25 Dec 1991 — Gorbachev resigns from a country that no longer exists. At 7:32 p.m., the red banner is lowered over the Kremlin. A flag, rather than a treaty, marks the end of the Cold War.
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The Soviet Union consented to German reunification in October 1990. Gorbachev, attracted by a “common European home” and increasingly dependent on Western credits, accepted a united Germany in NATO—an outcome his predecessors had armed to prevent. At home, however, the settlement he needed was slipping away. Reformers around Boris Yeltsin, elected president of Russia, wanted faster sovereignty; hardliners wanted central authority restored.
Why it happened — The August coup: the ratchet that broke. The August plotters occupied the state’s highest offices: the KGB chief, defense minister and prime minister were among them. They could send out…
The turn — Belovezha, 8 December 1991. On 8 December 1991 the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus met in a forest lodge at Belovezha. Their agreement announced that the USSR “as a…
What it changed — Who ended it? The four-way argument. Why did it end? American military competition and the Strategic Defense Initiative increased the strain and encouraged reformers. Stagnation,…
Then ask the room: “The Cold War ended without a war.” Defend and challenge this statement using three markers and two snapshots from the atlas. The argued answer is on the chapter page →
