Soviet republics’ upper chamber declares the Union dissolved

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...

Leaders of eleven former Soviet republics endorsed the CIS and principles of sovereign equality. The meeting broadened the post-Union arrangement, while Georgia and the Baltic republics remained...