BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bush, George H. W., and Boris Yeltsin. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, 30 Nov. 1991. White House, 30 Nov. 1991.
   • President Yeltsin: “Gorbachev is always telling me that he’ll get together with Ukrainian leaders and they will sign the agreement. But if the referendum shows that the majority of the people of Ukraine are for independence, then that means that Ukrainians will not sign the treaty now in preparation for a Union of Sovereign States. That would dramatically change the balance in the Union between slavic and islamic nations. We can’t have a situation where Russia and Byelorussia have two votes as slavic states against five for the Islamic nations.“
2. Knorr, Mackensie. “Why Did Russia Let the Republics Go? Revisiting the Fall of the USSR.” Wilson Center, Kennan Institute, 20 May 2013.
   • Plokhii explained that it was Russia’s takeover of Soviet institutions that prompted the declarations of Ukrainian independence that echoed throughout the Soviet Union over the following week. Once Russia’s attempt to take over Union institutions failed in the wake of Ukrainian declaration of independence, Yeltsin knew his political career depended upon successfully governing Russia rather than preserving or replacing the Soviet Union. Drastic economic reforms were to be planned with only Russia in mind, disregarding the republics. Ethnic and religious considerations also played a role in Yeltsin and Russian elites deciding to abandon the Union: Once it was clear that Ukraine was lost, Russia was not interested in a union with a greatly diminished Slavic influence relative to the populations of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Knorr).