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The coup
8 August 1991: Eight Communist leaders announced that they were forming the Emergency Committee.
This body would bring an end to Gorbachev’s rule.
Gorbachev’s deputy and the heads of the KGB and the army were part of the coup.
Yeltsin opposed the coup. The army tried to arrest him, but the soldiers refused to do so.
The army did not support the coup, so it failed.
End of the USSR
Aftermath of the Coup
Lacking the support for the communist party
Independence
The minsk agreement
primary evidence
Aftermath of the coup
Although the coup had failed, the country was now in a perilous position.
Yeltsin’s opposition to the leading communist hardliners who had tried to overthrow Gorbachev made him more popular.
Lacking support for the communist party
Yeltsin now had the authority to outlaw the source of the coup, the Communist Party, on 6 November 1991.
Gorbachev stuck loyally to the Communist Party. But most people now wanted the end of Communism and stopped supporting Gorbachev.
Independence
Nationalists in Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan had declared independence in September.
1 December 1991: 90% of Ukrainians voted in a plebiscite (people’s vote) to separate from the USSR. With 20% of the Soviet population living there, this was a crucial step.
This ended Gorbachev’s attempts to save the Union by talking individually to the leaders of the Republics.
The minsk agreement
Yeltsin, along with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, signed the Minsk Agreement.
The USSR was replaced with the CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States.
11 out of 15 Soviet Republics were members by the end of 1991.
The USSR existed no longer.
Primary Evidence
Ukrainian Declaration of Independence 24 August 1991:
'The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic solemnly declares the Independence of Ukraine and the creation of an independent Ukrainian state – UKRAINE. The territory of Ukraine is indivisible and inviolable.’
