page_title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
section_title: Rivalry between USSR and RSFSR
hierarchical_section_title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union / Timeline / 1990 / Rivalry between USSR and RSFSR
caption_attribution_description: English: Vytautas Landsbergis
context_page_description: The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal disintegration within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which began in the late 1980s with growing unrest in the various constituent republics, and ended on December 26, 1991, when the Supreme Soviet voted the USSR itself out of existence.
  The failure of the 1991 August Coup, when Soviet government and military elites tried to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev and stop the so-called "parade of sovereignties", led to the central government in Moscow losing most of its influence, and the individual Soviet republics proclaiming independence in the following days and months. The secession of the Baltic states was recognized by the Soviet government in September 1991. The Belovezha Accords were signed by the republics of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus on December 8, recognising each other's independence and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. The remaining republics, with the exception of Georgia, joined the CIS on December 21, signing the Alma-Ata Protocol.
context_section_description: On March 4, 1990, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic held relatively free elections for the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia. Boris Yeltsin was elected, representing Sverdlovsk, garnering 72 percent of the vote. On May 29, 1990, Yeltsin was elected chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, despite the fact that Gorbachev asked Russian deputies not to vote for him.
  Yeltsin was supported by democratic and conservative members of the Supreme Soviet, who sought power in the developing political situation. A new power struggle emerged between the RSFSR and the Soviet Union. On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a declaration of sovereignty. On July 12, 1990, Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party in a dramatic speech at the 28th Congress.
caption: Lithuania's Vytautas Landsbergis
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