Belovezha Accords

Agreement establishing the
Commonwealth of Independent States
The signing ceremony at Viskuli Government House
TypeTreaty establishing a loose regional organisation
Signed8 December 1991
LocationViskuli, Belovezh Forest, Belarus
(de facto)
Minsk, Minsk Oblast, Belarus
(de jure)
Effective
  • Belarus 10 December 1991
  • Russia 12 December 1991
  • Kazakhstan 23 December 1991
  • Tajikistan 25 December 1991
  • ArmeniaTurkmenistan 26 December 1991
  • Uzbekistan 4 January 1992
  • Kyrgyzstan 6 March 1992
  • Azerbaijan 24 September 1993
  • Georgia (country) 3 December 1993
  • Moldova 8 April 1994
Signatories
Parties
DepositaryBelarus Republic of Belarus
LanguagesBelarusian, Russian, Ukrainian

The Belovezha Accords (Belarusian: Белавежскае пагадненне, Russian: Беловежские соглашения, romanizedBjelovežskije soglašenija, Ukrainian: Біловезькі угоди, romanizedBiloveźki uhody) is the agreement declaring that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had effectively ceased to exist and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place as a successor entity. The documentation was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus on 8 December 1991, by leaders of three of the four republics (except for the defunct Transcaucasian SFSR) which had signed the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR:[1]

As Shushkevich said in 2006, by December "the union had already been broken up by the putschists" who in August 1991 tried to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from power to prevent the transformation of the Soviet Union into what Shushkevich described as "a confederation." The three wanted to avoid what happened in the Breakup of Yugoslavia and "there was no other way out of the situation than a divorce."[2]

  1. ^ "14 Years of Belavezha Accords' Signing". Charter'97. 8 December 2005. Archived from the original on 3 February 2007.
  2. ^ "Soviet Leaders Recall 'Inevitable' Breakup Of Soviet Union". Radio Free Europe. 8 December 2006.