![]() The signing ceremony at Viskuli Government House | |
Type | Treaty establishing a loose regional organisation |
---|---|
Signed | 8 December 1991 |
Location | Viskuli, Belovezh Forest, Belarus (de facto) Minsk, Minsk Oblast, Belarus (de jure) |
Effective | |
Signatories | |
Parties | |
Depositary | ![]() |
Languages | Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian |
The Belovezh Accords (Russian: Беловежские соглашения, Belarusian: Белавежскае пагадненне, Ukrainian: Біловезькі угоди) are accords forming the agreement that declared the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had effectively ceased to exist and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place as a successor entity. The documentation was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus) on 8 December 1991, by leaders of three of the four republics which had signed the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR:
- Russian President Boris Yeltsin and First Deputy Prime Minister of the RSFSR/Russian Federation Gennady Burbulis
- Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold Fokin
- Belarusian Parliament Chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and Prime Minister of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich
The original document could not be found as of 2013 (see below).
Name[edit]
The name is variously translated as Belavezh Accords, Belovezh Accords, Belovezha Accords, Belavezha Agreement, Belovezhskaya Accord, Belaya Vezha Accord, etc. The reason of the discrepancy between Belovezh and Belavezha is that Беловеж (Romanized as Belovezh) is the Russian and Белавежа (Romanized as Belavezha) the Belarusian, referring to the Belovezhskaya Pushcha, a park and forest on the Belarus-Polish border.
Legal basis and ratification[edit]
While doubts remained over the authority of the leaders of three of the 12 remaining republics (the three Baltic republics had seceded in August) to dissolve the Union, according to Article 72 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, union republics had the right to secede freely from the Union (the procedure for the withdrawal of the republics from the Union since 1990 was regulated by a special law[1]). On 12 December 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR ratified the accords on behalf of Russia and at the same time denounced the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union.
The preamble of the document stated that "the USSR, as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, is ceasing its existence". It also invited other republics to join the three founding members.
On December 10, the agreement was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine[2] and the Supreme Council of Belarus.[3]
On 12 December, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratified the Belovezh Accords,[4] denounced the 1922 Union Treaty, and recalled the Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The legality of this ratification raised doubts among some members of the Russian parliament, since according to the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978 consideration of this document was in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.[5][6][7][8]
These attempts to dissolve the Soviet Union were seen as illegal by what remained of the Soviet federal government. Gorbachev himself described the moves thus:
The fate of the multinational state cannot be determined by the will of the leaders of three republics. The question should be decided only by constitutional means with the participation of all sovereign states and taking into account the will of all their citizens. The statement that Unionwide legal norms would cease to be in effect is also illegal and dangerous; it can only worsen the chaos and anarchy in society. The hastiness with which the document appeared is also of serious concern. It was not discussed by the populations nor by the Supreme Soviets of the republics in whose name it was signed. Even worse, it appeared at the moment when the draft treaty for a Union of Sovereign States, drafted by the USSR State Council, was being discussed by the parliaments of the republics.[9]
There was some question as to whether the Belovezh Accords were enough in and of themselves to dissolve the Soviet Union since they were signed by only three republics, albeit three of the largest and most powerful republics. However, any doubts about whether the Soviet Union still existed were removed on 21 December 1991, when the representatives of 11 of the 12 remaining Soviet republics—all except Georgia—signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which reiterated both the end of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the CIS. Given that 11 of the republics now agreed that the Soviet Union no longer existed, the plurality of member-republics required for its effective continuance as a federal state was no longer in place. The Alma-Ata signatories also provisionally accepted Gorbachev's resignation as president of the Soviet Union and agreed on several other practical measures consequential to the extinction of the Union. Gorbachev stated that he would resign as soon as he knew the CIS was a reality. Three days later, in a secret meeting with Yeltsin, he accepted the fait accompli of the Soviet Union's dissolution.
Although Gorbachev had long since lost the ability to influence events outside Moscow, a rump Soviet federal government continued to exist for four more days, and Gorbachev continued to hold control over the Kremlin. This ended in the early hours of 25 December 1991 when Gorbachev resigned and turned control of the Kremlin and the remaining powers of his office over to the office of the president of Russia, Yeltsin. Soon afterward, the flag of the Soviet Union was lowered from the Grand Kremlin Palace for the final time, and the flag of Russia was hoisted in its place.
Later that day, President of the United States George H. W. Bush, a former head of the CIA, gave a short speech on national television in the United States to commemorate the ending of the Cold War and to recognize the independence of the former states of the Soviet Union.[10]
Also on 25 December 1991, the Russian SFSR, now no longer a sub-national entity of the Soviet Union but a sovereign nation in its own right, adopted a law renaming itself the "Russian Federation" or "Russia" (both being equally official with the ratification of the Russian constitution in 1993).
Gorbachev's speech, as well as the replacement of the Soviet flag with the Russian flag, were all seen around the world, and marked the de facto end of the Soviet Union. However, the final legal step in the dissolution came a day later, when the Soviet of Republics, the upper house of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, recognized the collapse of the Union and voted both itself and the Union out of existence. The lower house, the Soviet of the Union, had not met since 12 December when Russia recalled its deputies from both chambers, leaving it without a quorum.[5]
The Summit of Alma-Ata also issued a statement on 21 December 1991, supporting Russia's claim to be recognized as the successor state of the Soviet Union for the purposes of membership of the United Nations. On 25 December 1991, Russian President Yeltsin informed UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar that the Soviet Union had been dissolved and that Russia would, as its successor state, continue the Soviet Union's membership in the United Nations. The document confirmed the credentials of the representatives of the Soviet Union as representatives of Russia and requested that the name "Soviet Union" be changed to "Russian Federation" in all records and entries. This was a move designed to allow Russia to retain the Soviet Union's permanent Security Council seat, which would not have been possible if the former republics were all reckoned as equal successors of the Soviet Union, or if the Soviet Union was regarded as having no successor state for the purpose of continuing the same UN membership (see Russia and the United Nations). The Secretary-General circulated the request, and there being no objection from any Member State, the Russian Federation took the Soviet Union's UN seat. On January 31, 1992, Russian Federation President Yeltsin personally took part in a Security Council meeting as representative of Russia, the first Security Council meeting in which Russia occupied the permanent Security Council seat originally granted to the Soviet Union by the UN Charter.[citation needed]
Aftermath[edit]
1993 Russian constitutional crisis[edit]
According to some Russian politicians, one of the reasons for the political crisis of 1993 was the repeated refusal of the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia to ratify the Belovezhskaya Agreement[11] and to exclude the mention of the Constitution and laws of the USSR from the text of the Constitution of the RSFSR.[12][8]
Current location[edit]
Stanislav Shushkevich, the former leader of Belarus was told by the country's foreign ministry that the original accords have gone missing as of February 7, 2013. He tried to obtain the original copy to assist in writing his memoirs.[13]
See also[edit]
- Dissolution of the Soviet Union
- Union Treaty of 1922, which was denounced by the Belovezh Accords.
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Закон СССР от 3 апреля 1990 года № 1409-I «О порядке решения вопросов, связанных с выходом союзной республики из состава СССР»
- ^ Про ратифікацію Угоди про створення Співдружності Незалежних Держав
- ^ Постановление Верховного Совета Республики Беларусь от 10 декабря 1991 г. № 1296-XII «О ратификации Соглашения об образовании Содружества Независимых Государств»
- ^ Постановление Верховного Совета РСФСР от 12 декабря 1991 года № 2014-I «О ратификации Соглашения о создании Содружества Независимых Государств»
- ^ a b V.Pribylovsky, Gr.Tochkin . Kto i kak uprazdnil SSSR
- ^ Из СССР В СНГ: подчиняясь реальности
- ^ Бабурин С. Н. На гибель Советского Союза
- ^ a b Воронин Ю. М. Беловежское предательство
- ^ Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (2000). On my country and the world. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-11514-8.
- ^ "Bush on the Commonwealth of Independent States". Encarta. Archived from the original on 31 October 2009.
- ^ "Илья Константинов: «Додавить гной пока не получается»". rusplt.ru. Archived from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
- ^ Павлов Н. А. Незаконченный переворот: причины и последствия
- ^ "Document proclaiming death of Soviet Union missing". The Daily Telegraph. London. 7 February 2013.