Preconditions, course and results of the "parade of sovereignties"

Abstract

“Parade of Sovereignties” is an ironic denomination for the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a rule, the collapse of the Soviet superpower is linked either to the defects of M.Gorbachev’s policy of restructuring the socio-political regime and the socioeconomic system, or to the will of the leaders of the three Slavic republics who gathered in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus) and announced that the USSR as a geopolitical reality no longer existed. The article reveals that the actions of the leaders of the all-Union center and the Union Republics in the situation of a deepening systemic crisis significantly influenced the process of disintegration of the USSR, but the process of the disintegration itself was conditioned both by objective reasons that emerged in the second half of the 20th century and by the actions of the leaders of the RCP(b)–VKP(b)–CPSU of previous generations. It also proves that both the politicians and the social scientists of the third Soviet generation misunderstood the nature of the Soviet system of power, which form significantly differed from its essence. In this connection, the radical difference between revolutionary Marxism of the middle of the 19th century and Leninism which was formed in other historical circumstances is substantiated. The author analyzes the unique model of totalitarian power created by V.Lenin that had nothing to do with Marxism, but used the Marxist phraseology to mask its independence on the people. Particular attention is paid to the circumstances of the development and approval of the 1988 constitutional reform, which destroyed the Leninist model of power and returned to the citizens the sovereignty gained by society after the overthrown of autocracy, but lost after the Bolshevik coup in the autumn of 1917. Removing the party from the implementation of state functions and the introduction of free elections with alternative candidates turned the Soviets (Councils) into organs of democratic power, while the party was thrown back on the roadside of political life. Since the Soviet empire, including the enslaved countries of Central and Eastern Europe, was based on the dictatorship of the CPSU leaders, the elimination of this dictatorship led to the sovereignty of the first external belt of the empire and then the Union republics unexpectedly for the initiators of the policy of perestroika. This paper proves that the process of transition of power from the Communist Party committees to the Soviets (Councils) of people’s deputies elected in free elections was quite lengthy and combined with the process of sovereignty of the Union republics. The Sovereignty of the Ukrainian SSR can be traced through the study of the circumstances of the adoption of two state-building documents – the Declaration on State Sovereignty and the Act of Declaration of Independence. Particular attention is paid to the relations between the communist majority and the opposition within the people’s deputies of the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council), as well as the flowing relationship between the orthodox communists and the sovereign communists within the communist majority. The author also determines the circumstances, under which the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada, which consisted mainly of representatives of the communist majority, initially ceased the activity of the CPSU–KPU on the territory of Ukraine, and, in a few days, banned the Communist Party of Ukraine.