In 1991, an important event occurred. Literary and historical notes of a young technician

On December 8, 1991, at a meeting of the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, an agreement was concluded on the creation of the CIS. In essence, the parties announced the end of the existence of the Soviet Union; this would be officially announced only two and a half weeks later. RBC restores the chronicle of the events of December 1991, the last month in the history of the USSR

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin before the meeting of heads of state of the Commonwealth (Photo: Andrey Babushkin, Alexander Sentsov/TASS)

Union by early December 1991

• March 17. A referendum was held in the USSR on preserving the Union. With a turnout of 79.5% (148.5 million people), the unified state was supported by 76.4% of voters.
• March-August. The so-called Novoogaryovsky process is underway, during which work is underway on a new union treaty, which should replace the current one, adopted in 1922. The confrontation between the Union center (USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev) and the Russian leadership (President Boris Yeltsin) is growing.
• August 19-22. The August putsch - an unsuccessful coup attempt - took place in Moscow. As a result, Gorbachev’s position sharply weakened, and the signing of the union treaty, scheduled for August 20, was disrupted.
• August—November. Most union republics declare their independence and announce dates for presidential elections.
• Beginning of December. The leaders of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia announced a meeting in Minsk, at which the parties should discuss issues of relations between the republics. USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev is actively calling on the parties to sign a new union treaty as soon as possible.

Bialowieza Agreement

Three heads of the union republics: Boris Yeltsin (RSFSR), Leonid Kravchuk (Ukrainian SSR) and Stanislav Shushkevich (Belarusian SSR) gathered in the Belarusian town of Viskuli on December 7, 1991. A day later, it was during this meeting that a document was signed entitled “Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” better known as the Belovezhskaya Agreements, in which the parties stated that “the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality ceases to exist.”

Three presidents began working together on the draft document, later they were joined by the first deputy chairman of the Russian government, Gennady Burbulis, the chairman of the Belarusian cabinet of ministers, Vyacheslav Kebich, and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Vitold Fokin. According to Shushkevich, to begin with, the parties agreed on conceptual things: the USSR de facto collapsed, this process is uncontrollable, the three republics must maintain a military connection.

Leonid Kravchuk, Stanislav Shushkevich and Boris Yeltsin after signing the agreement (from left to right). December 8, 1991 (Photo: Yuri Ivanov/RIA Novosti)

“We agreed that this needed to be formalized in an official document, and gave instructions to the working group, which included representatives from each side. And it was said: do it overnight,” Shushkevich said in an interview with Ogonyok.

“The Russian side dealt only with those paragraphs that had political goals. They didn't care what we wrote on economic issues. Therefore, Fokin and I created the economic part... Most of all, the fate of President Gorbachev was discussed, what to do with the states that do not participate in the meeting, the scheme of foreign policy activities and the scheme of the country’s defense.” From the memoirs of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich.

The same Kebich later refuted the popular legend that work on the text of the Belovezhskaya Accords was accompanied by a large amount of alcohol consumed. “During work, when it was possible to formulate a particularly strong phrase, I was given the task: go pour a glass of champagne. We didn’t drink fortified or strong drinks at all when we were working. Only later, when it was all over,” he recalled.

Representatives of the press were eagerly awaiting the end of the group's work. According to Belarusian journalist Yakov Alekseichik, media workers were accommodated in a rural, unheated hotel in the village of Kamenyuki on the outskirts of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. “We almost gave our souls to God overnight... The journalists walked around hungry and cold. After 13:00, white tables were brought into the foyer and they told us: they will sign some kind of document,” Alekseichik recalled.

After work on the text of the agreement was completed, the presidents of the three countries agreed that the presidents of the USSR and the USA should be informed. According to Shushkevich’s recollections, Gorbachev had to inform him, and Yeltsin had to call Bush.

Reaction in the Kremlin

At the time of the signing of the agreement between Yeltsin, Shushkevich and Kravchuk, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev gave an interview to Ukrainian television, in which he discussed the need to preserve the Union, arguing that the multinational people themselves were interested in this.

“I receive a lot of information on this matter. A month ago there was a survey in Kyiv, Moscow, Leningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Alma-Ata, Novosibirsk, it seems. The data is known. Now a new survey has been conducted in almost the same places. And so: in Moscow, 80% were in favor of preserving the Union, naturally renewed, new. In Kyiv - 64% of respondents, in Alma-Ata - 72%,” Gorbachev said.

At that moment, when in Belarus the heads of the three republics signed an agreement that essentially put an end to the existence of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev said that the decentralization of power in the USSR would not give any positive effect and would only disperse the administrative bureaucracy at the level of leadership of the republics.

“Well, are we the stupidest of all? In Spain, in Madrid, Bush, King Juan Carlos, and Gonzalez spent three hours convincing of the need to preserve the Union. This is amazing. What have we come to... Walesa, the President of Poland, called on our television to support Gorbachev in his desire to preserve the Union, not to divide the country... Otherwise, collapse. And we will all perish in this collapse,” Gorbachev said.

Former USSR President Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (Photo: Yuri Lizunov, Alexander Chumichev/TASS)

Fragments of Gorbachev's interview were broadcast on Moscow and Kyiv television, but the text of this conversation did not appear in any of the newspapers.

"Midnight. The radio has just brought the news: Yeltsin, Kravchuk, Shushkevich announced the cessation of the existence of the Soviet Union as a subject of international law, the invalidity of all laws relating to it as a state. We agreed on how to jointly finance defense... The economic mechanism will be agreed upon during December.

Before that, I listened for an hour and a half to an interview recorded yesterday with M. S. [Gorbachev] (on Ukrainian TV), where he fiercely and passionately argued that it was impossible to “disperse” and that abandoning the Union would be death for everyone. He didn’t let the Ukrainian interviewer get a word in... He promised to go over the heads of “these newly minted politicians who have emerged in two years” to appeal to the people, and as if he still had “means that he won’t talk about now.” In a word, from now on I live in another state - Russia, and I am actually unemployed there.” Anatoly Chernyaev, “Diary of an Assistant to the President of the USSR”

Press reaction

• “The presidents of the three Slavic republics drew a line under the existence of the Soviet Union, born of the Bolshevik revolution. The meeting of the State Council on December 9 will be of decisive importance, which in light of recent events may take the most dramatic turn. The main question is how Mikhail Gorbachev will react to the “political bomb” planted under him by Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich.” (France Presse)
• “Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, having agreed to create a new community of states, are preparing for a clash with the deprived of power and humiliated Gorbachev, which should take place at the State Council” (Reuters)
• "Gorbachev was removed from power in a bloodless coup" (Daily Express)
• “The Soviet President’s desperate attempt to build a new Union ended in failure” (Associated Press)

December 8 in 1991 fell on a Sunday, so the Soviet media responded to news from Belarus only the next day.

Other news of the day:

• A group of people’s deputies of the USSR, “concerned about the current situation of the country’s rapid approach to a political and socio-economic catastrophe and the collapse of a multinational state,” demanded an emergency Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR, at which decisions should be made to restore constitutional order throughout the territory of the Union
• The head of the Russian Committee for Foreign Economic Relations, Petr Aven, said that Russia recognizes the debt of the Soviet Union, but will not recognize loans to the union republics and the union center that appear without the knowledge of the Russian leadership
• The only candidate for this post, Mircea Snegur, became the President of Moldova
• US President George W. Bush, at a speech on the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, condemned the revival of isolationist sentiments in the United States and protectionist obstacles to trade with Japan
• In Albania, panic began among the population after the authorities announced that the country's bread reserves would only last for six days.

Chronicle of December 1991

Around 17:00, two telephone conversations took place between the President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev: with US President George W. Bush and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

In a conversation with George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev said that in two hours he would make a statement about his resignation as president of the USSR. Gorbachev expressed hope that the countries of Europe and the United States will support the newly created CIS as an interstate entity, and will also support Russia through joint efforts.

Mikhail Gorbachev also informed the US President that he was transferring the right to use nuclear weapons to the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. “So you can celebrate Christmas peacefully, sleep peacefully this night. As for me, I am not going to hide in the taiga. I will remain in politics, in public life,” Gorbachev concluded.

In response, George Bush assured that America would remain interested in Russian affairs. “You will be a welcome guest, we will be glad to receive you after everything settles down,” Bush promised Gorbachev.
Hans-Dietrich Genscher thanked Mikhail Gorbachev for his contribution to the unification of Germany: “The hearts and gratitude of the Germans will forever remain with you.” Mikhail Gorbachev assured the minister that he would continue to promote rapprochement between East and West.

At about 19:00, Gorbachev signed a decree “On the resignation by the President of the USSR of the powers of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR and the abolition of the Defense Council under the President of the USSR.”

At 19:00, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev made a statement of resignation on central television.

“Due to the current situation with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I am ceasing my activities as President of the USSR. I am making this decision for reasons of principle. I firmly stood for the independence of peoples, for the sovereignty of the republics. But at the same time, for the preservation of the union state, the integrity of the country. "Events took a different path. The line of dismembering the country and disuniting the state prevailed, which I cannot agree with," the statement said.

Next, Mikhail Gorbachev gave his assessment of the path traveled as first the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and then the President of the USSR since 1985 and thanked all citizens who supported his policy of renewal and democratic reforms.

At 19:38, the state flag of the USSR was lowered from the Kremlin flagpole and the state flag of the Russian Federation was raised.

After the televised speech, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a short interview and returned to his office in the Kremlin to hand over the nuclear codes to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The farewell meeting between them did not take place. Gorbachev was met by USSR Defense Minister Yevgeny Shaposhnikov. Yeltsin, dissatisfied with the content of Gorbachev’s last speech, refused to accept nuclear codes in the former president’s office and proposed carrying out this procedure in another Kremlin building, on “neutral territory.” But Mikhail Gorbachev did not agree with this proposal and, without any television cameras, transferred two colonels to Shaposhnikov’s command, who always and everywhere accompanied the head of state, being responsible for the “nuclear briefcase.”

There were no other procedures for seeing off the President of the USSR.

The last farewell dinner was held in the Orekhovoy drawing room, surrounded by five people from Mikhail Gorbachev’s close circle.

On the same day, US President George W. Bush announced the United States' official recognition of the independence of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
(Additional

December 29, 2016, 12:13

1991 was a very difficult and eventful year, the main of which took place on the territory of the USSR, which led to its eventual collapse. But there were also enough events outside the USSR; the reformatting of the world order was in full swing.

On January 17, the Gulf War began - the United States and its “multinational coalition” began an operation to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqis, who occupied it and annexed it on August 2, 1990.

Until February 24, 1991, the so-called "non-contact phase": massive air strikes against Iraqi forces, involving up to 1,000 aircraft.

Facing the threat of defeat, Iraqi soldiers set fire to hundreds of oil wells in Kuwait. Burning oil fields in Kuwait, 1991:

On February 24, Desert Storm began, a ground operation that ended with the rapid liberation of Kuwait and the restoration of the status quo.

The American battleship Missouri fires at Iraqi troops off the northern coast of Kuwait, February 6, 1991:

"Kuwait on Fire", 1991:

Kuwaitis greet American coalition troops, February 1991:

The road under which the Iraqis retreated under fire from coalition troops was called the “highway of death.” On the night of February 26-27, 1991, thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians retreated to Baghdad after a truce was declared and President Bush ordered his forces to destroy the retreating Iraqi army. Photo from April 18, 1991:

In 1991, the first major war after 1945 began in Europe, which would be called the “Yugoslav War.”

The unilateral declaration of independence by a number of republics of the SFRY (Croatia, Slovenia, and later Bosnia) caused resistance among local Serbian communities, to whose aid the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) came. In 1991, the most fierce battles took place on Croatian territory.

Serbian militias pose on the street of fallen Vukovar, November 1991:

This small town was dubbed the “Croatian Stalingrad”, so fierce were the street battles and the destruction.

JNA soldiers and Serbian militias walk through the streets of Vukovar. The city fell after three months of fighting. November 1991:

But Slovenia was luckier; there the war lasted only 10 days.

In 1991, the “World Democratic Revolution,” which affected about 60 countries in a short period, reached its apogee.

In February 1991, Albania exploded, where protests broke out throughout 1990, and the country's party leader Ramiz Alia tried to portray himself as the “Albanian Gorbachev”, avoiding decisive action.

On February 20, 1991, demonstrators gathered in Skanderbeg Square in Tirana. The police and party Khojaists tried to prevent them, but these attempts were suppressed by the mass of protesters. Demonstrators toppled a monument to Enver Hoxha:

This action is considered a milestone in Albanian history, after which events became irreversible.

Albanian demonstrators attack law enforcement forces with “weapons of the proletariat,” February 20, 1991:

One of the first gains of the Albanian Revolution was the freedom to flee the country, which was immediately taken advantage of by tens of thousands of people:

For the first time in many years, Western Europe learned what a massive influx of refugees was. Then more than 20,000 Albanians suddenly arrived in the Italian port of Brindisi.

Albanians flee to Italy in March 1991:

Having ended their long isolationism, the Albanians immediately found a master.

The wildly enthusiastic reception of American Secretary of State James Baker in the main square of Tirana, June 22, 1991:

In the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe, symbols of the recent past are being actively destroyed.

Dismantling the monument to Lenin. Berlin, 1991:

In African Ethiopia, the Marxist regime was also overthrown in 1991. Eritrean separatists unexpectedly went on the offensive and took the capital of the then unified country.

In Somalia, after the overthrow of the central government of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, a civil war broke out between rival clans, during which tens of thousands of people died and many more died of starvation. The government system collapsed, humanitarian aid received through UN channels was robbed by local militants.

In September 1991, fighting began in Mogadishu between the group of General Muhammad Farrah Aidid and the fighters of Ali Muhammad Mahdi, who proclaimed himself President of Somalia. Later, other “factions” also joined these battles. Several thousand people died in these battles.

Since then, Somalia as a state has virtually ceased to exist, having lost all the attributes of a single statehood and disintegrated into many patches controlled by warring warlords. The war has been going on since 1991, and so far there is no end in sight.

On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, was killed by a Tamil terrorist during the election campaign. On the morning of May 21, the killers easily mingled with the huge crowd gathered in the central square of the town. When Rajiv Gandhi appeared, the crowd rushed towards the guest with traditional garlands of flowers. Dhanu made her way through the crowd, held out a flower garland and bowed in pious obeisance. At the same instant, a deafening explosion was heard.

The death of Rajiv Gandhi, just like the earlier death of his mother Indira Gandhi, also killed by a terrorist in 1984, shocked the whole world.

Several famous personalities from 1991.

Newly released Nelson Mandela and Cuban leader Fidel Castro during Revolutionary Day celebrations in Havana, 1991:

And this character in 1991 was known only from reports of the American stock exchange chronicle:

Times were not easy for him. Although Trump bolstered his business with additional loans and deferred interest payments, by 1991 mounting debts not only caused business-related bankruptcy but also brought him to the brink of personal bankruptcy. Banks and bondholders lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but still decided to restructure Trump's debt to avoid wasting even more money in court.

Now about the events in the USSR, which were fatal. The collapse of the largest state was preceded by the so-called parade of sovereignties - the process of the union republics declaring their independence. On March 11, 1990, Lithuania abolished the USSR Constitution on the territory of the republic, and the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR declared this decision illegal.

The situation in the country began to explode in January. In January 1991, Soviet troops entered Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which was seeking independence from the USSR. During the storming of the Vilnius television center tower on the night of January 13, 13 people were killed, including a lieutenant of the KGB Alpha special forces group; More than 140 people were injured.

Both the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Ministers of Defense and Internal Affairs refused to take responsibility for these bloody events.

Latvian SSR. City of Riga. Barricades in the city center:

In May 1991, two more Baltic republics, Latvia and Estonia, followed the Lithuanian example. Photo of a protest in Tallinn:

A toppled monument to Lenin in Valmiera, Latvia:

Of the 185.6 million (80%) citizens of the USSR with voting rights, 148.5 million (79.5%) took part in the referendum; of these, 113.5 million (76.43%) answered “Yes” and spoke in favor of preserving the renewed USSR. In Ukraine, more than 70% supported the preservation of the Union. However, some of the republics boycotted the referendum.

Simultaneously with the election of the President of the RSFSR, a referendum was held on renaming Leningrad to St. Petersburg, in which 54% of participants supported the return of the historical name.
Rally for renaming Leningrad:

On June 17, Yeltsin was inaugurated as president of the RSFSR, still under Soviet symbols:

August 19, 1991 State Emergency Committee. From left to right: A. Tizyakov, V. Starodubtsev, B. Pugo, G. Yanaev and O. Baklanov:

The activities of the State Emergency Committee were limited to threatening declarations about saving the country and the introduction of tanks into Moscow.

The members of this body did not want to take further decisive action or were no longer able to. The initiative was hopelessly lost by noon on August 19, when a small group of people (at first there were only four of them) began unhindered to build the first barricade near the White House. The police stood nearby and watched completely indifferently as a couple of students moved and placed a metal section of fencing in the middle of the street. After 15 minutes, dozens of people were dragging and rolling everything they could get their hands on:

Meanwhile, Yeltsin climbed onto the tank and read out his decree, which declared the State Emergency Committee unconstitutional and called on citizens to resist the putsch:

The armored vehicles moving near the White House were stopped and surrounded by human chains. The crews showed complete peacefulness and quickly established friendly contact with the protesters. A similar picture was observed in the Kremlin itself:

On the first night, more than 10 thousand people greeted the White House. The atmosphere was alarming, but the youth reveled in the romance of the barricades:

Night at the barricades:

Yeltsin and other democratic figures encouraged the audience with their speeches:

Demonstrations against the State Emergency Committee also took place in other major cities of the USSR. For example, in Minsk:

On the night of August 20-21, an incident occurred in a tunnel under Kalinin Avenue in Moscow, during which three opponents of the State Emergency Committee were killed who attacked a convoy of armored vehicles:

The first blood completely demoralized the members of the State Emergency Committee, whose hands were already shaking from the first day.
On August 21, they rushed to Gorbachev in Foros and were arrested.

The time of triumph has come for the first Maidan in post-Soviet history:

On August 22, 1991, at a morning meeting, members of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on the national flag of the RSFSR: the return of the tricolor symbolizes the overthrow of the Soviet system and a return to pre-revolutionary ideology.

A giant tricolor is carried triumphantly across Red Square:

Another visual symbol of the overthrow of Soviet power and the victory of the “democratic revolution” was the demolition of the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky in Moscow by a crowd on August 22:

Each hero of the revolution could personally kick “Iron Felix”:

But then many really had the feeling that this was the most beautiful and romantic moment in our history:

The famous scene of August 23, 1991 - Yeltsin shows Gorbachev who is boss now:

August 27, 1991. On the central square, a rally in honor of the proclamation of independence of the Republic of Moldova:

On October 27, 1991, as a result of the elections, reserve major general Dzhokhar Dudayev became the first president of the Chechen Republic.
Meeting of Dzhokhar Dudayev with the elders:

Just yesterday, the same people overwhelmingly supported the preservation of the USSR in a referendum.

On December 8, 1991, the presidents of the three union republics gathered in Belovezhskaya Pushcha and decided to liquidate the USSR.

President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich and President of Russia Boris Yeltsin after signing the Agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Belovezhskaya Pushcha:

25 years ago, at the end of December 1991, immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Georgia celebrated its independence with the outbreak of a civil war between supporters of the newly elected President Zviad Gamsakhurdia and armed opposition groups.

Tbilisi residents are fleeing their homes caught in the war zone

This ends the political history of the USSR.

Now let's see how the country lived in 1991.

Throughout the first half of 1991, the population was brought to a boil by the devastation of the consumer market. A card system and “customer business cards” were introduced almost everywhere.
Residents of Kyiv are trying to redeem their coupons for butter, 1991:

Moscow street trading in April 1991:

The USSR has not yet collapsed, but capitalism has already won. Moscow, April 1991:

Already in September 1991, Muscovites began to enjoy the first fruits of victorious capitalism:

Moscow in 1991 is rapidly getting used to the market:

Popular magazines began to be filled with commercial advertising. MMM advertisement in Ogonyok magazine in 1991:

By 1991, Russian show business had almost completely outlived the legacy of the Soviet era.

On February 2, 1991, the most popular music program of the 90s, “Muzooboz,” was released. The program was released as part of the popular program “Vzglyad” and was a kind of small musical insert that talked about news in the world of music, showed recordings of star performances and fragments of concerts.

A month after the August events, on September 28, 1991, the grandiose rock festival “Monsters of Rock” took place on the field of the Tushino airfield in Moscow. The grandees and legends of world rock music “AC/DC” and “Metallica” took part in it. Neither before nor after, nothing of this magnitude happened in the vastness of the Soviet Union. According to various estimates, the number of spectators ranged from 600 to 800 thousand people (the figure is also called 1,000,000 people).

View from a helicopter. Music, amplified by equipment with a power of 550 kW, was heard within a radius of 6 km:

On October 6, 1991, at the Yubileiny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg, Igor Talkov was killed during a concert of Soviet pop stars. In those years, he was one of the few who understood what was really happening and spoke the truth, trying to reach people with the help of his songs.

I'm walking through the fragments of childhood dreams
In my native country,
Where everything seems to be happening in a frivolous way
With me.
You must have been so tired,
Reach the age of Christ, Lord...
And around, as if on a parade,
The whole country is going to hell
With a wide step.

my motherland
Sorrowful and silent...
My motherland,
You are crazy.

Moscow lives out its century in suspended animation -
I've arrived.
Lucifer's star above the domes
rose,
Watching from above as you go under the hammer
for a nickel,
How your former Chaldean laughs at your pride
from the West.

But there is no prophet in his Fatherland...

Several popular Russian showbiz characters from 1991.

Vladimir Presnyakov and Kristina Orbokaite

By the way, in 1991 the couple had a son, Nikita.

Natalya Vetlitskaya recorded her first video for the song “Look into your eyes” in 1991.

The video was directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk. Vetlitskaya appears in the video as a fatal blonde seductress. The composition instantly became a hit, and the singer herself not only woke up famous, but also received the title of sex symbol of the 90s.

Rising star Valeria, the singer everyone was waiting for (c)

The group "Technology" was wildly popular in 1991, although it was definitely a "Depeche Mode" band

And the prima donna has an affair with the budding young talent Sergei Chelobanov. "Christmas Meetings", 1991. Sing "Uninvited Guest":

It would be better not to remember at all what Soviet cinema was like in 1991. Garbage. And the names of many films shot in 1991 speak eloquently for themselves: “The Junkyard Man”, “Prostitute”, “Rat”, “Rubber Woman”, “Gang of Lesbians”...

The film "Vivat, midshipmen", filmed in 1991 and becoming a continuation of "Midshipmen, forward!" can safely be called a pearl in this dung heap of 1991 films with blackness, porn and mass repentance.

Still from the film "Vivat, midshipmen":

And Mexican passions were boiling on TV - the series “The Rich Also Cry”, over which the aunts sobbed:

Now let's look into the world of American cinema.

A couple of films from 1991 are well remembered by most readers, even those born after this date.

In 1991, the film “The Silence of the Lambs” was released, which received 5 Oscars and a bunch of other awards:

"Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991):

A very young Milla Jovovich in the film “Return to the Blue Lagoon” (1991):

“Double Impact,” filmed in 1991, soon became a video rental hit in the former USSR:

"Dying Young" with Julia Roberts was also released in 1991:

Still from the film "In Bed with Madonna", 1991:

Scandalous photo of Demi Moore on the cover of a glossy magazine, 1991:

On November 24, 1991, Freddie Mercury, one of the brightest legends of rock music, died. Also in 1991, his song “The Show Must Go On” was released, one of the best Queen songs and one of the most famous rock ballads in general.

At the end of the post, let’s look at what the cities of the world were like all over (or whole?) a quarter of a century ago.

Perhaps the cities that have changed the most since then are Chinese cities. Beijing in 1991 still looked like it did during Mao's time, except for a few new office buildings:

Now such neighborhoods (hutongs) are preserved in Beijing as a protected historical zone, and in 1991 this was still the main type of development in this metropolis:

Against the backdrop of Beijing in 1991, Bangkok at that time looked simply cool, but completely pale against the backdrop of the modern Thai capital:

And the coolest city in Asia in 1991 was probably Singapore

In Hanoi in 1991, the first years of market reforms had already borne fruit: wealthy residents of the capital began to switch from bicycles to mopeds:

This photo of Dubai from 1991, despite its terrible quality, has become downright iconic on the Internet:

A farewell look at socialist Ulaanbaatar:

Not very soon, but a construction boom will come there and the city center will gradually begin to be covered with glass towers of office centers.

Albanian urban transport 1991:

Berlin in 1991 was busy demolishing the remains of the Wall and restoring the unity of the urban space:

It may be hard to believe, but in Berlin in 1991, many buildings still retained traces of the 1945 assault:

The largest natural disaster of 1991 and the 20th century. In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted on the Philippine island of Luzon after a long 611-year hiatus:

The height of the ash cloud in the shape of a giant mushroom was 34 km. The ash ejected from this eruption covered an area of ​​125,000 km² of the sky with an impenetrable curtain. The area in this square was plunged into complete darkness for several hours. Ash fell in Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia.

Immediately after the defeat of the putsch, mass demonstrations against the CPSU took place in almost all major cities, which served as a convenient reason for suspending the activities of the CPSU in the country. By order of the President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin, the buildings of the CPSU Central Committee, regional committees, district committees, archives, etc. were closed and sealed. Since August 23, 1991, the CPSU has ceased to exist as a ruling state structure. But the influence of party workers on economic and political life has not disappeared, since their active part has long been involved in new spheres of life in Russia and other republics. Simultaneously with the cessation of the activities of the CPSU, a number of newspapers were temporarily closed by decree of the President of the RSFSR, primarily Pravda, Trud, Sovetskaya Rossiya and some others. But they were soon reopened as a result of public protests.
After the victory of the democratic revolution, the processes that took place in the economic, political, ideological and other spheres of social life accelerated sharply.
In September, all Union republics that had not yet declared their full sovereignty and independence made these declarations. The republican Supreme Councils became the highest bodies of power in sovereign republics, and real power increasingly began to be concentrated in the hands of republican presidents. In Russia, for example, in September - November, all major legislative acts were introduced not by parliamentary resolutions, but by presidential decrees.

After the events of August 1991, the importance of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR came to naught. The next Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, held at the end of August - beginning of September 1991, was the last. The congress declared self-dissolution. The Supreme Council was to be assembled at the end of September in a new composition on the basis of a fixed representation from the republics. But no acts with legislative force were adopted, therefore, when the new Supreme Soviet of the USSR met on October 21, it did not have any rights or powers. The State Council of the USSR, created in September 1991 under the leadership of M. S. Gorbachev, became the highest body by agreement between the republics.

In September - November 1991, sluggish attempts were made to prevent the final economic and political collapse of the former Soviet Union. The work was carried out in two directions: the creation of an economic union and the formation of new political relations. In September, in agreement with the Supreme Councils and presidents of several republics, the Interrepublican Economic Committee (IEC) was created, headed by I. S. Silaev. The greatest success of the IEC was the preparation of an economic agreement, which was signed by nine republics: the RSFSR, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan. Armenia participated in the committee as an observer, the Baltic states sent their representatives. Only Moldova and Georgia completely ignored this agreement. This agreement was a real step designed to stop the collapse of a single economic organism." However, the economic crisis continued, and, in an effort to mitigate it, the republics and even individual regions introduced serious restrictions on the export of various products and goods from them.

The contradictions regarding the political union were much more serious. -The Baltic states, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia refused to even discuss this problem. The first preliminary negotiations took place only in the second half of November, with the participation of the presidents of seven republics. As a result of negotiations, the presidents came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create a new state on a confederal basis (i.e., with the maximum possible rights of republics) and give this state the name Union of Sovereign States (USS).

Locally, the Soviets were almost everywhere removed from power, which was concentrated in executive committees, and in a number of places, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg (as Leningrad began to be called) and some others - in city halls and prefectures. There was a process of tightening and centralization of power. The President of the RSFSR tried to extend the institution of prefects throughout Russia, appointing people devoted to himself to these positions, but this policy aroused sharp opposition from local authorities and was not successful in 1991.

After the declaration of independence, relations between the republics on border issues worsened. A number of peoples of the North Caucasus, part of the RSFSR, declared independence and sovereignty and made political and territorial claims both to the RSFSR and to their neighbors. This was most clearly manifested in the emergence of the Chechen Republic, which separated from the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic of the RSFSR. Events in Chechnya and a number of other regions of the North Caucasus, the ongoing war in South Ossetia - all this brought the Caucasus by the end of 1991 to the brink of a comprehensive civil war.

The economic situation in Russia and other states of the former USSR in the fall and winter of 1991 was rapidly deteriorating. Inflation rates increased sharply, reaching 25-30% per month in October-November, and industrial and agricultural production declined. All this, coupled with an increase in the issuance of new money, led to the fact that by the end of 1991 there were practically no industrial goods or food products left on store shelves. Problems arose in supplying the population with the basic necessities: bread, milk, potatoes. For many categories of the population, especially pensioners and young people, the problem of survival has arisen.

This situation was largely caused by the actions of the new Russian leadership, which repeated the mistakes of the former allied one. B. N. Yeltsin’s statement on October 28 that from January 1992 the prices of almost all goods would be lowered, control over wage growth would be abolished, that in 1992 it was planned to carry out mass privatization of industrial enterprises, also played a role here. transport, trade, and in agriculture there must be a transition to farming. This statement caused a surge in inflation, a sharp drop in the exchange rate of the ruble against the US dollar, and the final disappearance of goods and products from stores. Everyone began to strive to hold on to goods and get rid of money. In addition, a number of republics announced the introduction of their currencies; the government of the RSFSR also announced the possibility of introducing the Russian ruble. The announcement to stop funding Union ministries also increased panic in the financial circles of the country. The difficulties in the national economy of the RSFSR were aggravated by the lack of stability and consistency in the personnel policy of the Russian government, where frequent conflicts and changes in composition occurred.

Hopes for a way out of the crisis were pinned on massive Western assistance: Receiving Western loans led to a rapid increase in the debt of the republics of the former Soviet Union, which by the end of 1991 exceeded, according to some estimates, 70 billion US dollars and had a clear upward trend.

The political activity of the broad masses of the population after the August coup attempt and subsequent protests against the CPSU began to noticeably decline. There were no major demonstrations or rallies. The number of strikes was also small compared to previous years, since a significant part of the workers were under threat of dismissal. The democratic parties were experiencing a serious crisis: the anti-Bolshevik pathos that united them had disappeared, and they were left facing an impending comprehensive crisis of society from which they saw no way out. The leaders of political parties and movements were unable to reach general agreements, and the struggle for power intensified. This happened both at the highest republican level and locally both in Russia and in the former Soviet republics.

The disappearance of the state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991 occurred almost unnoticed by the citizens of the great country, who recently overwhelmingly voted in a national referendum for the preservation of the Union. Three leaders of the union republics - Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, without having any authority to do so, simply announced the dissolution of the USSR and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as if they were talking about changing the name of the state.

And USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the guarantor of the existence of the country entrusted to him, chose not to react to this in any way and “fad into history.” Parliament - the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR - tried to disavow the dissolution of the country, but the meeting was declared illegal, isolated, cut off power, and the deputies were threatened with imprisonment. After this, a version was launched that “the USSR collapsed on its own.”

After 25 years, history has not yet fully placed the emphasis on who, how and why destroyed the great power. At the moment, these events in different countries of the world are presented to schoolchildren taking into account national specifics.

Immediately after the abolition of the State Emergency Committee, the President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin suspended the activities of the CPSU on the territory of the Russian Federation, and in November 1991 banned it altogether, which inevitably entailed the liquidation of the CPSU as a single all-Union party. At the same time, the process of fragmentation of the USSR was accelerating. Already in August, the three Baltic republics announced their secession from the USSR. President M.S. Gorbachev signed a decree recognizing this exit. The Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR (September 1991) announced its self-dissolution.

Creation of the CIS
M.S. Gorbachev, having refused the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, continued to fight for a union treaty, receiving limited support only from the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics. In September, on Gorbachev’s initiative, work began on the idea of ​​forming a Union of Sovereign States instead of the USSR, which was supposed to be actually a confederation, but with the institution of a single presidential power (very reduced). In fact, this was the last attempt by the Center, agonizing under powerful pressure from the republican ruling elites striving for undivided power, to prevent the uncontrolled collapse of the USSR and the inevitable misfortunes of millions of ordinary people. History has its own opinion.

On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (B.N. Yeltsin, L.M. Kravchuk, S.S. Shushkevich) announced the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This act went down in history as the Belovezhskaya Agreement.
The “Agreement on the Creation of the CIS,” adopted at the same time, stated that “the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality ceases to exist.” However, formally the Union continued to exist, since the other republics, which, according to the Constitution, were co-founders of a single state along with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, did not declare their withdrawal from it. Therefore, from an international legal point of view, the USSR disappeared from the political map of the world on December 21, 1991, when in Alma-Ata the heads of eight more republics (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) joined before the fait accompli. December 25 M.S. Gorbachev resigned from the post of President of the USSR. Three days later, the RSFSR was proclaimed the Russian Federation.

A.A. Levandovsky, Yu.A. Shchetinov, S.V. Mironenko. Russian history. XX – early XXI centuries. Textbook for the 11th grade of general education institutions. Moscow, publishing house "Prosveshchenie", 2013

Belarus

On December 8, 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the 1922 treaty on the creation of the USSR was denounced (declared invalid) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created. The CIS includes 12 countries. The capital of the CIS was the city of Minsk.

After the declaration of independence, the formation of government bodies began, the armed forces were created, the customs service, the banking system, etc. were organized.

On December 8, 1991, the leaders of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine, in the absence of Gorbachev, created the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 21 of the same year, representatives of 11 Soviet republics met and signed documents establishing the CIS. Those gathered informed Gorbachev in writing that the USSR no longer existed, and the latter was forced to admit this fact. On the evening of December 25, he announced his resignation from the highest leadership post of the USSR, after which he transferred the right to dispose of nuclear weapons to Yeltsin.

After this, students are asked to think about two questions: “If the events of August 19, 1991 had not occurred, could the USSR continue to exist?” and “Even if the August events had not happened, was the collapse of the Soviet Union predetermined?”

"The World History. XX century", textbook for 9th grade of secondary school, team of authors, Renmin Jiaoyu Publishing House, Beijing, 2016.

World History: Patterns of Interaction. Textbook for senior high school. Team of authors, McDougle Littell Publishing House, 2009.

The attempted coup also played a decisive role in accelerating the collapse of the Soviet Union. Estonia and Latvia quickly declared their independence. Soon other republics followed this example. Although Gorbachev advocated unity, no one listened to him. By early December, all 15 republics declared independence.

Yeltsin met with leaders of other republics to chart a new course. They agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, a loose federation of former Soviet territories. Only the Baltic republics and Georgia refused to join. The formation of the CIS meant the death of the Soviet Union. On Christmas Day (December 25, 1991 - Ed.) 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation as President of the Soviet Union, a country that had ceased to exist.

The collapse of the USSR formally began in 1990, when the individual Soviet republics declared independence. Lithuania was the first to do this, followed by Estonia and Latvia. The USSR government recognized the independence of the Baltic republics in September 1991. In December 1991, Ukraine declared independence. The Russian government, headed by Boris Yeltsin, also began to pursue an independent policy. At the end of December 1991, all Soviet republics became independent states.
Instead of the USSR, the Commonwealth of Independent States arose.

Rados Lusic, Ljubodrag Dimic. Story. Textbook for the eighth grade of basic school. Publishing house "Freska", Belgrade, 2016

Kazakhstan

Collapse of the USSR

December 1991 was full of political events. The main one among them is the collapse of the USSR. On December 8, in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, the leaders of the RSFSR, Belarus, and Ukraine gathered and signed a document on the loss of force of the 1922 treaty on the creation of the USSR.
“We,” the document said, “Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, who signed the Union Treaty in 1922 and are the founders of the USSR, declare that the USSR as a subject of international law and from the point of view of its geopolitical position has ceased to exist.”
From that time on, the USSR legally ceased to exist and the Commonwealth of Independent States appeared.
On December 13, 1991, a meeting of the leaders of the republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan took place in Ashgabat. They announced support for the decisions taken in Minsk.
Thus, one of the largest empires in the world, the Soviet Union, collapsed. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Estonia received state independence for centuries. All these states have a thousand-year history, national economy, and culture. Therefore, it would be unfair if these countries did not revive their national statehood.

“History of Kazakhstan (from the beginning of the 20th century to the present)”, textbook for 9th grades of secondary schools, M.K. Kozybaev, K.N. Nurpeis, K.M. Zhukeshev, Mektep publishing house, Almaty, 2013.

Bulgaria

As a result of the putsch and the ban on the Communist Party, which was the main unifying force in the USSR, all republics declared their independence. Yeltsin and the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus decided to dissolve the USSR and instead decided to create the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The president of a state that no longer existed, Gorbachev, resigned on December 25, 1991.

Evgenia Kalinova, Serge Berstein, Pierre Milza. History and civilization. Textbook for 10th grade. Sofia, publishing house Prosveta & Riva & Prozorets, 2012

E.I. Pometun, N.N. Gupan. History of Ukraine. Level 11 standard. Publishing house "Osvita".

On August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR temporarily stopped the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine for supporting the rebellion and on the same day unanimously adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
The people of Ukraine demonstrated to the whole world their desire for freedom and their own statehood. Ukraine, as a democratic state, has taken the path of civilized development. The day of the proclamation of the Act of Independence of Ukraine is celebrated as a public holiday - Independence Day.

In the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada “On the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine,” it was decided on December 1, 1991 to hold a republican referendum to confirm the Act of Declaration of Independence. In accordance with this Act, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Resolution “On Military Formations in Ukraine,” which subordinated all troops stationed on the territory of the republic. The resolution provided for the creation of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of the republic.

At the same time, an investigation began into the activities of the bodies of the CPSU and the Communist Party of Ukraine on the territory of Ukraine during the coup.
The declaration of independence strengthened separatist tendencies in certain regions of Ukraine, in particular, a movement developed for the annexation of the Crimean peninsula to Russia or even granting it the status of full independence. This movement was actively supported in Crimea by the banned Communist Party of Ukraine. Separatist associations of Odessa, Nikolaev and Kherson came up with the idea of ​​​​forming the so-called Novorossiya in the south of Ukraine. The need to revive the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic, artificially formed in 1918, was discussed in the Donbass.

Nevertheless, even under such circumstances, the Verkhovna Rada refused to sign the union treaty and scheduled an All-Ukrainian referendum for December 1, 1991.

To the question on the referendum ballot: “Do you confirm the “Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine”?” 90.32% of voters answered: “Yes, I confirm.” In Crimea, 67.5% of citizens took part in the voting and 54.1% of them supported the idea of ​​Ukrainian independence.
Simultaneously with the All-Ukrainian referendum, for the first time in the history of the Ukrainian people, the President of Ukraine was popularly elected on an alternative basis. Six candidates were nominated, who became spokespersons for the ideas of different political parties and movements. According to the results of the elections that took place on December 1, 1991, Leonid Kravchuk became the first president after the declaration of independence of Ukraine.

On December 5, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada adopted an appeal to the parliaments of the peoples of the world, which noted the invalidity of the 1922 treaty on the formation of the USSR regarding Ukraine.

On December 8, 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus), Russian President B. Yeltsin, Ukrainian President L. Kravchuk and Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus S. Shushkevich signed an agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).