Dissolution of the Soviet Union
See also: Belavezha Accords
On 24 August Mikhail Gorbachev created the so-called "Committee for the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy" (Комитет по оперативному управлению народным хозяйством СССР), to replace the USSR Cabinet of Ministers headed by Valentin Pavlov, a GKChP member. Russian prime minister Ivan Silaev headed this committee. On the same day the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine and called for a referendum on support of the Declaration of Independence.On 27 August the Supreme Soviet of Moldova declared the independence of Moldova from the Soviet Union. The Supreme Soviets of Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan did the same on 30 and 31 August respectively.
On 5 September the Congress of People's Deputies adopted Soviet Law No. 2392-1 "On the Authorities of the Soviet Union in the Transitional Period" under which the USSR Supreme Soviet was reformed. Two new legislative chambers—the Soviet of the Union (Совет Союза) and the Soviet of Republics (Совет Республик)—replaced the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities (both elected by the USSR Congress of Peoples Deputies). The Soviet of the Union was to be formed by the popularly elected USSR people's deputies. The Soviet of Republics was to include 20 deputies from each union republic plus one deputy to represent each autonomous region of each union republic (both USSR people's deputies and republican people's deputies) delegated by the legislatures of the union republic. Russia was an exception with 52 deputies. However, the delegation of each union republic was to have only one vote in the Soviet of Republics. The laws were to be first adopted by the Soviet of the Union and then by the Soviet of Republics.
Also created was the USSR State Council (Государственный совет СССР), which included the USSR President and the presidents of union republics. The "Committee for the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy" was replaced by the USSR Inter-republican Economic Committee (Межреспубликанский экономический комитет СССР), also headed by Ivan Silaev.[27]
On 6 September the newly created Soviet State Council recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.[28]
On 9 September the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan declared the independence of Tajikistan from the Soviet Union.
In September over 99% percent of voters in Armenia voted for a referendum approving the republic's commitment to independence. The immediate aftermath of that vote was the Armenian Supreme Soviet's declaration of independence, issued on 21 September.
On 27 October the Supreme Soviet of Turkmenistan declared the independence of Turkmenistan from the Soviet Union.
By November, the only Soviet Republics that had not declared independence were Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. That same month, seven republics (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan) agreed to a new union treaty that would form a confederation called the Union of Sovereign States. However this confederation never materialized.
On 1 December Ukraine held a referendum, in which more than 90% of residents supported the Act of Independence of Ukraine.
On 8 December Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich—respective leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (which adopted that name in August 1991)—as well as the prime ministers of the republics met in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where they created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and annulled the 1922 union treaty that had established the Soviet Union. Doubts remained about legitimacy of the signing that took place on 8 December, so another signing ceremony was held in Alma-Ata on 21 December to expand the CIS to include Armenia, Azerbaijan and the five republics of Central Asia. Georgia joined in 1993, only to withdraw in 2008 after conflict between Georgia and Russia; the three Baltic states never joined.
On 24 December 1991 the Russian Federation, with the concurrence of the other republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States, informed the United Nations that the it would succeed the Soviet Union in its membership in the UN and in its seat on the UN Security Council. No member state of the UN formally objected to this step. The legitimacy of this act has been questioned by some legal scholars as the Soviet Union itself was not constitutionally succeeded by the Russian Federation, but merely dissolved. Others argued that the international community had already established the precedent of recognizing the Soviet Union as the legal successor of the Russian Empire, and so recognizing the Russian Federation as the Soviet Union's successor state was valid.
On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation as Soviet president. The red hammer and sickle flag of the Soviet Union was lowered from the Senate building in the Kremlin and replaced with the tricolor flag of Russia. The next day, 26 December 1991, the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist.
