Autonomous states come together to form a union called

-Was a result of different causes:

   -Reform in the Soviet Union.

        -In 1985, Gorbachev was named Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party and leader of the USSR. He approved important reforms known as perestroika

        -Political reforms:

            -The USSR permitted other political parties

            -The USSR adopted a new policy called glasnost-it permitted freedom of speech

        -Economic reforms:

            -Private ownership of land was allowed

            -Spending cuts were introduced

    -The collapse of the Eastern Bloc:

         -The 1989 elections in Poland, which were won by Solidarity- a non-communist party

         -In 1989, the people of Berlin pulled down the Berlin Wall. In 1990, the GDR (East Germany) was disolved and Germany was reunified

         -The Communist states of Eastern Europe became democracies

         -The disolution of Yugoslavia (1990)

    -The disolution of the URSS:

         -Independence movements had emerged in the Soviet republics after the introduction of perestroika

         -In 1991, a number of these republic obtained independence, Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union was dissolved

        -The URSS was replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

        -The Russian Federation was created in 1991 and its first president was Boris Yeltsin