Northern Eurasia 1991: Baltic Indepedence
 
	
	6 September 1991
											
												6 Sep 1991
											
										
										
									
										
										
										
									
										
										
										
									
										
										
										
									
										
										
										
									
										
										
										
									
										
										
										
									
										
											Successors of the Soviet Union
									
										
											
												1816–1914 Late Tsarist Russia
											
										
									
										
											
												1914–1918 Great War and the Revolution
											
										
									
										
											
												1918–1921 Russian Civil War: The White Phase
											
										
									
										
											
												1921–1927 Russian Civil War: The Green Phase
											
										
									
										
											
												1927–1941 Soviet Union under Stalin
											
										
									
										
											
												1941–1943 Great Patriotic War: Germany Invades
											
										
									
										
											
												1943–1945 Great Patriotic War: Germany at Bay
											
										
									
										
											
												1945–1991 Soviet Superpower
											
										
									
										
											
												1991–pres Successors of the Soviet Union
											
										
									
								
							Baltic Indepedence
						
							
								6 Sep 1991 Baltic Indepedence
							
						
							
								12 Dec 1991 Belavezha Accords
							
						
							
								25 Dec 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union
							
						
							
								4 Oct 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis
							
						
							
								18 Jun 1995 First Chechen War
							
						
							
								6 Feb 2000 Second Chechen War
							
						
							
								13 Nov 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan
							
						
							
								23 Mar 2005 Color Revolutions
							
						
							
								7 Aug 2008 South Ossetia War
							
						
							
								27 Feb 2014 Crimean Crisis
							
						
							
								30 Jun 2014 Donbas Rebellion
							
						
							
								30 Sep 2015 Syrian Civil War
							
						
							
								9 Nov 2016 Russian Electoral Interventions
							
						
							
								22 Mar 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
							
						
							
								16 Jan 2023 Battle of Bakhmut
							
						
							
								24 Jun 2023 Wagner Group rebellion
							
						
							
								17 Feb 2024 Battle of Avdiivka
							
						
							
								20 Aug 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion
							
						
							
								15 Jan 2025 Northern Eurasia Today
							
						
					
				The first republics to break away from the Soviet Union were the Baltic states, whose 1940 annexation had never been recognized by the West. Lithuania had declared independence in 1990, with international pressure seeing off a Soviet attempt at reconquest. In the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, the Soviet Union recognized the independence of all three Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.