Was the collapse of the Soviet empire inevitable or was it the result of betrayal and evil will of the three presidents of the Slavic republics who wanted to get more power - there is no unequivocal assessment of this process yet. Consensus has only been reached on who would benefit from the creation of fifteen independent states.
The elites in power in the newly independent states divided the former public property. The population was brought to the brink of survival. The agreement on the establishment of the Commonwe alth of Independent States was signed in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on December 8, 1991. This document finally buried a large country and created an amorphous Union of Independent States on its ruins. The CIS was to become the basis for a new federal state. But, having tasted the "air of freedom" and "managed", the signatories quickly forgot about it.
Backstory
SignedThe agreement on the establishment of the Commonwe alth of Independent States was preceded by the events that began with the election of MS Gorbachev to the post of General Secretary. From the mid-1980s, reforms began to be carried out in the country, which caused deep damage to the country's economy. The announced anti-alcohol campaign, acceleration programs, publicity were either ill-conceived, or serious mistakes were made in their implementation. The leadership of the country, more preoccupied with international affairs, where there were some successes, practically neglected domestic politics. All changes in political and economic life have led to growing contradictions between the national republics and Moscow.
In 1988, the Armenian-Azerbaijani armed conflict began in Nagorno-Karabakh. Separatist movements were growing in the B altic republics. In June 1991, the election of Boris N. Yeltsin as President of Russia finally launched the process of destruction. The country received a president who offered everyone to take power as much as they can. The position of Russia, represented by its leadership, which decided to gain independence from the rest of the republics, played a decisive role in the collapse of the country.
Final blow
In March 1991, a referendum was held in the Soviet Union, as a result of which 76.4% of those who voted were in favor of preserving the country. The President of the USSR made an attempt to save the country. As part of the Novo-Ogarevsky process, a draft document was developed that was supposed to restart the Soviet project. The preparation of the new document, which was supposed to define the contours of the renewed union, was attended byrepresentatives and leadership of all Soviet republics. During the discussion in November 1991 at the State Council, which included the president and leaders of the republics, the future of the country was discussed. When voting, seven republics voted for the creation of a new union state. Several options for the political structure of the future union of sovereign states were discussed. As a result, we settled on a confederate device.
In accordance with the prepared document, the republics gained independence and sovereignty, and the functions of coordinating economic activity, foreign policy and defense issues were delegated to the center. At the same time, the post of president of the new union was preserved. Both Yeltsin and Shushkevich declared that they believed in the creation of a new union. However, the August putsch frustrated the plans for signing and launched a spontaneous process of sovereignization. Within three months, eleven republics declared their independence. The Soviet Union in September 1991 recognized the independence of the three B altic republics that had seceded from it. The activities of almost all central authorities were virtually paralyzed. Another version of the document prepared on the creation of a new union state was also not signed. In December, in a referendum, the vast majority of Ukraine's population voted for independence. President of Ukraine Kravchuk announced the annulment of the agreement on the formation of the USSR of 1922. Russia recognized Ukraine's independence the very next day.
Without informing President Gorbachev, the leadershipthree Slavic republics gathered in Belarus, in the government residence of Viskuli, located in the famous Belovezhskaya Pushcha nature reserve. Thus, a logical chain was forever fixed in history: the collapse of the USSR - the Belovezhskaya agreements - the creation of the CIS.
Members
Stanislav Shushkevich, the newly elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus, invited the presidents of Russia (Yeltsin) and Ukraine (Kravchuk) to Belovezhskaya Pushcha to discuss the current situation in the still common country. Therefore, the Agreement on the establishment of the CIS, signed later in the government residence of Viskuli, was called the Belovezhskaya Agreement.
The heads of the republics arrived together with the heads of governments. The Belarusian government was represented by V. Kebich, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, V. Fokin, Ukrainian Prime Minister. From Russia, in addition to Yeltsin, Shokhin and Burbulis participated. In addition, the meeting was attended by A. Kozyrev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR, and State Councilor S. Shakhrai, who already had outlines of the Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwe alth of Independent States. Later, the same Shakhrai wrote that they had no intention of destroying the Soviet Union, they only ensured that the process went peacefully.
How the process went
As Shushkevich later wrote, he invited them to his place when they were walking in the park in Novo-Ogaryovo in between meetings to negotiate in a quiet place, as Moscow was pressing. The leadership of the three countries gathered at the government residence of Viskuli, where the Agreement on the Establishment of the CIS was signed, on 7December 1991. According to the Belarusian leader, they intended to discuss oil and gas supplies from Russia. President Kravchuk wrote in his memoirs that they wanted to get together and talk about the fact that it was not possible to develop a mutually acceptable position and that other approaches and some other solution should be sought. The head of the Belarusian government (V. Kebich) wrote that the signing of the Belovezhskaya agreement on the creation of the CIS was initiated by the Russian delegation. The Ukrainian and Belarusian sides did not know that such a document would be signed. When the meeting began at the Viskuli residence, Yeltsin handed Gorbachev's proposal to Kravchuk. Ukraine could make any changes to the Novoogarevsky document on the creation of a new state before signing it. Russia said it would sign the treaty only after Ukraine. The President of Ukraine refused, and they began to discuss possible cooperation projects. As V. Kebich wrote later, the arriving Russian officials already had prepared materials for signing the Agreement on the creation of the CIS. The leaders of the three republics that stood at the origins of the creation of the CIS began to discuss the future structure of the post-Soviet space, where the power structures of the Soviet Union would be excluded from the future model of relations between the newly independent states. Representatives of the parties prepared the final documents overnight.
Signing
The Belovezhskaya agreements on the creation of the CIS were signed by the leaders of three countries - B. Yeltsin from Russia, S. Shushkevich from Belarus, L. Kravchuk from Ukraine. As he later wroteUkrainian president, he signed the documents quickly without approval or discussion. In addition to the Belovezhskaya Agreement, the parties issued a statement in which they stated that the development of a new union treaty had failed and announced the termination of the existence of the Soviet Union and the organization of a new integration association - the CIS.
Countries have pledged to comply with international treaties, including control over the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Naturally, they put the blame for the political and economic crisis on the center and pledged to carry out reforms. The parties that signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the CIS announced that the Commonwe alth is open for accession by any state.
Immediately after the signing, B. Yeltsin called US President George W. Bush and enlisted his support for international recognition of the liquidation of the USSR. M. Gorbachev and N. Nazarbayev found out about this later. The agreement on the creation of the Commonwe alth of Independent States, signed on December 8, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev called unconstitutional and said that the three republics cannot decide for all the others. However, the process of running away to "national apartments" was launched, the leaders of the three now independent states did not want to obey anyone.
Belovezhskaya agreement
In the preamble to the Agreement on the establishment of the CIS, signed by the leaders of the RSFSR, Belarus and Ukraine, these three already independent states were announced as countries that signed the founding treaty on the end of the existence of the Soviet Union. It was further written that, given the historical relationships,between the peoples and for the development of further relations, the parties decided to establish the Commonwe alth of Independent States. But these relations will already be built as cooperation between sovereign independent states based on international law and respect for each other's sovereignty.
Each side guaranteed the observance of fundamental rights and freedoms of the population, including civil, political, economic and all other rights, to all citizens, regardless of nationality and other differences. The agreement establishing the Commonwe alth of Independent States also recognized territorial integrity and existing borders. The countries pledged to develop cooperation in all areas of activity, including in the economy and domestic politics. At the same time, they promised to maintain overall control over strategic forces, including nuclear weapons, and to ensure a unified policy on military pensions. According to the agreement on the creation of the CIS, the regulatory bodies of the new union were supposed to be located in Minsk.
Who is still to blame
When the conspirators were about to go to Belovezhskaya Pushcha, they invited the leader of Kazakhstan, N. Nazarbayev, to come. Yeltsin, as his friend, called him on the plane and invited him to a meeting, saying that they were going to solve important issues. The President of Kazakhstan at that time flew to Moscow. Shushkevich later wrote that everyone heard, as the loudspeaker was turned on, that he promised to refuel and fly back. However, after meeting with the President of the USSR, Nazarbayev changed his mind. The presidentKazakhstan then repeatedly stated that it would never have signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwe alth of Independent States.
Information that the leaders of the three republics had gathered in the government residence of Viskuli, the Belarusian KGB promptly informed the leadership of the country, including the President of the USSR Gorbachev. In the vicinity of the hunting grounds, KGB special forces were sent, surrounding the forest, the employees were waiting for an order to arrest the conspirators. The reliability of this information was confirmed by the President of Belarus Lukashenko. However, the order was not received, the central authorities were completely paralyzed, including the law enforcement agencies, the prosecutor's office and the security service of the USSR. As they later wrote: it would still be possible to restore unity in the country, destroyed by the confrontation between Yeltsin and Gorbachev. All that was needed was the political will of the first leader. According to Mikhail Sergeyevich's relatives and himself, he did not order the arrest of the leaders of the three republics, because it "smelled of civil war" and bloodshed. It all ended only with statements by Gorbachev, the constitutional committee, and individual groups of deputies that the country could not be dissolved by the decision of the three republics and that the decision was invalid.
Further events
For the entry into force of the Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwe alth of Independent States, it was necessary to ratify it by the parliaments of the countries. The parliaments of Ukraine and Belarus, one day after the signing of the Agreement, namely on December 10, 1991, ratified the agreement, at the same timedenouncing the treaty on the formation of the USSR of 1922.
In Russia it turned out more difficult, on December 12, the Supreme Council voted for the same package of documents (the Agreement, the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR) and also adopted a resolution on the country's secession from the USSR. At the same time, the absolute majority of deputies, including the communists, who also wanted independence, voted in favor. Both the ruling bloc, whose parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov campaigned for the adoption of laws, and the largest opposition faction, the Communists of Russia, led by Gennady Zyuganov, voted for the exit. True, Zyuganov himself has always denied that he was in favor of secession from the Soviet Union. A number of members of the Supreme Council, and Khasbulatov later admitted this, wrote that for ratification it was necessary to convene the Congress, the highest legislative body, since the decisions affected the foundations of the constitutional order.
A brief history of the creation of the CIS
After the ratification of the agreement by the parliaments of the three countries, negotiations began on the entry into the Commonwe alth of other former Soviet republics. The leaders of many of the newly independent countries have declared their readiness to join the Agreement, provided that they too are declared founders. At the end of December 1991, in the capital of Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata, the Protocol to the agreement on the creation of the CIS was signed, which was signed by the leaders of the former Soviet republics, with the exception of the three B altic republics and Georgia. The document states that all signatory countries on an equal footing create the Commonwe alth of Independent States. Although the dissolution of the USSR wasdeclared in the Belovezhsky agreement, however, even after the withdrawal of the three republics, the rest formally remained part of the Soviet state. After the signing of the Protocol to the agreement on the creation of the CIS, from the standpoint of international law, the USSR finally ceased to exist. In this regard, on December 25, President MS Gorbachev resigned. The CIS countries, together with the protocol, signed the Alma-Ata Declaration, in which they confirmed the basic principles for creating a new CIS. In December 1993, Georgia joined the CIS, which, after the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, withdrew from it. In 2005, Turkmenistan downgraded its status as a member of the union to associate.
Consequences
The initiators of the creation were repeatedly accused of destroying the Soviet state, but they always denied it. Recognizing that they actually carried out a coup d'état, the leaders of the three republics declared that they had saved the post-Soviet space from bloody division and civil war. It can be recognized that the Belovezhskaya agreement on the creation of the CIS created a new platform for cooperation, the highest body of the Council of CIS Heads of State, which is chaired in turn by the leaders of the countries.
Sectoral councils and committees work within the Union, including those on foreign and domestic affairs, economics and monetary policy. The working body of the CIS is the Executive Secretariat, which provides information support to the work of the organization. The CIS has not become a full-fledged integration association, the main thing is that the Union has become a platform forcoordination of the work of the former parts of one state. The countries were a single economic mechanism, the division of which required joint work. The Collective Security Treaty Organization and the new integration association Eurasian Economic Space left the CIS.
