One of the most significant historical events of the 20th century is the collapse of the communist empire, which was the Soviet Union. Back in the mid-eighties, nothing seemed to foreshadow this collapse: most people saw the USSR as strong and monolithic. But some five or six years passed, and the “country of victorious socialism” ceased to exist. In its place a strange formation arose - the Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS. What this is, in general, was not clear then, and remains not entirely clear to this day. It is clear that this is not a federation, not a confederation... Not even a structure like the European Union... The prevailing opinion: the abbreviation CIS was needed mainly for this purpose , in order to AT LEAST SOMETHING replace another abbreviation - USSR. Because otherwise we would have to admit that the USSR is turning into NOTHING, that only pieces remain of it - separate states that are in no way connected with each other. For a number of reasons, this interpretation of what happened was less acceptable than the idea according to which the USSR not only disappears, but turns into the CIS.

Two years were decisive in the process of the collapse of the USSR - 1990 and 1991. This final stage of the disappearance of the “great and powerful” communist power is discussed in this book.