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The Soviet Union is dissolved

1991 · Moscow (Moscow, Russia)

On 25 December 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns and the Soviet Union, the state founded by the October Revolution and the tradition's world center for seventy four years, is dissolved. Marxism continues as theory, as the doctrine of surviving party-states, and as an opposition tradition; the era in which it governed a third of mankind is closed.

Tagged: Marxism

The Event

Date
1991 (exact)
Era
Crisis and After; Standard periodization of Marxist history
Location
Moscow; today Moscow, Russia
Traditions
Marxism
Streams
Marxism
Key figures
Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin

Connections

Illustration for The Berlin Wall falls History Event The Berlin Wall falls 1989 the European collapse completed at the center Illustration for The October Revolution History Event The October Revolution 1917 closes the era the October Revolution opened

Primary Sources

  • The Belovezha Accords, 8 December 1991, and the resignation address of Mikhail Gorbachev, 25 December 1991.

Secondary Sources

  • Anderson, Perry. Considerations on Western Marxism. London: New Left Books, 1976.
  • Kolakowski, Leszek. Main Currents of Marxism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
  • McLellan, David. Karl Marx: A Biography. London: Palgrave Macmillan, fourth edition, 2006.

Provenance: HIST-1468; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.

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