A Brief History
On August 19, 1991, leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev was placed under arrest while on vacation in Foros, Ukraine. This first step in the action called “The August Coup” was the first step that resulted in the dissolution of the largest country in the world.
Digging Deeper
The USSR was formed in 1922 from the Russian Empire that disintegrated during World War I and included much of the old empire plus new territory to create a giant communist country consisting of a federation of 15 national republics.
The Western democracies had an uneasy relationship with the USSR up to World War II when circumstances saw the capitalist nations ally with the communist USSR against the Axis alliance. After World War II, a Cold War developed competition between both blocs until the USSR became crushed under the weight of military expenses in an effort to keep up with the West.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gorbachev, Mikhail S. The August Coup: The Truth and the Lessons. Harpercollins, 1991.
King, Joe. Russian Journal During the August Coup of ’91. Mercer University Press, 1992.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Guilherme F. Lima, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
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