The New Union Treaty: The Desperate Attempt to Save the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was coming undone. Nationalist political organizations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia controlled the parliaments and demanded independence from the USSR in April of 1991. Despite a referendum to preserving the Soviet territories, the three Baltic states refused to participate in the referendum and soon Georgia would join them in declaring independence. Moldavia and Armenia began testing the waters for independence, refusing to take part in the Soviet Union’s referendum and suddenly six states threatened to leave the Soviet Union. A major coal miners strike, which started in March, entered its second month and had begun inspiring workers in other industries to participate in organized strikes. After failing to act in revolutions in 1989, the Warsaw Pact was formally becoming undone and the military alliance designed to counter NATO was no more. With all of these events happening in April of 1991, the Soviet Union was its breaking point and was in a desperate struggle to preserve as much of its empire as it could.
Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev
When the Soviet Union dealt with insurrection in the past, it had responded with an overwhelming show of force to reset the region’s government and people to the USSR’s desired state of being. However, Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev decided to instead to rewrite the Union Treaty. Despite meeting with the leaders of each of the republics that did not participate in the referendum, none of those countries joined the the talks to form the New Union Treaty. This left nine Soviet Republics and Gorbachev to establish the new treaty, with the meetings being labeled the “Novo-Ogarevo process” after a nearby village where these leaders met.
In August, the New Union Treaty was finally finished. It gave far more power to the individual Soviet republics than what they had before. It stated that each of the republics were entitled to mineral rights in their territories. Most importantly, the new treaty gave individual republics the ability to have their laws trump Soviet law, making the state a confederation. This treaty, if it were enacted, may have radically changed the foundation of the Soviet Union to the point which it would appear as a shadow of its former self, yet still containing all the pieces which made it such an intimidating and powerful empire.
Russian Federation leader Boris Yeltsin
However, the New Union Treaty that Gorbachev labored so hard on was never enacted. Conservative forces within the Soviet Union which desired these individual territories to submit to Soviet rule and restore the old order. Their coup failed, swinging the momentum back in the direction of Russian Federation leader Boris Yeltsin and the other republics which desired greater independence. After the coup, the push to sign the New Union Treaty by the Soviet republics was abandoned and in December, the Soviet Union became completely undone and the sovereign independent states emerged from its ashes.
Sources:
Lewis Siegelbaum, “Nine Plus One Agreement” Seventeen Moments in Soviet History.
“New Union Treaty: Treaty on the Union of Sovereign States,” Sovetskaia Rossiia, August 15, 1991.
“Mikhail Gorbachev: A former Soviet Statesmen” Photo Credit Giant Bomb.
“Prominent Russians: Boris Yeltsin,” Photo Credit Russiapedia.