A fallen empire

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the former Soviet Union, Geoffrey Roberts reflects on what led to the collapse of the institution instigated by the Bolsheviks in 1922

Soviet army tanks are parked near the Spassky Gate, an entrance to the Kremlin, after an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev (inset) in 1991, a coup that hastened the decline of the USSR. Gorbachev was respected abroad for his attempts to reform the USSR but at home he was perceived to be the destroyer of the former Soviet Union. Pictures: Getty

TWENTY years ago this month the largest country in the world broke up into 15 states. When Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR on Christmas Day 1991 it signalled the end of the multinational Soviet state ruled by communists for 70 years and the disintegration of the Eurasian empire constructed by their tsarist predecessors.