Chronograph · published 22 h ago ·
found by searching “Литва без российского газа”
The collapse of the USSR in simple words: what was decided in Belovezhskaya Pushcha
Распад СССР простыми словами: что решили в Беловежской пуще
What the site found
Not propaganda · agenda: Baltic Russophobia and Russian retaliation
Belief the Pravda network pushes: The Baltic states are Russophobic, mistreat Russians living there, and will face Russian retaliation, while EU visa bans and sanctions on Russia are unjustified.
A narrative explainer of 1991, following one fictional family through the March referendum, price rises, the August coup, Ukraine's independence vote and the Belovezha Accords.
The video says · at 1:53 · quote checked against the transcript
“In January, 14 people died at the TV tower in Vilnius when Soviet armored vehicles entered the city.”
In January, 14 people died at the TV tower in Vilnius when Soviet armored vehicles entered the city.
The video is a mostly neutral historical reconstruction. It reports the Baltic states' independence path accurately, including the Soviet violence in Vilnius, and does not portray the Baltics as Russophobic, justify retaliation, or repeat any of the three agendas.
The Pravda stories it echoes
Closest stories from the Pravda network, by meaning. Each links to the site’s comparison with trusted Lithuanian news.
12 days ago · State Duma quietly rejected 6 initiatives tightening migration policy; Finland began deploying French nuclear forces near Russian border; Poland and Baltic states preparing Russia's internal collapse; GD commented on Mindaugas's tax increase idea; Zelensky preparing Klitschko's resignation over three Kyiv thermal power plants shutdown; Putin seized Bulgaria
M low
F medium
1 verified differences
27 days ago · October 18 night strikes summary: RF and Ukraine news with front and video. Zelenskyy complaints and Rubio's response on Starshield
M low
F medium
2 verified differences
27 days ago · Julija Vitiazeva: My morning started with a reader from Petersburg asking about drones flying into the city at night from Finland and Baltic azimuths
M low
F high
4 verified differences
Transcript (en, 448 lines)
0:03 Sunday, March 17, 1991.
0:07 Tula, a school gymnasium. It smells of
0:09 floor wax and wet coats.
0:11 You are 45, a process engineer at a
0:13 defense plant. In your hands, you hold a
0:15 ballot with one long question.
0:17 Do you consider it necessary to preserve
0:20 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
0:22 as a renewed federation of equal
0:24 sovereign republics, in which the rights
0:26 and freedoms of a person of any
0:28 nationality will be fully guaranteed?
0:31 Printed below it: Leave one of the
0:33 answers, cross out the other.
0:36 You cross out "no." 113 million people
0:39 answer the same way that day—over 76%of
0:42 those who showed up.
0:44 Nine months later, on December 25, the
0:46 red flag will be lowered over the
0:48 Kremlin.
0:49 The country you voted for will cease to
0:51 exist. And no one will ask you a second
0:53 time.
0:54 How did so many "yes" votes turn into
0:56 this silence? We’ll break it down step
0:58 by step and see whose "yes" ultimately
1:00 decided everything. You will see how
1:02 answers about different countries ended
1:04 up in the same ballot box, and learn why
1:06 the signing of the new Union was set for
1:08 Tuesday, while on Monday, ballet played
1:10 on every channel. You will hear how your
1:13 mother-in-law in Kharkiv said "yes"
1:14 twice, and was sincere both times. And
1:17 you will find out who received a call
1:18 from a hunting lodge in the woods before
1:20 the Kremlin did.
1:21 It all starts with the fact that there
1:22 was more than one question at the
1:24 polling station.
1:27 The evening of March 17. Your kitchen in
1:30 Tula. You are sitting with your wife.
1:32 Lena teaches Russian at the very school
1:34 where the polling station was. She says
1:35 that from the morning, there was a line
1:37 to the ballot boxes, just like for
1:38 sausage. With a March like this, you
1:40 think, you won't lose the country.
1:42 But the whole country didn't vote.
1:44 Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia,
1:46 Armenia, and Moldova refused to hold the
1:48 general referendum. Six republics out of
1:51 fifteen.
1:53 In January, 14 people died at the TV
1:54 tower in Vilnius when Soviet armored
1:56 vehicles entered the city.
1:58 By March, Lithuania had already
2:00 conducted an independence poll. And
2:02 where ballots were handed out, there was
2:04 often more than one question. In Russia
2:06 , there was a second sheet of paper
2:07 nearby. Is a post of President of Russia
2:09 , elected by the entire people,
2:10 necessary? Nearly 70%answered "yes." You
2:14 did, too. Did it not seem to you that
2:16 these two answers were in conflict?
2:19 Lena's mother, Valentina Ivanovna, lives
2:21 in Kharkiv. For 30 years, she was a
2:23 train attendant on the Kharkiv-Moscow
2:25 line, the very one that goes through
2:27 Tula.
2:27 In Ukraine, they added their own
2:29 question to the general one: whether the
2:31 republic should be in the union on the
2:32 basis of the Declaration of State
2:34 Sovereignty.
2:36 70%voted for the union, 80%for
2:38 sovereignty.
2:41 Valentina Ivanovna answered "yes" both
2:43 times. Money that spring also served as
2:45 a reminder of who is in charge here.
2:47 On January 22, at 9:00 p.m., the Vremya
2:49 program announced that 50 and 100 ruble
2:51 notes were being taken out of
2:53 circulation starting at midnight. They
2:55 gave people 3 days to exchange them, and
2:57 no more than 1,000 rubles. per person,
2:58 from a savings account—no more than 500
3:00 per month. 12 days before that, Prime
3:03 Minister Valentin Pavlov assured
3:05 deputies that no reform was being
3:07 prepared.
3:08 On March 27, the newspaper Pravda
3:09 published the results—the Union must be
3:11 preserved. You said "yes," Valentina
3:14 Ivanovna, twice. For now, no one notices
3:17 that these "yeses" are pulling in
3:19 opposite directions.
3:20 Tuesday, April 2, the grocery store near
3:22 your home, 7:00 AM.
3:24 A loaf of bread that you remember
3:26 costing 18 kopecks......now costs 54.
3:28 Cooked sausage—6 rubles. 60 kopecks.
3:31 instead of 2.20.
3:32 The decree on the new prices was signed
3:35 March 19, two days after the referendum
3:37 .
3:37 Officially, prices rose by 65–70%.
3:41 On the counter, you see something else—
3:43 bread and meat have tripled in price,
3:45 milk more than doubled.
3:47 Salaries and pensions were raised too,
3:49 but noticeably less. With an average
3:51 salary of about 300 rubles......you see
3:53 it in every purchase. Valentina Ivanovna
3:55 makes a long-distance call. There is
3:57 crackling on the line, and the
3:58 conversation is the same. In Kharkiv,
4:00 there are the same prices, the same
4:01 lines. In the Donbas, miners have been
4:03 striking since March 1; 49 mines have
4:05 stopped. Among their demands is the
4:07 resignation of President Gorbachev.
4:09 On April 22, Prime Minister Pavlov
4:11 admits what is visible on the shelves.
4:13 The country, according to him, has
4:15 essentially become dependent on foreign
4:17 creditors.
4:18 Bread in the Soviet Union had long been
4:20 baked using imported grain, and grain
4:22 was bought with oil money.
4:24 Oil prices dropped back in the eighties
4:26 , and there was nothing left to pay with
4:28 The next day, in Novo-Ogaryovo near
4:30 Moscow, Gorbachev and the leaders of
4:32 nine republics sign a statement. There
4:34 will be a new union treaty, and the
4:36 republics will receive more rights.
4:38 For the first time that spring, it seems
4:39 the top officials have reached an
4:40 agreement. If you remember those lines
4:42 yourself or from your parents 'stories,
4:44 leave a like so others can find this
4:45 video. And subscribe; here we analyze
4:48 how the country actually lived. And
4:50 summer is ahead, when it seemed like
4:51 everything would be alright.
4:56 Wednesday, June 12, the same gym in Tula
4:58 . Now there are names on the ballot.
5:00 Russia is electing its own president.
5:03 Boris Yeltsin wins in the first round
5:05 with 57%.
5:07 Nikolai Ryzhkov, the former head of the
5:09 union government, supported by Gorbachev
5:11 , gets less than 17.
5:13 There are now two presidents in the
5:15 country, and they work in the same city
5:18 In the summer, they refine the text of
5:20 the treaty in Novo-Ogaryovo.
5:21 On July 23, it is initialed, and the
5:23 signing is set for Tuesday, August 20.
5:26 On August 15, Pravda publishes the final
5:29 version. In it, the Union is called the
5:32 Union of Sovereign States. The word "
5:34 socialist" is no longer in the name.
5:37 On August 1, American President George
5:39 H.W. Bush speaks before deputies in Kyiv
5:42 He urges support for the union treaty
5:44 and warns against what he called "
5:46 suicidal nationalism."
5:49 A New York Times columnist would later
5:51 dub this speech the "Chicken Kyiv speech
5:53 " for its excessive caution.
5:55 A letter arrives from Seryozha near
5:57 Brest. He is 19, serving in the military
5:59 , and writes that the food is okay and
6:01 he has just over a year left until
6:03 discharge. Lena takes a vacation and
6:05 buys a ticket to Kharkiv to see her
6:06 mother. On Sunday, August 18th, you see
6:09 her off at the station. The train from
6:11 Moscow stops in Tula for a few minutes.
6:13 Everything seemed to be working out.
6:15 There will be a new treaty: Russia will
6:17 have its president, Ukraine its
6:18 sovereignty, and they will all be
6:20 together.
6:21 The signing is on Tuesday.
6:23 On Monday, August 19th, at 6:00 AM, you
6:25 turn on the radio in the kitchen. The
6:28 announcer reads in an even voice.
6:30 President Gorbachev is unable to perform
6:32 his duties due to health reasons.
6:34 Authority is transferred to Vice
6:36 President Gennady Yanayev.
6:37 Power is seized by the State Committee
6:39 on the State of Emergency.
6:42 You turn on the television. It’s the
6:44 ballet Swan Lake.
6:45 Gorbachev is currently in Crimea, at his
6:47 dacha in Foros.
6:49 Back in the night, around 4:00 AM, all
6:50 his communications were cut off.
6:52 He will no longer be able to sign the
6:54 treaty on Tuesday. Disrupting that
6:56 signing was the main reason for the
6:58 entire operation. Tanks and armored
7:00 personnel carriers enter Moscow. People
7:02 are flocking to the White House, where
7:04 the Russian leadership is working.
7:06 Yeltsin comes out to them and reads an
7:07 address while standing on a tank.
7:09 At 5:00 PM, members of the committee
7:11 hold a press conference. Journalist
7:13 Tatyana Malkina asks if they realize
7:15 they committed a coup d'état during the
7:18 night.
7:19 You try calling Kharkiv. First it's busy
7:22 , then just a long ring.
7:24 Lena gets through herself late in the
7:26 evening. She says they have the same
7:28 ballet on TV there. On the 20th, a
7:30 curfew is imposed in Moscow from 11:00
7:32 PM to 5:00 AM.
7:34 Human rings stand around the White House
7:36 , with estimates of at least 100,000
7:38 people.
7:39 On the night of the 21st, three young
7:41 men die in a tunnel on the Garden Ring.
7:45 On August 21st, the troops leave Moscow
7:47 . Gorbachev returns from Foros. The
7:50 committee lasted for 3 days.
7:52 You turn off the television. It is quiet
7:54 in the kitchen.
7:56 The treaty that this coup intended to
7:58 derail will never be signed, neither on
8:00 Tuesday nor later.
8:04 Saturday, August 24th, Kharkiv,
8:05 Valentina Ivanovna's kitchen.
8:08 They are broadcasting from Kyiv. The
8:09 Supreme Soviet of Ukraine has adopted
8:11 the Act of Declaration of Independence.
8:13 346 deputies voted in favor of it. Among
8:16 them are many communists. The decision
8:18 must be confirmed by a national
8:19 referendum on December 1st. On that same
8:21 day, Gorbachev resigns as General
8:23 Secretary of the party. By morning,
8:26 Belarus declares independence, on August
8:28 27th Moldova, on the 31st Uzbekistan.
8:32 From August 20th to October 27th, 11
8:34 republics will declare independence.
8:37 On September 6th, the new State Council
8:38 recognizes the independence of Lithuania
8:40 , Latvia, and Estonia.
8:42 Lena returns on the same train. There is
8:44 no border, and no one asks for a
8:46 passport. Only Valentina Ivanovna says
8:48 on the platform: "Now you'll have to
8:50 travel abroad to see me." They both
8:52 laugh.
8:53 At your factory, parts from your
8:54 supplier in Kharkiv stop arriving.
8:56 Nobody banned anything. It's just that
8:59 the supplier now has its own government
9:00 and its own concerns.
9:02 In the autumn, it becomes clear that the
9:04 Union cannot pay its foreign debts.
9:06 According to Yegor Gaidar’s team, grain
9:08 reserves in sixty out of eighty-nine
9:10 Russian regions had run out. Bread is
9:13 being baked on the fly using grain that
9:14 has just arrived from abroad.
9:16 Ration coupons in most regions allow for
9:18 one kilogram of sugar per person per
9:20 month and half a kilo of bone-in meat.
9:22 In November, a treaty on a Confederation
9:24 is being prepared in Novo-Ogaryovo, but
9:26 on November 25th, the signing is
9:27 postponed again. Everyone is waiting to
9:29 see how Ukraine will respond.
9:31 Sunday, December 1, Kharkiv.
9:34 Valentina Ivanovna goes to the polling
9:35 station at the same school as in March.
9:37 The ballot has one question: "Do you
9:39 confirm the act of declaring the
9:41 independence of Ukraine?"
9:43 On the same day, they are electing the
9:45 president of the republic. In the
9:46 evening, she calls Tula and says briefly
9:49 : "I voted yes."
9:51 Lena is silent, then asks: "Mom, didn't
9:53 you support the Union in March?"
9:56 There is crackling on the line. Then the
9:58 answer: "In March, they were asking
9:59 about one Union. After August, it ceased
10:01 to exist. I voted for what was left."
10:05 Turnout was 84%, with 90%of those who
10:07 came voting for independence.
10:09 In the Kharkiv region—it was lowest in
10:12 Crimea, but even there, it was more than
10:14 half. Leonid Kravchuk, Chairman of the
10:16 Supreme Soviet of Ukraine, is elected
10:18 president. March and December in one
10:20 family and one republic. In the spring,
10:23 70%voted here for the union; in the
10:25 winter, 90%for independence. There are
10:28 several explanations. Some point to the
10:30 text of the act itself. The first reason
10:32 cited there is the mortal danger that
10:34 loomed over Ukraine due to the coup in
10:36 August.
10:37 Others speak of the hope that their own
10:38 republic would provide for them better.
10:40 Still others remind us that all six
10:42 presidential candidates campaigned for
10:44 independence.
10:45 For Moscow, the result meant one thing.
10:47 Yeltsin later explained to President
10:49 Bush that if Ukraine did not sign the
10:51 union treaty, Russia would not sign it
10:53 either. In a union without Ukraine, by
10:55 his logic, Russia would easily be
10:57 outweighed by the votes of the remaining
10:58 republics.
10:59 A week later, three leaders will go into
11:01 the forest. That forest in the Brest
11:03 region, where your son is serving.
11:08 Saturday, December 7. Belovezhskaya
11:10 Pushcha, the Viskuli government
11:12 residence.
11:14 Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk, and
11:15 Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of
11:17 Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich arrive
11:19 here.
11:20 The official pretext is oil and gas
11:22 supplies. The text that will emerge here
11:24 was not discussed in advance with the
11:25 president of the Union. During the night
11:27 , the delegations prepare the document.
11:29 On December 8, they sign it.
11:31 A Commonwealth of Independent States is
11:33 created, and the preamble contains the
11:35 phrase for which this day will enter
11:36 history books.
11:39 The Union as a subject of international
11:41 law and a geopolitical reality ceases to
11:44 exist.
11:45 According to historian Serhii Plokhy,
11:47 the first call after the signing is made
11:49 not to the Kremlin, but to Washington.
11:51 Yeltsin speaks with Bush for 28 minutes
11:53 . Gorbachev is informed later. You find
11:56 out about this from the*Vremya*program.
11:58 There will be no vote in Russia on the
12:00 Belovezha Accords. On December 12, they
12:02 are ratified by the Supreme Soviet of
12:04 Russia. 188 in favor, six against, seven
12:07 abstentions.
12:08 These days are still being debated. Some
12:10 believe the agreement was illegal. It
12:13 ran counter to the March referendum, and
12:15 the three leaders had no right to decide
12:16 for the whole country.
12:18 Others reply: Russia, Ukraine, and
12:21 Belarus once signed the treaty to form
12:23 the Union and could dissolve it. And
12:26 after August, the union government was
12:27 barely in control of anything. Every
12:30 country has its own documents, and the
12:31 dispute is far from over.
12:33 On December 21 in Alma-Ata, eight more
12:35 republics join the Commonwealth; 11
12:37 signatures in total.
12:39 Only Georgia and the three Baltic states
12:41 are missing.
12:42 Lena buys a ticket to Kharkiv for New
12:44 Year's. The cashier at the Tula station
12:45 , without looking up, says: "For now,
12:47 it's the same as before." What will
12:49 happen next, nobody knows.
12:51 Wednesday, December 25, Tula, five
12:53 minutes to seven in the evening. Just
12:55 you, Lena, and the television. At seven
12:57 , Gorbachev is on the screen. He speaks
12:59 for about 10 minutes. Due to the current
13:01 situation with the formation of the
13:03 Commonwealth, he is stepping down as
13:05 President of the Soviet Union.
13:07 He lists what he considers accomplished
13:09 and admits his main failure.
13:12 The old system collapsed before the new
13:14 one could start working, he says.
13:16 After the broadcast, he signs a decree
13:18 transferring control of the nuclear
13:19 arsenal to Yeltsin.
13:21 Half an hour later, the red flag is
13:23 lowered over the Kremlin and replaced by
13:25 the Russian tricolor.
13:27 On the snowy Red Square, only a few
13:29 random passersby witness it.
13:31 The next day, the Council of Republics
13:33 of the Supreme Soviet adopts a
13:34 declaration.
13:36 The Union, as a state and a subject of
13:38 international law, ceases to exist.
13:41 Why it happened is explained in
13:42 different ways. Yegor Gaidar, deputy
13:44 prime minister of the Russian government
13:46 at the time, later wrote that the empire
13:48 was ruined by grain and oil. Cities had
13:50 nothing to feed their people without
13:51 credit, and credit was no longer being
13:53 offered. Historian Serhii Plokhy
13:55 considers December 1 the decisive moment
13:57 After the Ukrainian vote, Russia
13:59 rejected a Union without Ukraine, and
14:01 the other republics saw no point in a
14:02 Union without Russia.
14:05 Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005
14:07 called the collapse of the Soviet Union
14:09 the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of
14:11 the century, while in Vilnius, Riga, and
14:13 Tallinn, 1991 is remembered as the year
14:15 independence returned.
14:17 Immediately after New Year's, on January
14:20 2, 1992, Russia will decontrol prices.
14:23 By January 1, they will increase nearly
14:25 3.5 times.
14:27 On December 30, you see Lena off at the
14:28 same train station. She left her
14:30 passport on the table, and you hand it
14:32 to her by the carriage. A red cover, the
14:34 emblem of a country that no longer
14:35 exists.
14:36 The train is the same, the conductor is
14:38 in the same uniform, the sign lists the
14:39 same cities, only now it travels from
14:41 one country to another.
14:43 You remember the March ballot. One
14:45 question, containing both the union, a
14:47 renewed federation, and sovereign
14:49 republics. You heard the word "union."
14:52 Valentina Ivanovna heard the word "
14:54 sovereign." In Moscow, Kyiv, and Minsk,
14:56 everyone read their own half of the
14:58 question. 113 million people answered "
15:01 yes." But each to their own question.
Judged by claude-sonnet-5.5-eu on 2026-11-14 17:49 UTC. A flag means “worth a look”; a person decides.