The end of the Soviet Union

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the independence of Ukraine. The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine (24 August, 1991) contained two remarkable formula: 1) “in view of the mortal danger surrounding Ukraine in connection with the state coup in the USSR; 2) “continuing the thousand-year tradition of state development in Ukraine”. Both of these formulas have not lost their relevance today.

Attention is drawn to the fact that Russia adopted a declaration on its state sovereignty in relation to the Soviet Union before Ukraine. The Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR was adopted by the First Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR on June 12, 1990. It proclaimed the sovereignty of the Russian SFSR in relation to the Soviet Union. The declaration also states the priority of the constitution and laws of the Russian SFSR over legislation of the Soviet Union.

Thus, Russia initiated the end of the Soviet Union and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ceased to exist on December 26, 1991, by declaration no. 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, acknowledging the independence of the 12 remaining republics of the Soviet Union, and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). 

On the previous day, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and last undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, had resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its attributes—including control of the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes—to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. 

That evening at 7:32 p.m., the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the Russian Flag.