December 31: Dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)

The Soviet Union in 1991

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or CCCP in Cyrillic) was created in 1922 and officially dissolved on December 31, 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev, head of the state, made significant changes in the economic and party leadership, called perestroika, and his policy glasnost freed public access to information after long years of heavy censorship. This change stimulated the independence movement of the Soviet Union's Eastern European satellite states that were engaged in the Cold War. As a matter of fact, Gorbachev ended the Cold War. On April 7, 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum. A referendum for the reservation of the Soviet Union was held on March 17, 1991. Nine out of the 15 republics voted for the preservation of the Union, however, a looser form of the union was suggested. As a result, the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was established in its place.