On December 26, 1991, the Council of Republics of the Soviet Supreme Soviet voted to dissolve the Union, and 15 independent states came into being from the 15 union republics of the former USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the three Caucasian states (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), and the five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan). Of the 15, 12 joined the Commonwealth of Independent States at Alma-Ata on December 21, 1991; the three Baltic states did not.
The new states inherited the Soviet Union’s debts and assets, with the apportionment still being negotiated in the 2020s. They divided the diplomatic missions and the consulates. The Soviet nuclear arsenal, which had been deployed in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, was concentrated in Russia by 1994 through the Budapest Memorandum of January 13, 1994, in which the three non-Russian successor states agreed to transfer the warheads in exchange for security assurances from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. The non-Russian successor states also gave up their seats in the United Nations Security Council; Russia, as the principal heir, retained the Soviet seat.
The political trajectories of the 15 successor states have been widely divergent. The Baltic states have been the most successful, joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, and consolidated democratic institutions. Central Europe, including the post-Soviet Moldovan republic, has had a more difficult transition. Russia has experienced an economic crisis, a recovery, and a renewed authoritarian turn. The Central Asian states have remained under Soviet-era elites. Ukraine’s path has been the most tragic. Below, the 15 successor states are described briefly in the geographic groupings of the post-Soviet space.
The European Successor States
Russia is the largest and most important of the 15, with roughly half the population of the former Soviet Union and the bulk of its industrial and military capacity. The transition of the 1990s was painful: GDP fell by roughly 40 percent, the ruble lost most of its value, the savings of Soviet-era households were wiped out. The Putin era, beginning in 2000, brought political stability and economic growth, with GDP recovering by 2007. The political trajectory, however, has been toward renewed authoritarianism, the suppression of the Russian opposition, the 2008 war with Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia remains a major power but is no longer the integrating center of the post-Soviet space.
Ukraine was the second most populous and most economically important of the successor states. Its independence referendum of December 1, 1991 produced 90.32 percent in favor, on a turnout of 84.18 percent. The political history since then has been a series of confrontations between pro-Russian and pro-European political forces, with the Orange Revolution of 2004, the Euromaidan of 2013–14, the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas from 2014, and the Russian full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022. The 2022 invasion produced the largest European war since 1945, with the most concentrated military and humanitarian effects in the east and south of the country. Ukraine’s status as a state is the principal open question of post-Soviet politics.
Belarus declared independence on August 25, 1991, with Stanislav Shushkevich, the leader of the Belarusian Supreme Soviet, as its first head of state. The Shushkevich government entered into the Belavezha Accords in December 1991. The Belarusian economy has remained closely tied to Russia, with the Russian-Belarusian Union State, established in 1997 and still not fully implemented, the principal institutional expression. Since 1994, Belarus has been ruled by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has presided over a controlled economy, the suppression of the political opposition, and an increasingly close political alignment with Russia. Belarus served as the principal staging ground for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Moldova declared independence on August 27, 1991. The Moldovan transition has been complicated by the unresolved status of Transnistria, a strip of territory east of the Dniester River that has been de facto independent since 1992, with Russian military support. The European integration of Moldova has been the principal political project of the post-2009 period. In 2022 Moldova was granted candidate status for EU membership.
The three Baltic states have followed a different trajectory from the rest of the post-Soviet space. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all declared independence in the spring of 1990 and confirmed it during the August 1991 coup. All three joined NATO and the EU in 2004. The Baltic states developed functioning market economies, integrated institutions of democratic governance, and have been among the most consistent supporters of the post-1989 European order. The Baltic states also have the largest ethnic Russian populations of the former Soviet Union in the EU, a fact that has been the subject of considerable Russian political pressure since 2014.
The Caucasian Successor States
The three Caucasian states are Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The region has been the subject of two principal armed conflicts in the post-Soviet period — over Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and over Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Both sets of conflicts are unresolved — the Russian military presence in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and (until 2023) parts of Karabakh has been a constant constraint on regional autonomy.
Georgia declared independence on April 9, 1991. The country has experienced the Rose Revolution of 2003, the brief war with Russia of August 2008, and the change of government in 2012. The political trajectory has been toward closer integration with the European Union and NATO, complicated by the unresolved status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the broader Russian pressure on Georgian sovereignty.
Armenia declared independence on September 21, 1991. The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region with a majority Armenian population inside the Azerbaijan SSR, was the principal political fact of the 1990s. The war of 1992–94 ended in Armenian control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts. The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War of September–November 2020 ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire with Azerbaijan regaining most of the surrounding districts and parts of Karabakh. In September 2023, after a further Azerbaijani military operation, the Republic of Artsakh (the Armenian-populated parts of Nagorno-Karabakh) was dissolved and the population dispersed.
Azerbaijan declared independence on October 18, 1991. The country has been ruled since 1993 by Heydar Aliyev, a former Soviet-era KGB officer, and from 2003 by his son Ilham Aliyev. Azerbaijan’s substantial oil and gas reserves have funded an authoritarian political system with close political relationships with Russia, Turkey, and the European Union.
The Central Asian Successor States
The five Central Asian successor states — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — have generally remained under the rule of Soviet-era elites, with limited political change. The region has experienced economic development, particularly in the hydrocarbon-rich states, but limited democratic reform. The political systems of the five states are commonly described as “competitive authoritarian” or “hybrid” — they hold elections, but the results are not competitive.
Kazakhstan is the largest and most economically developed of the five, with substantial oil and gas reserves. The country was ruled from 1990 to 2019 by Nursultan Nazarbayev, a former Communist Party first secretary, and since 2019 by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who became president in 2019 and was confirmed in office in the snap election of November 2022, which was followed by the bloodiest internal violence in post-Soviet Central Asia in January 2022.
Uzbekistan has been ruled since 2016 by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who introduced limited reforms after the death of Islam Karimov, his predecessor, who had ruled since 1989. The country remains a difficult partner in the region. Turkmenistan has been ruled since 2006 by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and since 2022 by his son Serdar. The political system is one of the most repressive in the world. Kyrgyzstan has experienced the most political change of the five, with two revolutions (in 2005 and 2010) and a more competitive political system, though one with limited institutional capacity. Tajikistan has been ruled since 1994 by Emomali Rahmon, a former Soviet-era collective farm chairman, and has experienced the most serious civil conflict of the post-Soviet Central Asian states, the 1992–97 civil war that killed an estimated 20,000 to 150,000 people.