历史小径·世界史英语30篇（1）
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Moscow’s Silence: Collapse and the Birth of Fifteen States
莫斯科的沉默：解体与十五国新生
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On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president, and the red flag was lowered from the Kremlin.
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Fifteen republics—including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Georgia—declared full sovereignty within weeks of the USSR’s formal end.
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Russian leaders scrambled to control nuclear weapons scattered across newly independent nations like Belarus and Ukraine.
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Economic shock therapy replaced central planning overnight, causing hyperinflation and empty store shelves across the region.
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Baltic states celebrated regained independence with singing festivals and restored pre-Soviet flags raised in Tallinn and Riga.
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In Central Asia, former Communist officials simply renamed themselves presidents and kept old party networks intact.
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The Commonwealth of Independent States formed as a loose forum, but real power now flowed from capitals like Astana and Tashkent.
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NATO expanded eastward slowly, provoking suspicion in Moscow about Western intentions toward former Soviet lands.
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Ethnic tensions once suppressed by Moscow erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria, sparking frozen conflicts.
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The Soviet collapse didn’t bring instant democracy—it opened space for new identities, new elites, and new uncertainties.