It was for decades the only power that could rival the United States, until the night of 25 from December to 1991 ceased to exist.
“ By this means I interrupt my activities as president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ”, Mikhail Gorbachev announced from the Kremlin, in a speech that went around the world.
For many, that moment marked the end of the communist power and the Cold War, but for others the Soviet Union (USSR) had already died weeks before with the Treaty of Belavezha.
However, the vast majority agree that after the coup in August of that year the Union had its days numbered .
Since the spring, Gorbachev and his allies in the federal government had been negotiating the New Union Treaty, which sought to keep most of the republics den part of a much more flexible federation. They considered that it was the only way to save the USSR.
“They wanted to maintain some kind of Union, but over time that idea became less and less attractive for the leaders of the republics, especially for Boris Yeltsin (President of Russia) “, says journalist and writer Conor O’Clery, author of” Moscow, 25 from December to 1991: The last day of the Soviet Union ”.
The proposal was also rejected by the conservative communists, the army and the KGB (the Soviet intelligence agency) and therefore they put Gorbachev under house arrest at his holiday home in Crimea.
But the coup plotters were poorly organized and failed after a civil resistance campaign led in Moscow by Boris Yeltsin , who was both an ally and a critic of Gorbachev.
The blow failed, but as a consequence Gorbachev lost his influence, while Yeltsin emerged as the preferred leader of the Russians.
“Gorbachev had planned the signing of the New Treaty Union for the 20 of August. But the army and the KGB believed that this pact would have destroyed the USSR as a state, and I agree ”, Vladislav Zubok, a history professor at the London School of Economics and an expert on the Soviet Union, tells BBC Mundo.
“The coup was a surprise , because it happened when everyone was on vacation. People expected something like this to happen, but not in August “, recalls the also author of the book” A failed empire: the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev “.
“A televised show”
Zubok, who was born and lived in Moscow during the Soviet era, highlights that people often believe the narrative that the 25 December was a very important date, but in his opinion it was not.
“When Gorbachev announced his resignation, he no longer had any kind of power. What happened was a televised show ”, he assures.
The coup plotters prevented the signing of the New Union Treaty in August, but they could not prevent the imminent dissolution from the Soviet Union , which had been cooking for years. In fact, they gave it a boost.
After the coup, many understood that the Soviet Union had come to an end, but others, including Gorbachev, believed that it could still be saved under another type of union sovereign States.
“The idea of the Union continued to be attractive to millions of people who were used to living in a large country. They had the hope of preserving it with perhaps another name or regime ”, points out Zubok.
But Yeltsin had another plan.
The final blow
On December 8, 1991, the Russian president met with three other leaders of the 15 Soviet republics, Ukrainian President Leonid M. Kravchuk and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich, and together they issued a declaration known as the Treaty of Belavezha.
This pact stipulated that the Soviet Union would be dissolved and replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a confederation of former Soviet states.
For journalist Conor O’Clery, this event marked the end of the Soviet Union: “There was no going back.”
“Gorvachov could not accept it, and for two or three weeks he continued insisting that they had to maintain some form of Union of which he would be president ”, he adds.
But 21 December 8 12 remaining Soviet republics joined the CIS with the signing of the Almá-Atá Protocol, thus dealing the final blow to the dying Union.
O’Clery says that’s when Gorvachev realized it finally that an era had ended and decided that he would resign the 25 with a speech.
“Yeltsin allowed him to stay in the Kremlin for a few days more and agreed that the withdrawal of the flag Red ra of the Kremlin would become the 31 December ”, count O ‘Clery.
The historian Vladislav Zubok emphasizes that the Almá-Atá Protocol was signed in an “extra-constitutional” way.
“ They had no constitutional power to dissolve the Soviet Union, but they got away with it. They were not arrested or anything, “he insists.
” The truth is that by then it was already clear that the central government was completely dysfunctional and the army had already taken away its loyalty to Gorbachev to give it to Yeltsin ”.
The last day of the Union
The days passed without much news until the day came when the resignation of the perestroika man was expected.
The 25 December was calm in most of the Kremlin halls, except for a couple, as Yeltsin already controlled the presidential complex.
There was appointed to his own command of the Kremlin Regiment, a special unit that ensures security on the premises, so all guards at the entrances and surroundings him were loyal .
Gorbachev barely controlled his office and a few rooms around it, which were used by the teams of the CNN and ABC networks, which were preparing to broadcast the resignation.
O’Clery relates that, shortly before the speech, Gorbachev had a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister John Major that left him upset, so he later retired to rest alone in a Kremlin room.
“He was very emotional and had had a couple of drinks, when his assistant, Alexander Yakovlev, found him crying in the room” , account.
“It was Gorbachev’s saddest moment, a moment of anguish. But he recovered quickly from that episode and prepared to give a speech with great dignity. ”
As planned, the last leader of the Soviet Union began at 7pm local time an intervention that would last 10 minutes, and in which he resigned from a country that no longer existed.
“Now we live in a new world,” he said Gorbachev justifying his decision.
A little-followed “show” in Russia
Zubok insists that it was a “televised show.” CNN translated and broadcast the speech around the world via satellite.
According to experts, Gorbachev’s words had more resonance abroad (where he still enjoyed high popularity) than at home.
“On Soviet television the speech was seen very little. Gorbachev was already extremely unpopular in the Union, and hardly anyone interested him. Everyone already knew that the Soviet Union had died “, assures Zubok.
The historian agrees that it was a “worthy” intervention, but points out that it caused discontent even within its ranks.
“He defended his mandate, he never recognized any error. Even some people around him were surprised . They were hoping it would say something about why perestroika went so bad, why there was nothing in the stores, or why the economy was taking a nosedive. But no, “he continues.
” He continued to see perestroika as always, as a global mission. And he ended his presidency in high spirits. He did not want to show weakness to Yeltsin and that is why Yeltsin was extremely upset after that speech and refused to meet with Gorbachev. ”
O ‘ Clery assures that Gorbachev could have shown more generosity and appreciation to Yeltsin in his speech.
“Yeltsin saved him after the coup. If it hadn’t been for him, Gorbachev would have ended up in jail or worse, ”he says.
Yeltsin’s wrath
O’Clery points out that Yeltsin was so angry that Gorbachev did not mention it in his speech that he ordered the red flag to be withdrawn immediately, even though he had planned lower it at the end of the year.
Yeltsin also wrote that same night a decree ordering that all l Gorbachev’s and his wife’s personal possessions were to be removed from the presidential complex, even though he had previously said that they could stay for a couple more days.
“Gorbachev came home to find his wife standing in the middle of books and photos that the people of Yeltsin he had thrown himself on the ground, “says O’Clery.
Yeltsin and Gorbachev did not see each other again after that speech.
The low popularity of Gorbachev in Russia was in evidence when the Red Square of Moscow was almost deserted at the moment when the red flag was withdrawn from the Kremlin.
At 7: 32 pm on that historic night, the Soviet flag was replaced by that of the Russian Federation , under the command of what became its first president, Boris Yeltsin.
And at that very moment, what had been for decades the largest communist state in history was officially divided into 15 independent republics : Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz istan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
At the same time, on the other side of the world, The United States finished consolidating itself as the only global superpower.
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