The whole world watched in astonishment in December as one of the greatest national powers known to mankind, the country that at one time threatened to politically engulf every continent — or else foment a war that would leave the world a nuclear wasteland — harmlessly fell apart into a dozen constituent republics. It did not happen overnight, and you can start as far back as you want to, from the failed collectivization efforts of Stalin to the ruinously expensive Cold War arms race, to the tender tries at reform by Gorbachev, but everything led up to just one result.

On this day, August 28, in 1991, the just days after taking over for the resigned Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party Vladimir Ivashko is forced to resign himself, as the party is banned.

The event that precipitated the final fall of the USSR came from a group of hard-line Communists who attempted a coup d’etat, kidnapping Gorbachev.  On August 19, 1991, they went on state television to announce that Gorbachev was very ill and would no longer be able to govern. Reading between the lines, Muscovites staged massive to demonstrations for Gorbachev’s return, and the soldiers brought in to quell the uprising joined the protests instead. The coup organizers ultimately surrender, but the door to democracy was opened and could not be closed again.