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‹ Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Why did the dissolution of the Soviet Union happen?

Also known as Collapse of the Soviet Union, Dissolution of the USSR, Fall of the Soviet Union

Shows causes on the record, then each account's causes side by side.

Not a single settled cause.

7 links · 6 accounts · 25–26 Dec 1991

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Over time
  1. Causes Perestroika, according to United States government 1985–1991
  2. Causes 1985–86 oil price collapse, according to Yegor Gaidar Sep 1985 – 1986
  3. Causes August 1991 coup attempt, according to United States government and Mikhail Gorbachev and Stanislav Shushkevich 19–21 Aug 1991

On the record

Sourced links that no one presents as their own account, as recorded so far. Others may exist.

Causes

Each account

A to Z, none ranked above another.

Named in 3 of the 6 accounts recorded here: August 1991 coup attempt

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Proof 10 sources
  1. The Collapse of the Soviet Union (Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    In early December, Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus met in Brest to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), effectively declaring the demise of the Soviet Union.
    The unsuccessful August 1991 coup against Gorbachev sealed the fate of the Soviet Union.
    Gorbachev’s decision to allow elections with a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  2. Mikhail Gorbachev's Resignation Speech, World History Commons, George Mason University, 25 Dec 1991. Primary record
    Dear compatriots, fellow citizens, as a result of the newly formed situation, creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I cease my activities in the post of the U.S.S.R. president.
    The August coup brought the general crisis to its ultimate limit. The most damaging thing about this crisis is the breakup of the statehood.
  3. Belovezha Accords, European Network Remembrance and Solidarity. Scholarship & press
    On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus agreed on the dissolution of the USSR and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place.
  4. Turning Point at Chernobyl, Project Syndicate, 14 Apr 2006. Scholarship & press
    The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the main cause of the Soviet Union’s collapse five years later.
  5. Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union, January 28, 1992, The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara, 28 Jan 1992. Primary record
    And even now, months after the failed coup that doomed a failed system, I'm not sure we've absorbed the full impact, the full import of what happened.
  6. Stanislau Shushkevich, First Leader Of Independent Belarus, Dead At 87, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 4 May 2022. Scholarship & press
    arguing that the Soviet Union had essentially collapsed following the failed hard-line coup against Gorbachev in August 1991
  7. Address by the President of the Russian Federation, 21 February 2022, Russian government, 21 Feb 2022. Primary record Archived copy
    the mine laid at the initial stage to destroy state immunity to the disease of nationalism was ticking. As I have already said, the mine was the right of secession from the Soviet Union.
    The disintegration of our united country was brought about by the historic, strategic mistakes on the part of the Bolshevik leaders and the CPSU leadership, mistakes committed at different times in state-building and in economic and ethnic policies.
  8. Interviews: Serhii Plokhii, Toynbee Prize Foundation, 28 Sep 2014. Scholarship & press
    Already weakened by pressure from Russian President Boris Yeltsin and an abortive coup, Gorbachëv and his visions for a revitalized Soviet confederation were doomed by the decisive results of a December 1991 Ukrainian referendum in favor of independence.
  9. The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union (Lionel Gelber Prize), Lionel Gelber Prize, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. Scholarship & press
    Plokhy presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union’s final months and argues that the key to the Soviet collapse was the inability of the two largest Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine, to agree on the continuing existence of a unified state.
  10. The Soviet Collapse: Grain and Oil, American Enterprise Institute, Apr 2007. Scholarship & press
    The timeline of the collapse of the Soviet Union can be traced to September 13, 1985. On this date, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the minister of oil of Saudi Arabia, declared that the monarchy had decided to alter its oil policy radically.
    As a result, the Soviet Union lost approximately $20 billion per year, money without which the country simply could not survive.
How this answer is built

Lines on the record come first: sourced links that no one presents as their own account, each with its strongest source. Then every account recorded here gets its own column, A to Z, none ranked above another. A column quotes only that account's own words and shows the strength of its own sources. Disputed lines are listed apart, with the reason, and lines still being verified come last. Neither is counted. Withdrawn lines are never shown.

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