Kyrgyzstan declares state independence

The Estonian Supreme Council confirmed restoration of independence while the coup was underway in Moscow. Estonian leaders and residents used the collapse of central authority to complete a long...

Latvia’s Supreme Council ended the transitional period and re-established full state authority after the coup failed. The law consolidated a claim grounded in continuity of pre-1940 statehood.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence and called a referendum. The decision followed the failed coup and reflected a broad coalition of political forces and public...

Moldova’s parliament declared independence after the failed coup in Moscow. The decision followed language and sovereignty mobilization and amid conflict over the future of the Soviet Union and...

The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan declared restoration of state independence. The decision came amid the collapse of Union authority and the escalating Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which placed Armenian...

Tajikistan’s Supreme Soviet adopted a declaration of independence. The republic became sovereign amid economic crisis and political tensions that would soon develop into civil conflict.

Voters overwhelmingly supported independence from the USSR. The referendum expressed popular will during a period of conflict and displacement linked to Nagorno-Karabakh.

A referendum on independence was followed by a declaration establishing Turkmenistan as a sovereign state. The process transferred formal authority to the republic while leaving major economic and...

A majority in every region supported the August Act of Independence. The result gave Ukraine’s independence democratic legitimacy and made a renewed Union increasingly untenable.

The leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement creating the Commonwealth of Independent States and stating that the USSR had ceased to exist. The decision was taken by republican...