Economic and political turmoil begins to boil over in 1991 as the Baltic states choose to secede from the Soviet Union.
On March 17, a referendum is held, in which the vast majority of participating citizens vote in favor of changing the Soviet Union into a renewed federation.
In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin becomes the first directly elected president in Russian history when he is elected president of the Russian SFSR.
In August 1991, a coup d'état attempt by members of Gorbachev's government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at preserving the Soviet Union, instead leads to the end of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
On December 25, 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, along with contemporary Russia, fourteen other post-Soviet states emerge.
