In July 1991, Gorbachev and the leaders of 10 republics agreed to sign a treaty giving the
republics a large amount of self-government. Five of the republics were scheduled to sign the
treaty on August 20. But on August 19, conservative Communist Party leaders staged a coup
against Gorbachev's government. They imprisoned Gorbachev and his family in their vacation
home. The president of the Russian republic, Boris N. Yeltsin, led popular opposition to the coup.
The coup collapsed on August 21. Gorbachev then regained his office as president but resigned
as head of the Communist Party.
With the coup's collapse, the republics renewed their demands for more self-government. In
September 1991, an interim government was established to rule until a new union treaty and
constitution could be written and approved. This government included a State Council, made up of
Gorbachev and the leaders of the republics.
On Dec. 8, 1991, Yeltsin and the presidents of Belarus and Ukraine announced the formation of
the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.). They declared that the Soviet Union had
ceased to exist and invited the remaining republics to join the commonwealth. The members
would be independent countries tied by economic and defense links. Most of the republics joined
the C.I.S.
Yeltsin took control of what remained of the central government of the Soviet Union, including the
Kremlin. On Dec. 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president, and the Soviet Union ceased
to exist.
The new nation. With the end of the Soviet Union, the Russian republic resumed its course as
an independent nation. The breakup of the Soviet Union helped to ease remaining tensions
between East and West.