By Deborah L. Armstrong
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, is dead at the age of 91.
He survived 31 years longer than the country of his birth, which he dissolved in 1991 despite a referendum of the people, who overwhelmingly voted to keep the USSR up and running.
Doubts, Death and Democracy: Mikhail Gorbachev’s Bitter-Sweet Legacy
Tag: State Committee on the State of Emergency
Mikhail Gorbachev dies at 91
He will be remembered as the father of ‘perestroika’ but also for presiding over the fall of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev dies at 91
How Ukrainians voted for the preservation of the Soviet Union in 1991, but still ended up in an independent state later that year
By Alexander Nepogodin, RT, 8/10/22
Back in early 1991, few thought the disappearance of the Soviet Union from the political map was likely. The results of a huge national referendum held in March indicated as much. Ukraine’s vote exceeded 70%, and public discussion of the joint future for all the socialist republics mainly focused on various forms of a federation.
How Ukrainians voted for the preservation of the Soviet Union in 1991, but still ended up in an independent state later that year
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 