The demise of the Soviet Union

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In December 1991 the leaders of three Soviet Republics - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - signed a treaty dissolving the USSR. They did so without asking the other republics, and against the wishes of the USSR's overall President Mikhail Gorbachev. By the end of the year, Gorbachev had resigned and the Soviet Union was no more. In 2016, Dina Newman spoke to the former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, and former President of Belarus, Stanislav Shushkevich, who signed that historic document alongside Boris Yeltsin.

PHOTO: The breakaway leaders signing the treaty the dissolved the Soviet Union (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
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0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Hello and thank you for downloading witness history from the BBC World Service.
0:47.0	Today we're going back to 1991 and the breakup of the Soviet Union.
0:52.0	It was agreed by the leaders of the Soviet Union.
0:52.8	It was agreed by the leaders of three Soviet republics,
0:56.3	Russia, Belarus and Ukraine,
0:58.7	against the wishes of the overall President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 2016, Dina Newman got firsthand accounts
1:07.3	of the final moments of the USSR from two of the three breakaway leaders.
1:13.0	December 1991.
1:19.0	December 1991.
1:21.0	Communism had already collapsed across Eastern Europe, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
1:29.0	But the Soviet Union still existed, ruled by the Communist Party with Mikhail Grubachov as its head.
1:37.0	Mr Grubachov had had a difficult year.
1:40.1	In August 1991, hardline communists unhappy with the liberal policies of Peristroika had attempted a coup against him, but he'd survived.
1:49.7	Now, however, independence movements were gaining popularity in many of the 15 Soviet republics.
1:56.0	Ukraine and several smaller republics had already held independence referendums.
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