Drafting of the Union treaty in September-December 1991: from the dismantling of statehood to the USSR's collapse

The article is devoted to the consideration of internal political processes in the Soviet Union at the final stage of its existence, in particular, the political struggle between the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev and Republican leaders in the course of the preparation of the draft Union Treaty in the autumn of 1991 («Novo-Ogarevo-2»). The task of the research is to reconstruct the process of preparation of the draft Union Treaty in September-November 1991, its discussions during the meetings of the State Council of the USSR, and to assess the role of this Treaty in the dismantling of the USSR`s political system. The main source of this research was the verbatim records of the State Council`s meetings, numerous comments and additions to the autumn draft of the Union Treaty, which are stored in the archive Gorbachev Foundation. On the basis of these archival documents, as well as press materials, documentary collections, memories of eyewitnesses of those events, the author compares the positions of the Union and the Republican leaders on the structure of the future Union of the USSR: membership in the updated Union, the tax system, state bodies, the legal system. The key problem, to which all discussions of the Union Treaty were reduced, concerned distribution of power between the Union and Republican elites. The analysis of the sources allows us to conclude that during the autumn negotiations a compromise between the Union and the Republican leaders was impossible - the project “Novo-Ogarevo-2” was doomed to failure initially. If M.S. Gorbachev made attempts to legally secure the preservation of the Union in the form of a confederation, the Republican leaders, first of all, the President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, based on the adopted Declaration of sovereignty, sought independence and separation from the USSR. The Union Treaty, originally designed to create the necessary balance in the relations between the Center and the republics, in practice was an instrument for the implementation of the ambitions of the Republican elites and became one of the factors of the USSR`s collapse.

collapse of the USSR, Union Treaty, State Council of the USSR, confederation, national republics, internal political processes, negotiations between political leaders, national-state model

1. Analiz proekta Dogovora o SSG, podgotovlennyy rabochey gruppoy Verkhovnogo Soveta Kazakhskoy SSR s soprovoditel’nym pis’mom Prezidenta Kazakhskoy SSR N.A. Nazarbaeva v Gossovet SSSR. 17 oktyabrya 1991. (In Russian, unpublished).

2. V Politbyuro TsK KPSS… Po dnevnikovym zapisyam A.S. Chernyaeva, V.A. Medvedeva i G.Kh. Shakhnazarova. [The Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee... On diaries of A. S. Chernyaev, V. A. Medvedev and G. Kh. Shakhnazarov] М., 2008.

3. Vedomosti S”ezda narodnykh deputatov i Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR [Gazettes of the Congress of people’s deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR]. 1991. I. 35.

4. Vedomosti S”ezda narodnykh deputatov i Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR [Gazettes of the Congress of people’s deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR]. 1991. I. 37.

5. Vedomosti S”ezda narodnykh deputatov i Verkhovnogo Soveta RSFSR [Gazettes of the Congress of people’s deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR]. 1991. I. 51.

6. Verkhovnyy Sovet SSSR. Vneocherednaya sessiya. (26-31 avgusta 1991). Stenograficheskiy otchet [The Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Extraordinary session. (26-31 August 1991). Verbatim record] М., 1991. Vol. 1.

7. Gorbachev M.S. Dekabr’ – 91. Moya pozitsiya. [December-91. My position] М., 1992.

8. Grachev A.S. Dal’she bez menya…[Go on without me…] М., 1994.

9. Dogovor o Soyuze Suverennykh Gosudarstv. Proekt. 19 sentyabrya 1991 (In Russian, unpublished).

10. Dogovor o Soyuze Suverennykh Gosudarstv. Proekt 1 oktyabrya 1991 г. (In Russian, unpublished).

11. Dogovor o Soyuze Suverennykh Gosudarstv. Al’ternativnyy proekt. 1 noyabrya 1991. (In Russian, unpublished).

12. El’tsin B.N. Zapiski prezidenta [Notes of the President]. М., 2008.

13. Zamechaniya i predlozheniya k proektu Dogovora o SSG, odobrennye Prezidiumom Verkhovnogo Soveta Respubliki Tadzhikistan s soprovoditel’nym pis’mom i.o. Predsedatelya Verkhovnogo Soveta Respubliki Tadzhikistan A. Iskandarova. 31 oktyabrya 1991 г. (In Russian, unpublished).

14. Zamechaniya i predlozheniya po proektu Dogovora o SSG s soprovoditel’nym pis’mom Zamestitelya Predsedatelya Verkhovnogo Soveta Respubliki Belarus’ V.I. Sholdonova. 24 oktyabrya 1991. (In Russian, unpublished).

15. Iz zasedaniy v Novo-Ogarevo. 14 noyabrya 1991 г. (In Russian, unpublished)

16. Gazeta «Izvestiya». 1991. 6 sentyabrya.

17. Gazeta «Izvestiya». 1991. 15 noyabrya.

18. Lukashin A.V. Razrabotka rukovodstvom SSSR Soyuznogo dogovora (mart-dekabr’ 1991 goda) (Drafting of the Union Treaty by the USSR leadership (March-December 1991)). Dis. k.i.n. M.: MGU, 2012.

19. Pis’mo Prezidenta RSFSR B.N. El’tsina Prezidentu SSSR M.S. Gorbachevu s zamechaniyami po proektu Soyuznogo dogovora ot 01.10.1991. 25 oktyabrya 1991 (In Russian, unpublished).

20. Postanovlenie Gossoveta SSSR «O proekte Dogovora o SSG». 14 noyabrya 1991. (In Russian, unpublished).

21. Gazeta «Pravda». 1991. 4 sentyabrya.

22. Gazeta «Pravda». 1991. 5 sentyabrya. 23. Gazeta «Pravda». 1991. 11 sentyabrya.

23. Gazeta «Pravda». 1991. 27 noyabrya.

24. Gazeta «Pravda». 1991. 23 dekabrya.

25. Predlozhenie preobrazovat’ Soyuz v «Sodruzhestvo Svobodnykh Suverennykh Respublik» vyskazal chlen Politicheskogo konsul’tativnogo soveta, akademik N.Ya. Petrakov. (In Russian, unpublished).

26. Pyatyy (Vneocherednoy) S”ezd narodnykh deputatov RSFSR. 1991. 28 oktyabrya. Byulleten’ № 13-14.

27. Rabochaya gazeta (Kiev). 1991. 4 dekabrya.

28. Soyuz mozhno bylo sokhranit’. Belaya kniga. Dokumenty i fakty o politike M.S. Gorbacheva po reformirovaniyu i sokhraneniyu mnogonatsional’nogo gosudarstva [The Union could be saved. White book. Documents and facts about M. S. Gorbachev’s policy of reforming and preserving the multinational state] М., 2007.

29. Stankevich Z. A. Istoriya krusheniya SSSR. Politikopravovye aspekty [History of the collapse of the USSR. Political and legal aspects]. М., 2001.

30. Tezisy «K obsuzhdeniyu proekta Soyuznogo dogovora». Ne ranee 5 noyabrya 1991 г. (In Russian, unpublished).

31. Chernyaev A. S. Shest’ let s Gorbachevym [Six years with Gorbachev] М., 1993.

32. Shakhnazarov G. Kh. S vozhdyami i bez nikh [With and without chiefs]. М., 2001.