Page 133 - Olympism in Socialism

shattered the formerly powerful communist
unity. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and
separatist movements inside the USSR as well.
Central authorities initiated a referendum—
boycotted by the Baltic republics, Armenia,
Georgia, and Moldova—which resulted in the
majority of participating citizens voting in favor of
preserving the Union as a renewed federation. In
August 1991, a coup d'état was attempted by
Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with
Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a high-
profile role in facing down the coup, resulting in
the banning of the Communist Party. On 25
December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the
remaining twelve constituent republics emerged
from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as
independent post-Soviet states. The Russian
Federation (formerly the Russian SFSR) assumed
the Soviet Union's rights and obligations and is
recognized as its continued legal personality.
The USSR produced many significant social
and technological achievements and innovations
of the 20th century, including the world's first
ministry of health, first human-made satellite,
the first humans in space and the first probe to
land on another planet, Venus. The country had
the world's second-largest economy and the
largest standing military in the world. The USSR
was recognized as one of the five nuclear
weapons states. It was a founding permanent
member of the United Nations Security
Council as well as a member of the OSCE,
the WFTU and the leading member of the Council
for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw
Pact. Before the dissolution, the country had
maintained its status as one of the world's
two superpowers for four decades after World
War II through its hegemony in Eastern Europe,

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