It died because after a referendum for its dissolution failed, there was a power struggle as the communists tried to prevent Yeltsin from doing it anyway, and Yeltsin ended up ordering tanks to fire on the parliament building until the communist pro-democracy forces surrendered.

I thought it was a hardliner coup that tried to stop implementation of the New Union Treaty that people voted for. Funny that they wanted to prevent the decentralization and ended up causing a total decentralization by way of making even this new union unpalatable.

Soviet Union had a single referendum and it immediately caused a coup and destruction of the whole Union. No wonder they didn't want to have them before lel

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

The new union treaty should have been stopped based on the results of the referendum, which overwhelmingly supported the maintaining of the current federal system.

Soviet Union had a single referendum and it immediately caused a coup and destruction of the whole Union. No wonder they didn’t want to have them before lel

The soviet union was constantly under siege since its infancy. Its latter years were marked with reforms which took power away from the local level of federated democracy and liberalized many aspects of their society. At the end capitalist viewpoints were being printed and published in state run and paid for media. It died a death of a thousand cuts since ww2 killed so many of their rank and file best-disrupting their lower level democracy-, and Stalin's re-democratization efforts were cut short by his assassination.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 0 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

The new union treaty should have been stopped based on the results of the referendum, which overwhelmingly supported the maintaining of the current federal system.

Huh? People voted for the NUT (heh).

"The referendum asked whether to approve a new Union Treaty between the republics, to replace the 1922 treaty that created the USSR. [...] The referendum's question was approved by nearly 80% of voters in all nine other republics that took part. However, the August coup attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party prevented the anticipated signing of the New Union Treaty that was due to take place the next day." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum

People voted for the treaty in the referendum, hardline communists stopped the signing because they didn't like it.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

This was the text (translated):

Do you consider it necessary to preserve the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedoms of a person of any nationality will be fully guaranteed?

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Yes, that renewed federation was what the New Union Treaty was supposed to bring about before being stopped. That's what they voted for.

Did you not read the article? It's right before that referendum text...