 |
The reformist leadership dealt a deathblow to the power monopoly of
the Communist Party
|
|
|
The party sustained a critical loss of authority |
|
|
It was held responsible for all the mistakes and crimes of the
Communist period |
|
|
Democratisation eroded the ideological
foundations of the Soviet state |
|
|
Following the 1990 republican and local elections, real power began
to shift from the discredited center to the republics |
|
|
The republics began to replicate the institution of presidency and
elect their own presidents |
|
|
The new republican elites now derived legitimacy from their voting
constituencies |
|
|
Mounting confrontation between the republics and the Kremlin: “war
of laws”
|
|
|
Declarations of sovereignty and claims of sovereign control over the
assets in their territories |
|
|
The result of this political reform was the disintegration of the
Soviet political and constitutional systems |
