Students begin the Revolution on Granite

The Lithuanian Supreme Council declared the restoration of the independent state. The act followed mass mobilization and elections and challenged the Soviet Union’s claim over a republic...

Latvia’s Supreme Council declared restoration while allowing a transition period. The decision asserted that Soviet annexation had not extinguished Latvian statehood and advanced a legal claim...

The Russian republic asserted the priority of its laws and sovereignty within a proposed renewed Union. Since Russia was the largest republic and housed the Union capital, the declaration weakened the...

The republic’s parliament asserted Moldovan sovereignty and the primacy of its laws. The declaration emerged amid language-rights mobilization and debate over national identity, union authority, and...

The declaration established the priority of Ukrainian law and claimed control over resources, citizenship, and future military service. It asserted sovereignty while initially leaving open a...

Opposition parties competed openly in elections that marked a break with one-party rule. The vote brought the Round Table-Free Georgia coalition to power and set the stage for the 1991 independence...

Soviet forces seized the television tower; civilians defending Lithuania’s elected institutions were killed. The assault failed to reverse Lithuania’s independence and drew mass resistance and...

Latvians maintained barricades around key institutions after the Vilnius killings. Soviet special forces attacked in Riga, killing civilians and accelerating opposition to Union coercion.

Voters in nine republics were asked whether to preserve a reformed Union; several republics boycotted or held separate questions. The results revealed both support for some form of union and growing...

Voters directly elected Yeltsin president, giving him a popular mandate separate from Gorbachev’s Union office. The result sharpened the struggle between Russian republican authority and the Soviet...