The Soviet Union officially fell and was dissolved on December 26, 1991, following a sequence of events that began with growing unrest in its republics and political crisis throughout 1991. The formal dissolution came after the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine signed the Belovezha Accords on December 8, 1991, declaring the Soviet Union effectively ended and creating the Commonwealth of Independent States to replace it. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, and the next day the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time. The dissolution marked the end of the Soviet Union as a sovereign state, leading to the independence of its 15 constituent republics.
