Co-sponsored by Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Center for European Studies, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and Russia Matters.

Please join us for a panel discussion followed by the opening of the exhibition “The Demise of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991: A 25-Year Retrospective.”

The peaceful dissolution of the USSR in late December 1991 came after four turbulent months following the August 1991 coup attempt in Moscow. First, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Georgia officially left the USSR. Efforts by the remaining 11 republics to work out a new Soviet state treaty made little headway and came to a halt at the beginning of December when Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approved a declaration of Ukraine's independence. On Dec. 7-8, 1991, the leaders of the three majority-Slavic republics gathered to sign what became known as the Belavezha Accords. One of those leaders, Boris Yeltsin, is now dead, but the two others and Yeltsin's chief aide at the meeting will participate in this panel. Two weeks after the accords were concluded, the 11 republics still in the USSR signed the Almaty Protocol, providing for the dissolution of the USSR. On Dec. 25, President Mikhail Gorbachev formally resigned. The next day, the Soviet parliament formally approved the end of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet red flag came down from atop the Kremlin.

Speakers: 

Gennady Burbulis, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (1991-1992)

Andrei Kozyrev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (1990-1996)

Leonid Kravchuk, President of Ukraine (1991-1994)

Stanislau Shushkevich, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus (1991-1994)

Chair: Mark Kramer, Program Director, Cold War Studies Project, Davis Center

4:45-6:30 pm Panel discussion, CGIS South Building, Tsai Auditorium (S010), Concourse Level

6:30-7:30 pm Exhibit opening reception, CGIS South Building, Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse Gallery

Maps available here.

Additional events observing the 25-year anniversary of the Soviet Union's dissolution include a symposium and a film screening.

RSVP to [email protected].