Communist Party-backed opponents.
Yeltsin's election gave him a democratic mandate that Gorbachev, who had never stood in a direct popular election, lacked. This undermined Gorbachev's authority within the USSR and created a second power centre: a Russian president who could challenge the Soviet president. The two men had a tense, competitive relationship that became central to the final collapse of the USSR.
The August Coup, 1991
On 19 August 1991, a group of senior Soviet officials — including the Vice President, the Defence Minister, the KGB chief and the Prime Minister — staged a coup against Gorbachev while he was on holiday in Crimea. They announced that Gorbachev was ill and that they were taking emergency control. Soviet tanks were deployed in Moscow. The plotters intended to reverse the reforms and restore conservative communist rule.
The coup failed within three days. Boris Yeltsin famously stood on a tank outside the Russian parliament building, urging Russians to resist. Crowds surrounded the parliament to defend it. Crucially, the military refused to follow orders to storm the building. Key units defected to Yeltsin’s side. The coup leaders lost their nerve, the tanks withdrew, and Gorbachev returned to Moscow on 22 August. The August 1991 coup had failed, but it had fatally discredited the Communist Party.
The August 1991 coup failed within three days. Yeltsin’s visible resistance made him the hero of Russian democrats. The failed coup fatally discredited the Communist Party: Gorbachev suspended it on 24 August 1991, and Soviet republics rushed to declare independence.
After the failed coup, Soviet republics declared independence in rapid succession. On 8 December 1991, the leaders of Russia (Yeltsin), Ukraine and Belarus met at Belavezha Forest and signed the Belavezha Accords, declaring that the Soviet Union had “ceased to exist” and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a loose successor framework.
On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as Soviet President and the red Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin, replaced by the Russian tricolour. The USSR formally dissolved on 31 December 1991, splitting into 15 independent states. It was the largest peaceful territorial dissolution of a state in modern history — though not all of the subsequent transitions were peaceful.