Yeltsin –creator or destroyer? A monument to Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin that was unveiled in his hometown of Yekaterinburg this year is a symbol of Yeltsin’s strong will and determination. He had to make a lot of historic decisions indeed. → Your opinion The Collapse of the USSR is The biggest geopolitical catastrophe of our times The result of the logical political and public processes A prelude to the creation of the multi-polar world A tragic accident And many other things Results

Maps of the USSR, Russia and countries that emerged on the post-Soviet space

Analysis

Did Gorbachev’s perestroika have an alternative? By the end of 1980s the Russian word “perestroika” had become known all over the world. It was pronounced with English and French accents, written in hieroglyphs and Arabic script. It was associated with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev, the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold war. → 20 years since 1991 Soviet coup On August 19, 1991, a group – a bunch, rather – of Soviet top leaders took an attempt to topple the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who was known for his democratic reforms, and to seize power. This group called themselves “The State Committee for the Emergency Situation”, or, in the abbreviated form of its Russian name, “GKChP. → USSR: Evil Empire or Ultimate Utopia? December 19th marks 20 years since the demise of a vast empire known as the USSR. All Soviet republics that were part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became independent countries with their own presidents, governments and plans for the future. →