The last days of the Soviet Union 

On December 21, 1991, eleven representatives of the republics that formed the Soviet Union signed a document declaring it extinct.

 That same year, the USSR lived a broader crisis.

 By the time of signing the treaty, eleven of the fifteen Soviet republics had declared their independence.

 At Christmas, President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned to power in a ceremony broadcast to the whole world, and declared the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

 Officially, the dissolution occurred on December 31, 1991, after 69 years of existence. 

Recalling the words of Mark Twain, it may be that one day history will rhyme, and some similar union of countries happen, but it certainly will not be equal to that which existed in the past.