Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets Read Free

dispatched by the GKChP ultimately refuse to storm the barricades and side with the protesters. After three days, the putsch collapses. Gorbachev returns from Foros, and members of the GKChP are arrested. On August 24, Gorbachev dissolves the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and resigns as its general secretary.
    NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 1991: In the Ukrainian popular referendum on December 1, 1991, 90 percent of voters opt for independence from the Soviet Union.
    On December 8, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus secretly meet in western Belarus and sign the Belavezha Accords, declaring the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. On the night of December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag is lowered for the last time and the Russian tricolor is raised in its place, symbolically marking the end of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigns. In a period of great tumult, Yeltsin takes on both the prime ministerial and presidential roles.
    The newly independent states of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan are created and immediately succumb to violent ethnic conflicts. Armenia and Azerbaijan fight over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave; Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Adjara fight to secede from Georgia. Dzhokhar Dudayev takes power in Chechnya and proclaims independence.
    JANUARY 1992: The liberalization of prices leads to massive, destabilizing inflation, from 200 percent initially to a high of 2600 percent.
    AUTUMN 1993: In response to President Yeltsin’s attempt to dissolve the parliament, the parliament impeaches Yeltsin and proclaims vice president Alexander Rustkoy president. In events reminiscent of the 1991 putsch, demonstrators congregate at the White House and attempt to storm the Ostankino television tower. On Yeltsin’s orders, the army storms the White House and arrests members of the parliament who oppose Yeltsin.
    The ten-day standoff between protesters supporting the parliament and army-backed Yeltsin supporters leads to the deadliest street fighting in Moscow since 1917. Estimates place the death toll as high as two thousand casualties.
    1994–1995: First Chechen War.
    1998: Economic difficulties, which dramatically lowered the quality of life of the population throughout the 1990s, lead to a financial crisis and a brutal devaluation of the ruble.
    1999–2000: Second Chechen War. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin resigns and Vladimir Putin becomes president of the Russian Federation. In 2000, Putin wins his first presidential election against Communist opponent Gennady Zyuganov, firmly establishing his power.
    OCTOBER 2003: Oil magnate and prominent liberal Mikhail Khodorkovsky is arrested on charges of tax evasion and fraud, an early casualty of Putin’s campaign to drive Yeltsin-era oligarchs out of politics. The imprisonment of Khodorovsky and seizure of his assets marks the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to transfer control of all major Russian industries to his political party, United Russia. This economic takeover, necessitating a great deal of corrupt maneuvering, also leads to the necessity of silencing criticism and dissent in the press. By 2010, most formerly privately owned media enterprises are under government control, including nearly all major television networks. Independent media outlets are almost exclusively relegated to the Internet.
    2008: War breaks out between Georgia and South Ossetia. Dmitri Medvedev of United Russia is elected president of the Russian Federation and names Putin prime minister.
    DECEMBER 2010: Alexander Lukashenko is reelected for a fourth term as president of Belarus. This leads to protests, which are brutally repressed.
    DECEMBER 2011: Prime Minister Putin declares that he will once again run for president in 2012, with Dmitri Medvedev as prime minister; effectively Putin and Medvedev will switch places. This sparks the first major antigovernment protests since the early 1990s.