On December 8, 1991, at a meeting of the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, an agreement was signed on the creation of the CIS. In effect, the parties have declared the end of the existence of the Soviet Union, which will be officially announced only two and a half weeks later. RBC restores the chronicle of the events of December 1991, the last month in the history of the USSR
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin before the start of the meeting of the heads of state of the Commonwealth (Photo: Andrey Babushkin, Alexander Sentsov/TASS)
Union by early December 1991
- March 17. In the USSR, a referendum was held on the preservation of the Union. With a turnout of 79.5% (148.5 million people), the unified state was supported by 76.4% of those who voted.
- March-August. The so-called Novoogarevsky process is underway, during which work is underway on a new union treaty, which should replace the current one, adopted in 1922. The confrontation between the union center (USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev) and the leadership of Russia (President Boris Yeltsin) is growing.
- August 19-22. The August putsch - an unsuccessful attempt at a coup d'état - took place in Moscow. As a result, Gorbachev's position sharply weakened, and the signing of the union treaty, scheduled for August 20, was disrupted.
- August-November. Most of the union republics declare their independence and announce the dates of presidential elections.
- Beginning of December. The leaders of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia announced a meeting in Minsk, at which the parties should discuss issues of relations between the republics. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is actively urging the parties to sign a new union treaty as soon as possible.
Belovezhskaya agreement
Three heads of the union republics: Boris Yeltsin (RSFSR), Leonid Kravchuk (Ukrainian SSR) and Stanislav Shushkevich (Belarusian SSR) gathered in the Belarusian town of Viskuli on December 7, 1991. A day later, it was during this meeting that a document was signed called the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States", better known as the Belovezhskaya Accords, in which the parties stated that "The Union of the SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist."
Three presidents began joint work on the draft document, later they were joined by the first deputy chairman of the Russian government Gennady Burbulis, chairman of the Belarusian cabinet of ministers Vyacheslav Kebich and Prime Minister of Ukraine Vitold Fokin. According to Shushkevich, to begin with, the parties agreed on conceptual things: the USSR de facto collapsed, this process is uncontrollable, the three republics must maintain a military link.
Leonid Kravchuk, Stanislav Shushkevich and Boris Yeltsin after signing the agreement (from left to right). December 8, 1991 (Photo: Yuri Ivanov/RIA Novosti)
“We agreed that this should be formalized and gave instructions to the working group, which included representatives from each side. And it was said: to do it overnight, ”Shushkevich said in an interview with Ogonyok.
“The Russian side dealt only with those paragraphs that had political goals. They didn't care what we wrote on economic issues. Therefore, Fokin and I created the economic part ... Most of all, the fate of President Gorbachev was discussed, what to do with the states that do not participate in the meeting, the scheme of foreign policy activities and the scheme of the country's defense. From the memoirs of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich.
The same Kebich later refuted the popular legend that the work on the text of the Belovezhskaya Accords was accompanied by a large amount of drunk alcohol. “During work, when it was possible to formulate a particularly strong phrase, I was given the task: go pour a glass of champagne. Fortified and strong drinks, when we worked, did not drink at all. Only later, when it was all over, ”he recalled.
The members of the press eagerly awaited the end of the group's work. According to Belarusian journalist Yakov Alekseychik, media workers were accommodated in a rural unheated hotel in the village of Kamenyuki on the outskirts of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. “We almost lost our souls there overnight... The journalists went hungry and cold. After 1 pm, white tables were brought into the lobby and we were told: they would sign some kind of document, ”Alekseychik recalled.
After work on the text of the agreement was completed, the presidents of the three countries agreed that the presidents of the USSR and the USA should be informed. According to Shushkevich's memoirs, Gorbachev had to inform him, and Yeltsin had to call Bush.
Reaction in the Kremlin
At the time of the signing of the agreement between Yeltsin, Shushkevich and Kravchuk, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev gave an interview to Ukrainian television, in which he talked about the need to preserve the Union, arguing his words by the fact that the multinational people themselves are interested in this.
“I get a lot of information about this. A month ago there was a survey in Kyiv, Moscow, Leningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Alma-Ata, Novosibirsk, I think. The data is known. Now almost in the same places conducted a new survey. And so: in Moscow, 80% spoke in favor of preserving the Union, of course, renewed, new. In Kyiv - 64% of the respondents, in Alma-Ata - 72%," Gorbachev said.
At the moment when in Belarus the heads of the three republics were signing an agreement that actually put an end to the existence of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev said that the decentralization of power in the USSR would not have any positive effect and would only spray the administrative bureaucracy at the level of the leadership of the republics.
“Well, are we the dumbest of all? In Spain, in Madrid, Bush, King Juan Carlos, Gonzalez tried to convince for three hours of the need to preserve the Union. It's amazing. What have we come to... Walesa, the President of Poland, called on our television to support Gorbachev in his desire to preserve the Union, not to divide the country... Otherwise, collapse. And we will all die in this collapse,” Gorbachev said.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (Photo: Yury Lizunov, Alexander Chumichev/TASS)
Fragments of Gorbachev's interview were aired on Moscow and Kyiv television, but the text of this conversation did not appear in any of the newspapers.
"Midnight. The radio has just brought the news: Yeltsin, Kravchuk, Shushkevich announced the cessation of the existence of the Soviet Union as a subject of international law, the invalidity of all laws relating to it as a state. We agreed on how to jointly finance defense... The economic mechanism will be agreed upon in December.
Before that, I listened for an hour and a half to an interview recorded yesterday by M. S. [Gorbachev] (on Ukrainian TV), where he furiously and passionately argued that it was impossible to “disperse” and that abandoning the Union would be doom for everyone. He didn’t let the Ukrainian interviewer put in a word… He promised to turn to the people over the heads of “these newly-minted politicians who have emerged in two years”, and as if he still had “means that he won’t talk about now.” In a word, from now on I live in another state - Russia, and I am actually unemployed in it. Anatoly Chernyaev, "Diary of an Assistant to the President of the USSR"
Press reaction
- “The presidents of the three Slavic republics have drawn a line under the existence of the Soviet Union, born of the Bolshevik revolution. Of decisive importance will be the meeting of the State Council on December 9, which, in the light of recent events, may take the most dramatic turn. The main question is how Mikhail Gorbachev will react to the "political bomb" planted under him by Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich" (France Presse)
- “Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, having agreed on the creation of a new commonwealth of states, are preparing for a clash with a depowered and humiliated Gorbachev, which should take place at the State Council” (Reuters)
- "Gorbachev was removed from power in a bloodless coup" (Daily Express)
- "The desperate attempt of the Soviet president to build a new Union ended in failure" (Associated Press)
The day of December 8 in 1991 fell on a Sunday, so the Soviet media reacted to the news from Belarus only the next day.
Other news of the day:
- A group of people's deputies of the USSR, "concerned by the current situation of the country's rapid approach to a political and socio-economic catastrophe and the collapse of a multinational state," demanded to convene an emergency Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, at which decisions should be made to restore constitutional order throughout the Union
- The head of the Russian Committee for Foreign Economic Relations Pyotr Aven said that Russia recognizes the debt of the Soviet Union, but will not recognize loans to the union republics and the union center, which appear without the knowledge of the Russian leadership
- Mircea Snegur, the only contender for this post, became the President of Moldova
- U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the resurgence of isolationist sentiment in the U.S. and protectionist obstruction of trade with Japan in a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- In Albania, panic began among the population after statements by the authorities that the stocks of bread in the country would be enough for only six days
Chronicle of December 1991
The release of the TV Inform program, which briefly replaced the Vremya program, dated December 9, 1991
On December 8, 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich signed the so-called Belovezhskaya agreement. Officially, the document is called the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States."
The preamble of the document stated that "the Union of the SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist." Article 1 of the Agreement stated: "The High Contracting Parties form the Commonwealth of Independent States" (CIS). The agreement declared a desire to develop cooperation in the political, economic, humanitarian, cultural and other fields. Article 14 defined Minsk as "the official seat of the coordinating bodies of the Commonwealth."
On December 10, the document was ratified by the parliaments of Belarus and Ukraine, on December 12 by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Of the 246 Russian deputies, only seven people voted against, five abstained.
On December 21, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan joined the Agreement. These countries signed in Alma-Ata together with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine the Declaration on the purposes and principles of the CIS and the protocol to the agreement on the creation of the CIS. The accession of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Georgia to the Commonwealth was formalized by the decisions of the Council of Heads of State of September 24 and December 3, 1993.
The starting point of the Belovezhskaya agreements was the referendum on the proclamation of an act of independence of Ukraine, which took place on December 1. Boris Yeltsin immediately recognized the results of this referendum and announced his intention to establish diplomatic relations with Ukraine by concluding a comprehensive bilateral treaty with it. On December 5, Yeltsin informed Gorbachev that without Ukraine, the union treaty would lose all meaning. Thus, the signing of the agreement on the Union of Sovereign States (USS), scheduled for December 9, was disrupted.
However, the Belovezhskaya Accords themselves appeared largely spontaneously. Although it should be noted that Boris Yeltsin went to Belarus without journalists, referring precisely to a series of closed unofficial talks.
Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich recalled that he had gathered with the heads of Russia and Ukraine, Yeltsin and Kravchuk, to discuss energy issues. But during the breaks, the fate of the USSR was discussed. However, the parties did not have any preparations and plans for signing the agreement. Later, Leonid Kravchuk suggested adopting a statement about the dead end of the Novoogorevo process of developing the Union Treaty and the need to search for new formats.
The Prime Minister of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich believes that the Russian delegation was the initiator of the Belovezhskaya agreements, and the signing itself was spontaneous. According to him, "Yeltsin alone knew all this." It turned out that “the Russian delegation with Shakhrai, Shokhin, Burbulis arrived with a preliminary plan - if the “case works out” and Ukraine agrees, then it was possible to sign the document. Due to the warm relations between Yeltsin and Kravchuk, Ukraine's consent was obtained.
Stanislav Shushkevich recalled that the head of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was also to join the talks in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. However, during a telephone conversation, he flew to Moscow for talks with Mikhail Gorbachev. Having given his word to come, he stayed in Moscow, also because the president of the USSR promised him the post of head of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Anatoly Lukyanov, who was under arrest in the case of the State Emergency Committee in December 1991, said that the KGB of Belarus was ready to neutralize the politicians who had gathered in Belovezhye, and informed Mikhail Gorbachev about this. However, he did not give his sanction to the military operation, and a day later he made a statement that each union republic has the right to secede from the Union, but the fate of a multinational state cannot be determined by the will of the leaders of the three republics - this issue should be decided only by constitutional through the participation of all the union republics and taking into account the will of their peoples
On December 12, 1991, the Belovezhskaya Agreement was ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Immediately after that, the Russian parliament denounced the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.
The events preceding the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords are described
Around 17:00, two telephone conversations took place between President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev: with US President George W. Bush and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.
In a conversation with George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev said that in two hours he would make a statement about his resignation from the presidency of the USSR. Gorbachev expressed hope that the countries of Europe and the United States would support the newly created CIS as an interstate entity, as well as jointly support Russia.
Mikhail Gorbachev also informed the US President that he was transferring the right to use nuclear weapons to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. "So you can safely celebrate Christmas, sleep peacefully tonight. As for me, I'm not going to hide in the taiga. I will remain in politics, in public life," Gorbachev concluded.
In response, George W. Bush assured that America would remain interested in Russian affairs. "You will be a welcome guest, we will be glad to receive you after everything settles down," Bush promised Gorbachev.
Hans-Dietrich Genscher thanked Mikhail Gorbachev for his contribution to the unification of Germany: "The hearts and gratitude of the Germans will forever remain with you." Mikhail Gorbachev assured the minister that he would continue to promote the rapprochement of East and West.
At about 19:00, Gorbachev signed a decree "On the resignation by the President of the USSR of the powers of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR and the abolition of the Defense Council under the President of the USSR."
At 19:00, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev made a resignation statement on central television.
“Due to the current situation with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I am terminating my activities as President of the USSR. I am making this decision for reasons of principle. I firmly stood for the independence, independence of peoples, for the sovereignty of the republics. But at the same time, for the preservation of the union state, the integrity of the country. Events took a different path. The line on the dismemberment of the country and the separation of the state prevailed, with which I cannot agree," the statement said.
Further, Mikhail Gorbachev gave his assessment of the path traveled as first General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and then President of the USSR since 1985, and thanked all the citizens who supported his policy of renewal and democratic reforms.
At 19:38, the state flag of the USSR was lowered from the flagpole of the Kremlin and the state flag of the Russian Federation was raised.
After the televised speech, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a short interview and returned to his office in the Kremlin to hand over the nuclear ciphers to President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. The farewell meeting between them did not take place. Gorbachev was met by USSR Minister of Defense Yevgeny Shaposhnikov. Yeltsin, dissatisfied with the content of Gorbachev's last speech, refused to accept nuclear ciphers in the former president's office and offered to carry out this procedure in another room in the Kremlin, on "neutral territory." But Mikhail Gorbachev did not agree with this proposal and, without any TV cameras, handed over to Shaposhnikov two colonels, who accompanied the head of state everywhere and constantly, being responsible for the "nuclear briefcase".
There were no other procedures for seeing off the president of the USSR.
The last farewell dinner was held in the Walnut Drawing Room, surrounded by five people from Mikhail Gorbachev's close circle.
On the same day, US President George W. Bush announced the official recognition by the United States of the independence of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
(Additional
The disappearance of the state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991 happened almost imperceptibly for the citizens of a great country, who most recently voted in a national referendum for the preservation of the Union. The three leaders of the union republics - Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, without having any authority to do so, simply announced the dissolution of the USSR and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as if it were a question of changing the name of the state.
And the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the guarantor of the existence of the country entrusted to him, preferred not to react to this in any way and "go down in history." Parliament - the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR - tried to disavow the dissolution of the country, but the meeting was declared illegal, isolated, de-energized, and the deputies were threatened with imprisonment. After that, a version was launched that "the USSR collapsed on its own."
After 25 years, history has not yet fully emphasized who, how and why destroyed the great power. At the moment, these events in different countries of the world are presented to schoolchildren, taking into account national specifics.
Immediately after the abolition of the State Emergency Committee, the President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin suspended the activities of the CPSU on the territory of the Russian Federation, and in November 1991 banned it altogether, which inevitably led to the liquidation of the CPSU as a single all-union party. At the same time, the process of fragmentation of the USSR was growing. Already in August, the three Baltic republics announced their withdrawal from the USSR. President M.S. Gorbachev signed a decree recognizing this exit. The Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR (September 1991) announced self-dissolution.
Creation of the CIS
M.S. Gorbachev, having abandoned the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, continued to fight for a union treaty, receiving limited support only from the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics. In September, at the initiative of Gorbachev, the idea of forming the Union of Sovereign States instead of the USSR began, which was supposed to be a de facto confederation, but with the institution of a single presidential power (very curtailed). In fact, this was the last attempt of the Center, agonizing under the powerful pressure of the republican ruling elites striving for undivided power, to prevent the uncontrolled collapse of the USSR and the inevitable disasters of millions of ordinary people. History has judged in its own way.
On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (B.N. Yeltsin, L.M. Kravchuk, S.S. Shushkevich) announced the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This act went down in history as the Belovezhskaya agreement.
The "Agreement on the Creation of the CIS" adopted at the same time stated that "the Union of the SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist." However, formally, the Union continued to exist, since other republics, which, according to the Constitution, were co-founders of a single state on a par with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, did not announce their withdrawal from it. Therefore, from the international legal point of view, the USSR disappeared from the political map of the world on December 21, 1991, when in Alma-Ata the heads of eight more republics (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) joined the Belovezhskaya Agreement. before the fait accompli. December 25 M.S. Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR. Three days later, the RSFSR was proclaimed the Russian Federation.
A.A. Levandovsky, Yu.A. Shchetinov, S.V. Mironenko. Russian history. XX - the beginning of the XXI century. Textbook for the 11th grade of educational institutions. Moscow, publishing house "Enlightenment", 2013
Belarus
On December 8, 1991, the 1922 treaty on the creation of the USSR was denounced (annulled) in Belovezhskaya Pushcha and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created. The CIS includes 12 countries. The capital of the CIS was the city of Minsk.
After the declaration of independence, the formation of government bodies began, the armed forces were created, the customs service, the banking system, etc. were organized.
On December 8, 1991, the leaders of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine, in the absence of Gorbachev, created the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 21 of the same year, representatives of 11 Soviet republics met and signed the documents establishing the CIS. Those present notified Gorbachev in writing that the USSR no longer existed, and the latter was forced to acknowledge this fact. On the evening of December 25, he announced his resignation from the top leadership post of the USSR, after which he transferred the right to dispose of nuclear weapons to Yeltsin.
After that, students are invited to think about two questions: “If it were not for the events of August 19, 1991, could the USSR continue to exist?” and “Even if the August events had not happened, would the collapse of the Soviet Union have been preordained?”
"The World History. XX century”, textbook for 9th grade of secondary school, team of authors, Renmin Jiaoyu Publishing House, Beijing, 2016
World History: Patterns of Interaction (World History: Patterns of Interaction). Textbook for high school. Team of Authors, MacDougal Littell Publishing, 2009
The coup attempt also played a decisive role in accelerating the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Estonia and Latvia quickly declared their independence. Other republics soon followed suit. Although Gorbachev advocated unity, no one listened to him. By early December, all 15 republics had declared independence.
Yeltsin met with the leaders of other republics in order to chart a new course. They agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, a loose federation of former Soviet territories. Only the Baltic republics and Georgia refused to join. The formation of the CIS meant the death of the Soviet Union. On Christmas (December 25, 1991 - Ed.) 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation as President of the Soviet Union, a country that had ceased to exist.
The collapse of the USSR formally began in 1990, when individual Soviet republics declared independence. Lithuania was the first to do this, followed by Estonia and Latvia. The government of the USSR in September 1991 recognized the independence of the Baltic republics. In December 1991, Ukraine declared independence. The Russian government, headed by Boris Yeltsin, also began to pursue an independent policy. At the end of December 1991, all Soviet republics became independent states.
The Commonwealth of Independent States emerged instead of the USSR.
Radosh Lusic, Lubodrag Dimic. Story. Textbook for the eighth grade of elementary school. Freska Publishing House, Belgrade, 2016
Kazakhstan
The collapse of the USSR
December 1991 was full of political events. Among them, the main thing is the collapse of the USSR. On December 8, in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, the leaders of the RSFSR, Belarus, and Ukraine gathered and signed a document on the annulment of the 1922 treaty on the creation of the USSR.
“We,” the document said, “Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, who signed the Union Treaty in 1922 and are the founders of the USSR, declare that the USSR, as a subject of international law and from the point of view of the geopolitical position, has ceased to exist.”
Since that time, the USSR legally ceased to exist and the Commonwealth of Independent States appeared.
On December 13, 1991, a meeting of the leaders of the republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan took place in Ashgabat. They announced their support for the decisions taken in Minsk.
Thus, one of the largest empires in the world, the Soviet Union, collapsed. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Estonia, which have been striving for freedom for centuries, have gained state independence. All these states have a thousand-year history, national economy and culture. Therefore, it would be unfair if these countries did not revive their national statehood.
"History of Kazakhstan (from the beginning of the 20th century to the present)", a textbook for the 9th grade of secondary schools, M.K. Kozybaev, K.N. Nurpeis, K.M. Zhukeshev, publishing house "Mektep", Almaty, 2013
Bulgaria
As a result of the putsch and the ban of the Communist Party, which was the main unifying force in the USSR, all the republics declared their independence. Yeltsin and the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus decided to dissolve the USSR and instead decided to create the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The president of a state that no longer existed, Gorbachev, resigned on December 25, 1991.
Evgenia Kalinova, Serge Berstein, Pier Milza. History and civilization. Textbook 10 class. Sofia, publishing house Prosveta & Riva & Prozorets, 2012
E.I. Pometun, N.N. Gupan. History of Ukraine. Level 11 standard. Publishing house "Osvita".
On August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR temporarily stopped the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine for supporting the rebellion and on the same day unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
The people of Ukraine demonstrated to the whole world their desire for freedom and their own statehood. Ukraine as a democratic state has embarked on the path of civilized development. The Day of Proclamation of the Act of Independence of Ukraine is celebrated as a public holiday - Independence Day.
In the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada "On the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine", it was decided on December 1, 1991 to hold a republican referendum to confirm the Act of Declaration of Independence. In accordance with this Act, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Decree “On military formations in Ukraine”, which subordinated all troops stationed on the territory of the republic to itself. The resolution provided for the creation of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of the Republic.
At the same time, an investigation began into the activities of the CPSU and KPU bodies on the territory of Ukraine during the coup.
The declaration of independence strengthened separatist tendencies in certain regions of Ukraine, in particular, a movement was launched for the annexation of the Crimean peninsula to Russia or even granting it the status of full independence. This movement was actively supported in the Crimea by the banned Communist Party of Ukraine. The separatist associations of Odessa, Nikolaev and Kherson came up with the idea of forming the so-called Novorossiya in the south of Ukraine. The need to revive the artificially formed in 1918 Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic was discussed in the Donbass.
Nevertheless, even under such circumstances, the Verkhovna Rada refused to sign the Union Treaty and scheduled an All-Ukrainian referendum for December 1, 1991.
To the question on the ballot for voting in the referendum: "Do you confirm the 'Declaration of Independence of Ukraine'?" 90.32% of voters answered: “Yes, I confirm.” In Crimea, 67.5% of citizens took part in the voting and 54.1% of them supported the idea of Ukraine's independence.
Simultaneously with the All-Ukrainian referendum, for the first time in the history of the Ukrainian people, the President of Ukraine was popularly elected on an alternative basis. Six candidates were nominated, who became spokesmen for the ideas of various political parties and movements. According to the results of the elections that took place on December 1, 1991, Leonid Kravchuk became the first president after the declaration of independence of Ukraine.
On December 5, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada adopted an appeal to the parliaments of the peoples of the world, which noted the invalidity of the 1922 treaty on the formation of the USSR regarding Ukraine.
On December 8, 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus), President of Russia B. Yeltsin, President of Ukraine L. Kravchuk and Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus S. Shushkevich signed an agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
On December 8, 1991, in Viskuli near Brest (Belarus), President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich signed the Agreement on the Disintegration of the USSR and the Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
This document went down in history as the "Belovezhskaya Agreement", its preamble stated that "The Union of the SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist", Article 1 read: "The High Contracting Parties form the Commonwealth of Independent States."
At the same time, these same "High Sides", in fact announcing the split of the country, declared that in their actions they are based on exceptional respect for the historical community of peoples. And they also honor the ties between them, take into account bilateral agreements and greatly respect the desire for a democratic rule of law. As a result, given the intention to develop their relations on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for state sovereignty, the “High Parties” of this Agreement announced the collapse of the USSR and agreed to form the CIS.
Also, this document confirmed the commitment of states to the principles of the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other international obligations. The Agreement stated that from the moment of its conclusion, the application of the norms of third states, including the former USSR, was not allowed in the territories of the signatory countries, and the activities of the allied authorities were terminated. The inviolability of the existing borders within the Commonwealth was also emphasized, guarantees of their openness and freedom of movement of citizens were declared.
The parties pledged to "develop equal and mutually beneficial cooperation of their peoples and states in the field of politics, economy, culture, education, healthcare, environmental protection, science, trade, in the humanitarian and other fields, to promote a wide information exchange." The agreement was declared open for accession to it by all the republics of the former USSR and other states that share the goals and principles of this document.
Here, for the sake of justice, it is worth saying that the signing of this document was only the culmination of a large process that has been taking place on the territory of the USSR since the mid-1980s. Changes in the economic and political life of the country led to a deepening of contradictions between the center and the union republics and to radical changes in the political situation in the country. As a result, in 1990 all the union republics adopted declarations of state sovereignty, and the events that took place in Moscow in August 1991 accelerated the process of the collapse of the USSR.
On December 10, the Agreement on the creation of the CIS was ratified by the Supreme Soviets of Belarus and Ukraine, and on December 12 - by the Supreme Soviet of Russia. And on December 13, Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) hosted a meeting of the presidents of five Central Asian states that were part of the USSR: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It resulted in a Statement in which the countries agreed to join the CIS organization, subject to ensuring equal participation of the subjects of the former Union and recognizing all CIS states as founders.
And for the joint solution of all these issues, a meeting of the heads of 11 former union republics was specially organized: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine (from the former union republics, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Georgia). Its result was the signing of the Alma-Ata Declaration on December 21, 1991, which set out the goals and principles of the CIS.
Of the republics of the former USSR, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia did not enter the CIS, and Georgia joined the Commonwealth only in December 1993. Subsequently, the "Belovezhskaya agreement" received a mixed assessment both within the countries participating in this agreement and in the world. And disputes over the assessment of its significance and subsequent events continue to this day.
