25 дек 1991 г. - Russia and Yeltsin

Описание:

Yeltsin submitted himself to elections for the Russian presidency, winning 59 percent of the vote in June 1991, compared to just 18 percent for his closest competitor. Yeltsin’s stature rose even further in August 1991 when he climbed atop a tank to denounce a coup attempt against his rival Gorbachev. The coup, led by conservative Soviet officials, failed after three days. Yeltsin set about dismantling the Communist Party, and all 15 of the Soviet Union’s republics moved to secure their independence. Gorbachev, who with his “perestroika” and “glasnost” program had hoped to change but not destroy the Soviet Union, resigned on December 25, 1991. Six days later the Soviet Union officially dissolved and was replaced by a politically weak Commonwealth of Independent States that Yeltsin had established along with his counterparts in Ukraine and Belarus.