Declaration Of Independence

Twenty five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union the debate over this phenomenon is far from over and sometimes contested. In examining its nature there is a permanent search for an interpretative framework, and the contradictions that caused his disruption. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the way of member states was very diverse, but on some points similar. Five republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia and Georgia) held their own referendums in which the people voted overwhelmingly for independence. By this time sovereignty had effectively become a synonym for independence.

The Baltic states were the first to test the limits of the Kremlin's patience and power and to lead the challenge against continued Soviet hegemony.

The role of the civil society and popular mobilisation was a key factor in achiving the national independence. A relevant exemple is Estonia, where in August 1987 was founded the Estonian Group on Publication of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Estonians started demanding economic reforms and the right to make their own decisions. (adopt a market economy, and establish Estonia’s own currency, tax system etc.) And this idea was enthusiastically discussed in autumn 1987, many people nevertheless hoped that Estonia would gradually manage to separate itself from the Soviet Union, or at least achieve greater autonomy. But the proposal failed to get a positive reply from Moscow, although the Soviet Union now allowed private enterprise. Estonian society became politically active in 1988. A joint plenum of the creative unions (writers, artists, architects, and theatre and film people), accused the activity of the Soviet Estonian leadership. In mid-April, the Estonian Popular Front in Support of Perestroika was founded. This moderate movement became a powerful mass organization that wanted to make the Soviet Union more democratic, and demanded political and economic autonomy for Estonia within the Soviet Union. The early summer of the same year witnessed a series of concerts and joint singing, soon to turn into a large-scale popular movement, and later called the Singing Revolution.

What they lead to was a change in the spirit of the people and the freedoms, the opposition movements became so strong, that the government could no longer hold itself together. The first signs of radical changes in society emerged in Estonia in spring 1987. Soon in the Baltic republics, the people held demonstrations: non-violent marches, and song festivals that presented only native songs. The parliaments of the three republics voted for varying degrees of independence from or within the Soviet Union. In fact, glasnost and perestroika generated a range of social movements and proto-parties, described at the time as the rebirth of civil society. The restoration of Baltic States independence was de facto boosted by the attempted coup d’état (the ‘August putsch’) in Moscow in August 1991. Responding to the failure of the August putsch, all Union republics achieved independence. The Soviet Union essentially ceased to exist, and at the end of the year, this became