New Union Treaty
Encyclopedia
Union of Sovereign States was the proposed name of a reorganization of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics into a new confederation
body. Proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev
, the proposal was an attempt to avert the collapse of the Soviet Union
. The proposal was never implemented in the wake of the August Coup and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union
in 1991. The overall proposal was resurrected as the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS).
and thus would have replaced the Soviet Union by a new entity named the Union of Sovereign States, an attempt of Mikhail Gorbachev to salvage and reform the Soviet state. A ceremony of the Russian SFSR signing the treaty was scheduled for 20 August 1991, but was prevented by the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
a day earlier. The preparation of this treaty was known as the Novo-Ogarevo process (новоогаревский процесс), named after Novo-Ogaryovo
, a governmental estate
where the work on the document was carried out and where Gorbachev talked with leaders of Union republics
.
A less centralized federal system as a solution to the Soviet Union's increasing ethnic problems was proposed by President
Gorbachev during the Communist Party Congress of July 1990
. A draft of the New Union Treaty was submitted to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on November 23, 1990. A drafting committee started work on the text on January 1, 1991. Six of the fifteen Soviet republics, however, did not participate in drafting of the treaty: Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR
, Lithuanian SSR
, Moldavian SSR
, Georgian SSR and Armenian SSR
. The proposal was approved by the Soviet of the Union
on March 6 and sent to the Supreme Soviet
s of the republics for approval. Agreement could not be reached on the distribution of power between the Union and the Republics and the proposal was not approved. As an additional restrictive element, some autonomous republics
expressed the desire to raise their status and to be a party to the new Soviet treaty.
President Gorbachev tried to gain popular support for the proposal. On March 17, 1991 a popular referendum
was held in the nine republics (Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR
, Byelorussian SSR
, Kazakh SSR
, Azerbaijan SSR
, Uzbek SSR
, Kyrgyz SSR, Turkmen SSR
, and Tajik SSR
) which participated in the drafting of the treaty. In the referendum 76% of voters supported maintaining the federal
system of the Soviet Union, including a majority in all of the nine republics. Opposition was greatest in large cities like Leningrad
and Moscow
. The referendum was mostly boycotted in the other six republics already moving towards independence.
An agreement between the Soviet central government and the nine republics, the so-called "9+1" agreement, was finally signed in Novo-Ogaryovo
on April 23. The New Union Treaty would have converted the Soviet Union into a federation of independent republics with a common president, foreign policy, and military.
By August, eight of the nine republics, except Ukraine
, approved the draft of the new Treaty with some conditions. Ukraine did not agree on the terms of the Treaty. In the republican referendum on March 17, the majority of residents of Ukraine supported joining the Union on the terms of Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine
.
Though the treaty was intended to save the union, hardliners feared that it would encourage some of the smaller republics to follow the lead of Lithuania
and press for full independence. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December, the leaders of republics organized the Commonwealth of Independent States
, an alliance of 12 newly independent states (initially all ex-Soviet republics except the Baltic states
and Georgia; Georgia joined in 1993, withdrew in 2008).
By November 1991, the overall support for preserving the Soviet state changed to reform the Soviet Union into a confederation of sovereign states. The final draft renamed the proposed state the Union of Sovereign States (Союз Суверенных Государств Soyuz Suvyeryennikh Gosudarstv). The overall continuation of the Soviet Union continued to drop and was soon abandoned. Following the August coup, the new union treaty was further reformed into the Commonwealth of Independent States
.
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
body. Proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
, the proposal was an attempt to avert the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The proposal was never implemented in the wake of the August Coup and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
in 1991. The overall proposal was resurrected as the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
(CIS).
Development
The New Union Treaty was a draft treaty that would have replaced the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSRTreaty on the Creation of the USSR
The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR is a document that legalized the creation of a union of several Soviet republics in the form of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...
and thus would have replaced the Soviet Union by a new entity named the Union of Sovereign States, an attempt of Mikhail Gorbachev to salvage and reform the Soviet state. A ceremony of the Russian SFSR signing the treaty was scheduled for 20 August 1991, but was prevented by the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
Soviet coup attempt of 1991
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
a day earlier. The preparation of this treaty was known as the Novo-Ogarevo process (новоогаревский процесс), named after Novo-Ogaryovo
Novo-Ogaryovo
Novo-Ogaryovo , also Novo-Ogarevo, is an estate in the Odintsovo District of Moscow Oblast to the west of the city, by the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway and is the location of a suburban official residence of the President of Russia, officially recognized as such in 2000.The residence was constructed...
, a governmental estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
where the work on the document was carried out and where Gorbachev talked with leaders of Union republics
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
.
A less centralized federal system as a solution to the Soviet Union's increasing ethnic problems was proposed by President
President of the Soviet Union
The President of the Soviet Union , officially called President of the USSR was the Head of State of the USSR from 15 March 1990 to 25 December 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev was the only person to occupy the office. Gorbachev was also General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between...
Gorbachev during the Communist Party Congress of July 1990
28th Congress of the CPSU
28th Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow. It was held a year ahead of the traditional schedule and turned out to be the last Communist Party of the Soviet Union congress in the history of the party....
. A draft of the New Union Treaty was submitted to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on November 23, 1990. A drafting committee started work on the text on January 1, 1991. Six of the fifteen Soviet republics, however, did not participate in drafting of the treaty: Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR
Latvian SSR
The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Latvian SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the Soviet Union. Established on 21 July 1940 as a puppet state during World War II in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Latvia after it had been occupied by...
, Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
, Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
, Georgian SSR and Armenian SSR
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...
. The proposal was approved by the Soviet of the Union
Soviet of the Union
Soviet of the Union , was one of the two chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot in accordance with the principles of Soviet democracy, and with the rule that there be one deputy for...
on March 6 and sent to the Supreme Soviet
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
s of the republics for approval. Agreement could not be reached on the distribution of power between the Union and the Republics and the proposal was not approved. As an additional restrictive element, some autonomous republics
Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for certain nations. The ASSRs had a status lower than the union republics of the Soviet Union, but higher than the autonomous oblasts and the autonomous okrugs....
expressed the desire to raise their status and to be a party to the new Soviet treaty.
President Gorbachev tried to gain popular support for the proposal. On March 17, 1991 a popular referendum
Soviet Union referendum, 1991
A referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held on 17 March 1991. The question put to voters wasDo you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any...
was held in the nine republics (Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
, Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, Kazakh SSR
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union.At in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata . Today it is the independent state of...
, Azerbaijan SSR
Azerbaijan SSR
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....
, Uzbek SSR
Uzbek SSR
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
, Kyrgyz SSR, Turkmen SSR
Turkmen SSR
The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Turkmen SSR for short, was one of republics of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It was initially established on 7 August 1921 as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR. On 13 May 1925 it was transformed into Turkmen SSR and became a...
, and Tajik SSR
Tajik SSR
The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Tajik SSR for short, was one of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. Located in Central Asia, the Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as a national entity for the Tajik people within the Soviet Union...
) which participated in the drafting of the treaty. In the referendum 76% of voters supported maintaining the federal
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
system of the Soviet Union, including a majority in all of the nine republics. Opposition was greatest in large cities like Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. The referendum was mostly boycotted in the other six republics already moving towards independence.
An agreement between the Soviet central government and the nine republics, the so-called "9+1" agreement, was finally signed in Novo-Ogaryovo
Novo-Ogaryovo
Novo-Ogaryovo , also Novo-Ogarevo, is an estate in the Odintsovo District of Moscow Oblast to the west of the city, by the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway and is the location of a suburban official residence of the President of Russia, officially recognized as such in 2000.The residence was constructed...
on April 23. The New Union Treaty would have converted the Soviet Union into a federation of independent republics with a common president, foreign policy, and military.
By August, eight of the nine republics, except Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, approved the draft of the new Treaty with some conditions. Ukraine did not agree on the terms of the Treaty. In the republican referendum on March 17, the majority of residents of Ukraine supported joining the Union on the terms of Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine
Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine
The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine was adopted on July 16, 1990 by the recently elected parliament of Ukrainian SSR.The Declaration established the principles of Self-Determination of the Ukrainian Nation, Rule of the People, State Power, Citizenship of the Ukrainian SSR, Territorial...
.
Though the treaty was intended to save the union, hardliners feared that it would encourage some of the smaller republics to follow the lead of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
and press for full independence. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December, the leaders of republics organized the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
, an alliance of 12 newly independent states (initially all ex-Soviet republics except the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Georgia; Georgia joined in 1993, withdrew in 2008).
Names
On the first draft of the treaty released in July 1991, the proclaimed name for the new nation was the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics ( Soyuz Sovyetskikh Suvyeryennykh Ryespublik). This name was proposed in order to conserve the Russian "СССР" acronym, as well as the "USSR" and "Soviet Union" in English.By November 1991, the overall support for preserving the Soviet state changed to reform the Soviet Union into a confederation of sovereign states. The final draft renamed the proposed state the Union of Sovereign States (Союз Суверенных Государств Soyuz Suvyeryennikh Gosudarstv). The overall continuation of the Soviet Union continued to drop and was soon abandoned. Following the August coup, the new union treaty was further reformed into the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
.