Today in History: Soviet Union Died - On Christmas

30 years ago today, on December 25, 1991, in a televised speech the official end of the Soviet Union took place when Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR.

Formally transferring his presidential powers (and nuclear codes) to Boris Yeltsin, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin that evening - to be replaced by the Russian tricolor.

Gorbachev's resignation followed the failed August coup, the rise of nationalist movements, economic instability, and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) by other republics, effectively dismantling the USSR.

Ironic, it is, that an atheistic state dies on the holiest holiday of the most profitably and progressive religion of all time --- after terrorizing the world for 69 years.

If I 'wert a god, that's how Ida done it, too. ;-)

Let freedom reign?