We bring you a special edition of the FRANCE 24 Debate marking the 30th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Growing up, it seemed as if the zero-sum game of the Cold War would last forever. What did we see coming? And what did we miss as supplies ran low, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant broke down, the Red Army suffered setbacks in Afghanistan and the Communist Party's grip started to loosen, in the far reaches of an empire that stretched over 11 time zones?
By Christmas Day of 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev was president of a federation that no longer existed, with states declaring independence and forming the Commonwealth of Independent States.
So what's left of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire that preceded it? It's been a rollercoaster ride, with nations like Belarus that are firmly in Moscow's sphere, nations that left and joined the West like the Baltic states and Georgia, and nations that remain a battleground, like present-day Ukraine. How does our reading of the past inform our understanding of the present?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain and Imen Mellaz.
