398 space exploration republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldavia) did not participate in the referendum since they claimed that they were not part of the Soviet Union Yeltsin claimed that the referendum was nothing more then an attempt by Gorbachev to generate support for his leadership Gorbachev then called a conference and invited Yeltsin and the presidents of eight other republics to talk about a proposal for a new Union Treaty and new Union Constitution Gorbachev and the other presidents signed a declaration supporting the drafting of a new treaty and constitution May saw more changes as the republics continued to move away from the Soviet Union On May the Russian branch of the KGB separated itself from the Soviet Union’s institution Moldavia changed its official name to the Moldavian Republic, dropping the words Soviet and Socialist Then on May 26 Georgia had its first-ever direct presidential election the coup Gorbachev and Yeltsin continued to work out the details of the new Union Treaty The treaty would keep the Soviet Union alive, but would limit the areas over which it could exercise control and make participation in the union voluntary Before the treaty was enacted, a group of hard-line communists launched a coup to remove Gorbachev from power The coup lasted for only three days The committee in charge of the coup announced a state of emergency and placed Gorbachev under house arrest, cutting off his ability to communicate with the outside world They then tried to get him to sign a decree declaring a state of emergency, but he refused With Gorbachev’s refusal to cooperate, the coup started to come unraveled The plotters had planned to arrest Yeltsin also, but missed their chance Instead, Yeltsin went to the Russian Parliament building and appealed to the citizens of Moscow to ignore the unlawful coup The military was unwilling to move against the civilians, and the coup ended on August 21 Gorbachev returned to Moscow Because of the coup, Yeltsin became the hero of the hour, and his popularity grew rapidly Unfortunately for Gorbachev, his popularity plummeted and accelerated the decline of the Soviet Union Yeltsin forced Gorbachev to return control of the natural resources and enterprises on Russian territory back to Russia from the Soviet Union December saw the Soviet Union brought to an end On December the Ukraine held a referendum to allow the people to vote in support of or against the declara- tion of independence from the Soviet Union The referendum passed by a wide margin Then the leaders of Russia, the Ukraine, and Belarus met to determine the future of the Soviet Union and their republics On December they announced the end of the Soviet Union and the creation of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Membership in the CIS was open to all former members of the Soviet Union and any other state interested in joining On December 12 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan joined the CIS More meetings were held on December 21, and Moldavia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia joined During this meeting the republics agreed to abolish the position of president of the Soviet Union Gorbachev still held the position, but on December 25, he announced his resignation With Gorbachev’s resignation the remaining members of the Soviet Parliament had the Soviet flag removed from the Kremlin, and at midnight on December 31, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist See also Russian Federation Further reading: Hanson, Philip The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945 New York: Pearson Education, 2003; Pearson, Raymond The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire 2d ed New York: Palgrave, 2002; Resmick, Stephen A., and Richard D Wolff Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR New York: Routledge, 2002 Dallace W Unger, Jr space exploration Humankind’s exploration of space began in the 1950s, with the first satellite, the Russian Sputnik, launched by rocket on October 4, 1957 It was followed on November by another, carrying a dog named Laika The United States moved into space exploration on February 1, 1958, with Explorer I A stream of similar robotic craft followed from both countries, carrying instruments that made various important discoveries Early space pioneering efforts built on the works of pre–World War II inventors such as the Russian schoolmaster Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, whose writings set out the basic principles for rocket propulsion, suggested multistage vehicles, and proposed liquid hydrogen as a fuel In the United States, Professor Robert Goddard suggested a method for reaching the moon Goddard built rockets too, and in 1935 successfully launched one