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Witness History: The Break-Up of the Soviet Union

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The Break-Up of the Soviet Union

26/12/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Break-Up of the Soviet Union

Hear from two of the key players who brought to an end over 70 years of communism

The Presidents of the Soviet Republics of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia met and signed a treaty which ended 70 years of Soviet communism.  Hear from two of those leaders

In December 1991 the leaders of three Soviet Republics - Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia - signed a treaty dissolving the USSR.  They did it without asking the other republics, and against the wishes of the USSR's overall President Mikhail Gorbachev.  By the end of the year Gorbachev had resigned and the Soviet Union was no more.  Dina Newman has spoken to the former President of Belorussia, Stanislav Shushkevich, and the former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, who signed that historic document alongside Boris Yeltsin.

Photo: the leader of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, the leader of Belorussia, Stanislav Shushkevich and the leader of Russia, Boris Yeltsin at the signing ceremony. Credit: AP

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