Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991 following a series of events: the Belovezha Accords (December 8) where Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus declared the USSR dissolved; the Alma-Ata Protocol (December 21) where 11 republics formed the Commonwealth of Independent States; Mikhail Gorbachev's resignation as Soviet President (December 25); and the formal dissolution by the Soviet of the Republics (December 26).