collapse of the USSR, the largest state in area, occupied 1/6 of habitable land is undoubtedly the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the XX century, it is a systematic disintegration in the economic, social, political, and social structures of the Soviet Union.
Currently, historians do not have a single opinion as to what was the main reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the fact it was possible to prevent the process of decay.However, the factors leading to the collapse, was enough including the authoritarian nature of Soviet society, disparities extensive economy, some of the largest man-made disasters, international conflicts including riots in 1972 in Kaunas, mass demonstrations in 1978 in Georgia, Events in 1980Minsk, December events of 1986 in Kazakhstan, etc .: all this is a result of the concatenation led to the disintegration of the Soviet system.
Attempts to reform the Soviet system led to a deepening of the crisis in the country, which is expressed in the political arena as a confrontation between Soviet President Gorbachev and President Yeltsin of the RSFSR.
Soviet countries of the Commonwealth began to assert their independence.The claim for the autonomy of each of the 15 Soviet republics were subjected to threats of political control of the central system.Despite this, in August 1991, Gorbachev announced that on 20 August the Soviet government to sign a new contract, "union of sovereign states" with the 15 republics, which has delegated to them a considerable part of the powers of the central government.Of course, the proponents of the system, the center of which was the Communist Party, could not accept this, because each state received the right to independently decide their own internal problems already, which meant the loss of power to the Soviet government.In addition there were also other problems relating to the inadmissibility of the contract, such as the problem of the division of the Strategic Missile Forces, air defense, and of course, the armed forces equally between the republics.
All this together led to a politically and logically predictable August coup, and the creation of the Emergency Committee without Gorbachev that morning of 19 August, the media announced a state of emergency, and informed that the presidential powers were transferred to the Vice-President Gennady Yanayev.
Boris Yeltsin criticized Gorbachev's actions, and the Central Committee, in the house of the government and on the streets.Skillfully he is manipulating the consciousness of the people and was able to direct a significant part of the population in their support.After declaring a state of emergency in Moscow were restored office and mobilized about 500 tanks and armored vehicles of the Emergency Committee.But the lack of a clear military support did not stop Boris, and he continued to speak to the crowd even standing on one of these tanks.Having achieved complete removal of Gorbachev and the Soviet government left without a leader, he issued a presidential decree by which the whole army passed to him, and finally stopped trying to prevent the signing of right-wing forces agreement.Thus, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the independence of the 15 republics and their appearance on the world political arena as independent states.
August 22 Yeltsin, along with two hundred thousandth of a crowd celebrating a victory in the square, openly condemned the Communist Party, which for 70 years ruled the country, and approved the tricolor flag, thus confirming the separation of Russia from the Soviet Union.
August 24, 1991, Gorbachev withdrew its authority the Secretary-General and dismissed the party.
