Soviet Monopoly Ends: Communist Party Gives Up Power
The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party voted on February 7, 1990, to renounce Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution, which had guaranteed the Communist Party's 'leading and guiding role' in Soviet society since 1977. Gorbachev pushed the change as part of his perestroika reforms, believing that political competition would strengthen rather than destroy the system. He was catastrophically wrong. Once the monopoly was legally broken, the centrifugal forces that had been building in the Soviet republics accelerated beyond control. Lithuania declared independence within a month. Estonia and Latvia followed. The Baltic states' departure triggered a cascade: by December 1991, eleven of fifteen Soviet republics had declared sovereignty. Gorbachev had dismantled the one structural mechanism that held the USSR together, the party's monopoly on political power, without building anything to replace it.
February 7, 1990
36 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Wikipedia
Central Committee
Wikipedia
Soviet Communist Party
Wikipedia
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Wikipedia
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Wikipedia
Central committee
Wikipedia
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Wikipedia
Moscow
Wikipedia
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Wikipedia
One-party state
Wikipedia
What Else Happened on February 7
Leo I became emperor because the army couldn't agree on anyone. So they asked Aspar, a barbarian general who couldn't legally take the throne himself. He picked…
Leo I became emperor because the army commander didn't want the job. Aspar, an Alan general who effectively ran the Eastern Roman Empire, couldn't take the thro…
Two of Basil II's best generals turned on him at once. Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros — both from military aristocracy, both commanding armies, bo…
Pandulf IV of Benevento fell in battle against invading Norman forces at Montesarchio, ending his long, turbulent reign as the Prince of Benevento. His death cl…
Mongol forces razed the city of Vladimir, systematically slaughtering the inhabitants and incinerating the Cathedral of the Assumption. This brutal conquest sha…
Anti-Unionist clergy gathered at the Blachernae synod to formally condemn the former patriarch John XI of Constantinople for his support of the Council of Lyon.…
Talk to History
Have a conversation with historical figures who witnessed this era. Ask questions, explore perspectives, and bring history to life.