A. The Collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR)
1. The collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe inspired ethnic groups within the Soviet Union.
2. Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost loosened controls, enabling ethnic protests to spread across the Soviet Union.
3. In a last desperate effort to preserve the Soviet Union, Communist hard-liners attempted to overthrow Gorbachev with a military coup.
4. The hard-liners assumed that a show of force would ensure obedience. They were wrong. Under Gorbachev’s reforms, people had lost their fear of the party and were willing to defend their freedom.
5. Led by Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, the Russian people thwarted the coup.
6. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation as president of a country that by then had ceased to exist. One former colleague observed sadly, “He tried to reform the unreformable.”