5HSRUWRQ5XVVLD fifteen Soviet republics. As a result of the referendum new forms of cooperation and even statebuilding attempts were undertaken: e.g. CIS, the free-trade zone of CIS, Union State of Russia and Belarus, the EurAsian Union etc. In modern English-language scholarship the view is overwhelmingly that the collapse of the Soviet State was inevitable.26 Unfortunately, the voice of those who have a different point of view regarding the end of the Soviet Union remains mostly unheard (among these people is also Mikhail Gorbachev27). Only today, twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union28, the full-fledged and cold-minded discussion begins in Russia. There are different views and arguments (in particular, of those who as decision makers participated in the political life during the 1990s and believed in the modernisation of the state).29 In any case, every reader will be able independently to draw their own conclusion regarding the collapse or elimination of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the fact must be taken into consideration that on the territory of those nine Soviet republics, which supported the idea to keep modernized united state, this demand for unity is still present. On 18 November 2011 the Eurasian Union (EAU or ‘EU-2’) was established and united the following states: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.30 Kyrgyzstan has already applied for membership in the EAU and the authorities of Tajikistan are now preparing an application.31 The most probable scenario is that the Eurasian Union will unite even those nine former Soviet republics, where citizens voted for the preservation of the renewed united state. The above-mentioned definitions from the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR and several decisions of the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR confirmed the original intention of the legislators of the RSFSR. During the first session of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR in May-June 1990, the members of the congress approved the list of legislative acts of the RSFSR to be adopted in the course of constitutional reform in the RSFSR. The new citizenship law of the RSFSR was among these legislative acts. The elaboration of the new citizenship law started in summer 1990 and was finished in the summer of the following year. The signing of the new Union Treaty for the renewed (reformed) Soviet Union was also planned for August 1991. However, on the eve of the signing ceremony the August Coup (18-22 August 1991) took place against Gorbachev, which prevented all plans for the modernization of the Soviet Union. On 8 December 1991 three leaders of the fifteen Soviet Republics (in particular Russia (Boris Yelzin), Belarus (Stanislav Shushkevich) and the Ukraine (Leonid Kravchuk)) signed the Belavezha Accords which dissolved the Soviet Union by the annulment of the 1922 Soviet Union 26 Quite often the Chinese experience (also a Communist State) is ignored, which was able to shift to a market economy without such catastrophic developments as in the USSR in 1990s. The words of Putin in Munich (regarding the USSR ‘collapse as ‘the major geopolitical disaster of the century’) were primarily based on the perception of ordinary citizens (Gorham 2000: 614; Sheremet 1990: 90) and on the catastrophic consequences faced by the majority of people in 1990s (Nikolay Ivanov. About demographic effects of the dissolution of the USSR. Price of defeat. The collapse of the soviet project caused heavy human losses. During last 20 years this fact remained ignored by the public memory. ‘Expert’ Journal, 26 December 2011. http://expert.ru/expert/2012/01/tsena-porazheniya/[O1;)$&@ JHPOBH. B -#=)%+&41<#.;1E ().$#-./*12E +&.(&-& AAA?. (I#"& ()+&,#"12. K+8>#"1# .)*#/.;)%) (+)#;/& ):#+"8$).6 /2,#$#@>1=1 $7-.;1=1 ()/#+2=1. G& 1./#;>1# -*&-D&/6 $#/ Q/) /&; 1 "# ./&$) 4&;/)= ):C#./*#"")@ (&=2/1. «R;.(#+/», 26 -#;&:+2 2011 %)-&]. 27 Mikhail Gorbachev. We should have preserved the Soviet Union. The Christian Science Monitor. 13 October 2011. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/1013/Mikhail-Gorbachev-We-should-have-preserved-the-Soviet-Union 28 ‘Who is responsible for the dissolution of the USSR?’ Kommersant, 18.08.2011. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1753970 [K/) *1")*#" * +&.(&-# AAA?? "K)==#+.&"/M", 18.08.2011]. 29 For differing opinions on this question see: ‘USSR: 20 years after’ [AAA?: 20 $#/ .(8./2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/indepth/1991.shtml. ‘Elimination of the USSR: A crime without term of limitation’. [?&9*&$ AAA?: (+#./8($#"1# :#9 .+);& -&*")./1]. http://www.km.ru/front-projects/belovezhskoe-soglashenie/20-letraspada-sssr 30 Robert Bridge. One small step for Russia, one giant leap for Eurasian Union. 18 November 2011. http://rt.com/politics/russia-kazakhstan-belarus-eurasian-union-647/ 31 Alexandre Antonov. Eurasian Union: Greater than the EU, but not a new USSR. Russia Today. 20 November, 2011. http://www.rt.com/news/eurasian-union-eu-better-667/ 56&$6(8'2&,7&5‹$XWKRU