Decommunization in Russia - August Coup

August Coup

In the aftermath of the abortive August Coup of 1991, on August 23, the people applauded the president of the Russian SFSR, Boris Yeltsin, for suspending the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR for the time of investigation, despite the objections of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who insisted that the party as a whole was not to blame for the events. The Communist Party obkoms in the Russian SFSR were closed, but the building of the Central Committee of the CPSU was sealed.

On August 24, Gorbachev dissolved the Central Committee of the CPSU and resigned from the position of its Secretary General (but remained President of the Soviet Union). On August 25, Yeltsin issued another decree nationalizing the property of the party (including archives and bank accounts) in favor of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR.

Within a few weeks after the coup, the Soviet Union peacefully broke up. On November 6, 1991, Yeltsin banned the CPSU, which had exercised pervasive control over the Soviet society for years The breakup of the Soviet Union was acknowledged in the Belavezha Accords of December 8, ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR on 12 December. On 26 December 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was declared. Its largest constituent republic, the Russian SFSR, was renamed the Russian Federation. It was formally established on 1 January 1992 and became the successor state to the Soviet Union.