On Dec. 26, 1991, the upper house of the Soviet legislature officially voted to end the empire that was the Soviet Union. The day before, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last ruler, announced his resignation, and Russian leader Boris Yeltsin had the Russian tricolour raised over the Kremlin. Geopolitically, the event’s historical significance rivaled Napoleon’s abdication on June 22, 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo, and the end of the Nazi-led German empire on May 8, 1945. All three events marked the end of a hegemonic challenge to the global balance of power. For the subjects of the Soviet Union, December 26, 1991, meant the end of an evil empire that rose from the ashes of the First World War.
