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Do not fill this in! ===Soviet dissolution=== {{Main|Dissolution of the Soviet Union}} {{Further|History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)|The Barricades|1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|Commonwealth of Independent States|Economy of the Soviet Union|Baltic Way}} [[File:August 1991 coup - awaiting the counterattack outside the White House Moscow - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|[[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|August Coup]] in [[Moscow]], 1991]] At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially declaring [[sovereignty]] over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in Article 72 of the USSR constitution.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-03-24 |title=National Review: The red blues - Soviet politics |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n12_v42/ai_9119705 |access-date=2024-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050324050607/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n12_v42/ai_9119705 |archive-date=24 March 2005 }}</ref> On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum.<ref>{{Cite web |title=РСПП: Статьи |url=http://www.rspp.su/sobor/conf_2006/istoki_duh_nrav_crisis.html |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=www.rspp.su}}</ref> Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the '[[War of Laws]]'. In 1989, the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. [[Boris Yeltsin]] was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory]] and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of [[Sąjūdis]] in Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990, citing the illegality of the [[Occupation of the Baltic states|Soviet occupation of the Baltic states]]. Soviet forces attempted to halt the secession by crushing popular demonstrations in Lithuania ([[January Events|Bloody Sunday]]) and Latvia ([[The Barricades]]), as a result, numerous civilians were killed or wounded. However, these actions only bolstered international support for the secessionists.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004464896/BP000014.xml|publisher=BRILL|author=Lauri Mälksoo|title=Illegal Annexation and State Continuity |chapter=The Baltic States Between 1940 and 1991: Illegality and/Or Prescription |date=28 June 2022|pages=70–139 |doi=10.1163/9789004464896_005 |isbn=9789004464896 }}</ref> [[File:Image0 ST.jpg|thumb|left|[[T-80]] tank on [[Red Square]] during the [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|August Coup]]]] A [[1991 Soviet Union referendum|referendum for the preservation of the USSR]] was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union in the form of a new federation. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the [[New Union Treaty]], which would have turned the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|August Coup]]—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Russian president Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had been elected [[President of Russia]] in July 1991. [[File:BaltskýŘetěz.jpg|thumb|The human chain in [[Lithuania]] during the [[Baltic Way]], 23 August 1989]] Later in August, Gorbachev resigned as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|general secretary of the Communist party]], and [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian]] President Boris Yeltsin ordered the seizure of Soviet property. Gorbachev clung to power as the President of the Soviet Union until 25 December 1991, when the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|USSR dissolved]].<ref>Greene, pp. 205–206</ref> [[Post-Soviet states|Fifteen states]] emerged from the Soviet Union, with by far the largest and most populous one (which also was the founder of the Soviet state with the [[October Revolution]] in Petrograd), the [[Russia|Russian Federation]], taking full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations. As such, Russia assumed the Soviet Union's [[Russia and the United Nations|UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council]], nuclear stockpile and the control over the armed forces; Soviet embassies abroad became Russian embassies.<ref name="web.archive.org"/> In his [[1992 State of the Union Address]], US President George H. W. Bush expressed his emotions: "The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War."{{sfn|Ambrose|Brinkley|2011|p=xvi}} Bush and Yeltsin met in February 1992, declaring a new era of "friendship and partnership".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jussi Hanhimäki|author2=Georges-Henri Soutou|author3=Basil Germond|title=The Routledge Handbook of Transatlantic Security|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swfHBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT501|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|page=501|isbn=9781136936074}}</ref> In January 1993, Bush and Yeltsin agreed to [[START II]], which provided for further nuclear arms reductions on top of the original START treaty.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ruud van Dijk |display-authors=etal |title=Encyclopedia of the Cold War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgX0bQ3Enj4C&pg=PA861|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|pages=860–51|isbn=978-1135923112 }}</ref> [[File:CCCP 1991 (4377719733).jpg|thumb|The first [[McDonald's in Russia|Russian McDonald's]] on [[Moscow|Moscow's]] [[Pushkinskaya Square|Pushkin Square]], pictured in 1991]] Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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