On Dec. 25, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a sovereign state. Its collapse was gradual and, some would say, even inevitable. Here are some major milestones in the dissolution of the USSR, which put 15 new countries on the map.
Soviet history
RFE/RL: The undoing of the USSR
Birds sit on a wire in front of the building of the Russian Foreign Ministry with the Soviet Union state emblem on its facade in Moscow on Oct. 18, 2019.
