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On December 25, 1991, the world witnessed the end of 74 years of Soviet rule with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The resignation of President Mikhail Gorbachev marked the beginning of a traumatic political transition and the red flag of the communist superpower was replaced by the tricolor of the Russian Federation.
A key empire in 20th century world history came to an end three decades ago, when the president of the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Mikhail Gorbachev, announced his resignation in a television speech.
Gorbachev led the communist republic during its last six years, but it was a total of 74 years (from 1917 to 1991) that the Soviets ruled in eastern Europe in a total of 15 republics that, after decades of advances, but also a tough repression and various tragedies, they decided to become independent, marking the dissolution of the USSR, the Cold War and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
During those years, the USSR rivaled the United States, in an ideological confrontation that divided the planet between the liberal capitalist model of the Americans and the communist model of the Soviets.
Gorbachev has been repeatedly accused of failing to prevent the collapse of the USSR and that he could have acted more determinedly to modernize the state-controlled economy, rather than maintaining so many strict controls on the political system.
It was those deep problems in the economy and the secessionist proposals of the Soviet republics that made Soviet collapse almost inevitable.
30 years later, the USSR is still present in the memory of several countries that remember their Soviet past through symbols, monuments and customs that they preserve from that time.
Putin’s “historic Russia”
Days before the calendar marked December 25, 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the disappearance of what he called “historic Russia” and called it the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the century. XX.
“It was a disintegration of historic Russia under the name of the Soviet Union,” Putin said of the 1991 breakup, in comments broadcast last Sunday as part of a documentary called ‘Russia. New history’.
Among the critics of the Russian president there are speculations about his intentions to open foreign policy, and they also accuse him of planning to recreate the Soviet Union and of contemplating an attack on Ukraine, which was one of the 15 Soviet republics.
Repeatedly, Western powers have accused Russia of concentrating thousands of troops near Ukraine, where they say they are preparing for a possible attack in January. However, the Kremlin has said that Russia has no plans to launch a new attack against that country and that its critics appear to have been convinced of Moscow’s aggressive intentions based on what the president calls “false stories” in the western media.
With Reuters, EFE and local media
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