At the end of 1990, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbatchev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to democratize the USSR through diplomatic rapprochement with the West and for having ended the Brezhnev Doctrine, still in 1988, which determined the repression against the countries of Eastern Europe that did not want socialism as a direction political. The end of the Brezhnev Doctrine accelerated the process of political opening in Eastern Europe, which was marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the political changes in Eastern European countries, the movements against the socialism and the centrality of Moscow began to gather more and more people in the republics that constituted the USSR In addition to gaining adherents in civil society, ideas against Soviet rule reached the political and military sphere, which began to demand autonomy in decision-making.
Since 1988, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, known as “the Baltic republics”, due to their proximity to the Baltic Sea, showed much greater dissatisfaction than the other republics. The following year, a protest brought together half the population of these countries, which formed a huge human cordon in the borders between countries on Aug. 24 as the Soviet regime celebrated its 50th anniversary. After the event, it became clear that the most unbelievable strategy against a military empire could work much more than any other: the role of the population in redemocratizing a nation.
On March 11, 1990, the Lithuanian parliament unanimously approved the Act of the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Lithuanian Independence, which was applied on the 22nd of that same month. Estonia declared its independence on March 30th and Latvia on May 4th. In response, economic sanctions were applied to countries, which had little effect due to their geographical advantage (localized near the Baltic Sea), which increased its economic relations with the rest of Europe, in particular, the northern countries, Poland and Germany. Baltic dominance also diminished Russia's trade routes. Soviet troops installed themselves in the region to intimidate the population and governments, but at that time it was inevitable that similar movements would spread to the other republics.
For most of the population of the USSR, the ongoing political and economic transformations implemented by President Mikhail Gorbatchev were slow. Jobs were not being created, incomes were not increasing, and some state benefits were being withdrawn. At the other extreme, the Communist Party leaders and a good part of the military were opposed to drastic changes in the current system. Even with the imminent internal crisis, Gorbachev achieved an important victory in his foreign policy, with the signing on July 31, 1991 of the START-I treaty. (Strategic Weapons Reduction Agreement) with the United States, which accumulated efforts to end the arms race and reduce the nuclear arsenal of both countries. countries.
In August 1991, the Soviet president tried to offer an increase in autonomy to the republics, in order to ratify the Treaty of the Union of Sovereign States, approved in a referendum by the majority of the republics, but considered illegal by the communists radicals. The senior members of Nomenklatura, the elite of the Communist Party, as well as part of the army and the KGB (former Soviet intelligence agency) did not accept the measure of political flexibility. In response, this conservative group staged a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, who stayed for three days under house arrest in the coastal city of Foros, in the Crimea, where the president was resting.
No phone and just an old Japanese radio set to get some information about what was happening, Gorbachev was losing even more his political prestige and popularity. In a few days, the then President of the Republic of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, became the greatest leader of a countercoup, bringing together the population and a considerable portion of the army that did not want the return of retrograde ideas proposed by the conservatives. The scammers backed off, not least because no member of the Nomenklatura he was ready to confront an angry population against a political regime modeled on the Russian Revolution.
With the defeat of the coup plotters, Boris Yeltsin emerged as the idealizer of the USSR's fragmentation process and, little by little, the republics that formed the territory were enacting their processes of independence during the second half of 1991, without any sketch of a reaction on the part of conservatives or Mikhail. Gorbachev, who ended up not being able to complete his planning for the economic and political transition, in addition to having entered a process of discredit with the population.
On the initiative of Russia, on December 8, 1991, the creation of the CIS (Community of Independent States) was announced, ratified on December 21 by 11 of the former republics. The CEI can be considered as a proposal for a political-economic agreement, establishing the organization of relations between the former republics (except for the Baltic countries) and representing the end of the Soviet structure for the maintenance of power. On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev finally resigned as president, formalizing the end of the USSR.
*Image credits: kojoku and Shutterstock
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/leste-europeu-paises-que-formaram-urss-parte-ii.htm