The last months of the Soviet Union in photos

• The last months of the Soviet Union in photographs

Everyone knows that the USSR was going to ruin for a long time. The reasons can be called a lot - authoritarian states, monocentrism decision, the state's inability to meet the population demands, constant lag in living standards of the developed countries of the West, and by the end, unsuccessful attempts to reform the political and economic system, which, in fact, led to the very collapse.

People buy a cup of a shop in the center of Vilnius, 27 April 1990 In spite of the economic blockade of Lithuania by the Soviet Union on its 10th day in Vilnius shopping smoothly received food and other goods of the consumer. (AP Photo / Dusan Vranic)

mothers who lost their sons in the Red Army, standing on the Red Square with photos of their favorite children Monday, December 24, 1990 The walls of the Kremlin while protesting about 200 parents whose sons were killed in the violence meeetnicheskogo army. During 1990 about 6000 soldiers were killed in the Soviet Union. (AP Photo / Martin Cleaver)

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on Manezh Square in Moscow on March 10, 1991 with the requirements of the abdication of Mikhail Gorbachev and his communist allies. The crowd consisted of 500 thousand people, and it was the largest anti-government demonstration since the communists came to power. (AP Photo / Dominique Mollard)

Mikhail Gorbachev, surrounded by his "friends" in a few weeks before they lead the August coup. Next to Gorbachev standing vice-president of the USSR Gennady Yanayev, who will soon become the most prominent figure in the coup. In the photo - the country's leaders at a gala kindled fire on the grave of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin in May, 1991 (AFP / EPA / Alain-Pierre Hovasse)

The Soviet tanks on a background of St. Basil's Cathedral and Spasskaya tower of August 19, 1991 The tanks drove all over Moscow to the White House, where Boris Yeltsin rallied his supporters and signed a decree "On the illegality of the actions of the coup." (Dima Tanin / AFP / Getty Images)

The leaders of the August coup, left to right: Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Boris Pugo, Vice-President of the USSR Gennady Yanayev, deputy chairman of the Defense Council Oleg Baklanov. They formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency, and tried to prevent the collapse of the USSR. (Vitaly Armand / AFP / Getty Images)

The crowd surrounded the armored personnel carrier, trying to block the road August 19, 1991 Military equipment out on the streets of Moscow after it was announced that President Mikhail Gorbachev was removed from his post and was replaced by Gennady Yanayev. (AP Photo / Boris Yurchenko)

Boris Yeltsin Supporters wheeled barricades large pipe, August 19, 1991 (Anatoly Sapronyenkov / AFP / Getty Images)

Boris Yeltsin on a tank in front of the government's August 19, 1991, Yeltsin addressed a crowd of supporters with his statement on the illegality of the coup action. (Diane-Lu Hovasse / AFP / Getty Images)

Statement by the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, August 20, 1991 on television. In it he said that in the country there is an anti-constitutional coup, and his health is all right. (NBC TV / AFP / Getty Images)

A demonstrator attacks a Soviet soldier near the White House August 19, 1991 On this day, thousands of people in Moscow, Leningrad and other cities of the country began to build barricades Well path of armored vehicles and troops. (Dima Tanin / AFP / Getty Images)

A protester talks with a Soviet soldier in the evening August 20, 1991 (Andre Durand / AFP / Getty Images)

Demonstrators play guitar and talking to the soldiers in front of the White House August 20, 1991 (Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images)

The people at the barricades in front of the White House August 21, 1991 (Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images)

soldier waving the tricolor and his war machine, while the rest of the military equipment out of its borders after the suppression of the putsch August 21, 1991 The leaders of the putsch escaped from the capital or committed suicide. (Willy Slingerland / AFP / Getty Images)

A crowd of cheering people outside the Russian government building rejoices end putsch August 22, 1991 (AP Photo) "

The celebrations in honor of the coup failure in the memory of those who died in August 1991 (AFP / EPA / Alain-Pierre Hovasse)

Demolition of the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square in Moscow on August 22, 1991 (Anatoly Sapronenkov / AFP / Getty Images)

Baku resident chops ax portrait of the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, September 21, 1991 Azerbaijan was declared a Soviet republic in 1920, and voted for independence in 1991, the National Council of Azerbaijan. (Anatoly Sapronenkov / AFP / Getty Images)

The woman put the bag on the dumped from the pedestal "hammer and sickle". December 25, 2011 was the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the USSR. (Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images)

The young Lithuanian sitting on the statue of Vladimir Lenin in Vilnius on September 1, 1991 (Gerard Fouet / AFP / Getty Images)

Soviet family looks appeal Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev of the resignation of 25 December 1991 Gorbachev's reforms have given the inhabitants of the red empire freedom, but at the same time, led to its destruction. (AP Photo / Sergei Kharpukhin)

One of the last evenings when the red flag flies over the Kremlin and Red Square, the evening of Saturday 21 December, 1991. The flag had been replaced by the Russian tricolor in the New Year night. (AP Photo / Gene Berman)