Timeline of the Soviet Union (New Union)

This timeline describes how the August Coup was discovered prior to it being executed. Mikhail Gorbachev remains in power and the Soviet Union is reformed into a "New Union."

1985

 * March 11: After the sudden death of General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko, is declared the General Secretary of the Soviet Union..

1986

 * April 26: In the Ukraine, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's fourth reactor has a meltdown.

1987

 * June: Gorbachev establishes Glasnost and Perestroika in order to reform the Soviet Union.

1990

 * March 15: Mikhail Gorbachev officially forms the office of "President of the Soviet Union." Gorbachev becomes the first President of the USSR.


 * July: At the 28th Congress, President Gorbachev proposes a solution to the Soviet Union's increasing ethnic problems, which will be morphed into the New Union Treaty.


 * November 23: The first draft of the New Union Treaty is submitted to the Supreme Soviet.

1991

 * January 1: A drafting committee is formed. Nine of the Fifteen republics attended the drafting.


 * March 6: The proposal was approved by the Soviet of the Union and sent to the Supreme Soviets of the republics for approval. Agreement could not be reached on the distribution of power between the Union and the Republics and the proposal was not approved. As an additional restrictive element, some autonomous republics expressed the desire to raise their status and to be a party to the new Soviet treaty.


 * March 17: a popular referendum was held in the nine republics which participated in the drafting of the treaty. In the referendum 76% of voters supported maintaining the federal system of the Soviet Union, including a majority in all of the nine republics. Opposition was greatest in large cities like Leningrad and Moscow. The referendum was mostly boycotted in the other six republics already moving towards independence. The majority of residents of the Ukraine supported joining the Union on the terms of Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.


 * April 23: An agreement between the Soviet central government and the nine republics, the so-called "9+1" agreement was finally signed in Novo-Ogaryovo. The New Union Treaty will convert the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics into a federation of independent republics with a common president, foreign policy, and military.

New Union (POV)



 * August 9: It is announced on national news that Vice President and several others has been arrested for suspicion of treason. The men are held in the KGB building in Moscow for questioning. The citizens of the USSR will not know of the attempted coup until years later.


 * August 20: The Russian SFSR signs the New Union Treaty. Within days, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belorussian SSR sign. Within a month, all the nine republics that drafted the treaty had signed it.


 * October 25: The Soviet Union officially announces the recognition of the six remaining republics as sovereign. The six remaining republics  sign the treaty. In a press release, President Gorbachev states:

"I do not support that Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova moving away from the others. But as I have said in the past to the rest of Eastern Europe, 'its your decision, not mine'. I hope that all the republics (no matter what government they are under) will continue to work together for the common goals of equality and unity."


 * November 7: On the 74th anniversary of the October Revolution, Gorbachev announces that the new Constitution has been drafted and awaiting approval from all the 9 republics.


 * December 26: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist, and seven new countries take its place (,, , , , , and the ).

1992



 * March 1: is accepted into the UN. The  (PMR) declares sovereignty once again and requests admission into the.


 * March 2: Moldovan forces march into Pridnestrovie in hops of regaining control. President Gorbachev orders a retaliate move on Pridnestrovie in response. The begins.


 * July 21: A ceasefire is declared in the War of Pridnestrovie. Soviet troops remain in the little republic. President Gorbachev declares intentions to administer the republic as a republic of the USSR (which is what Pridnestrovie has wanted from the start).


 * August 7: and  (another [former] autonomous republic of the USSR) are administrated into the USSR as republics.