1991 was a fateful year for the USSR, because at that time a great power ceased to exist. In its place were 15 independent states that began a different life.
The formation of a new political system
On December 8, 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus — the three largest states of the former Soviet Union — gathered in the Belarusian Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Their goal was to conclude a contract. Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich signed an Agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
This document had a Preamble and 14 articles. It said that the USSR ceased to exist. However, based on the historical community of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples, according to previously concluded bilateral treaties, etc., the formation of the CIS was necessary and appropriate.
USSR President Gorbachev reacted negatively to the emergence of the Commonwealth, which did not prevent the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation from ratifying it on December 12, 1991. In Belarus and Ukraine, the Agreement on the Creation of the CIS has also been ratified.
The Bialowieza Agreements (named after the place of signing) indicated that the countries of the former Soviet Socialist Republic and others could join the CIS. On December 13, 1991, at the initiative of Nazarbayev, a meeting was held in Ashgabat between the heads of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Armenia, who declared their desire to join the CIS. However, representatives of these countries demanded that their participation in the Commonwealth be equitable along with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Later, Azerbaijan and Moldova joined the CIS. In 1993, Georgia joined the CIS, which left it after the events of 2008.
