| Abstract: | A plan for the most ambitious political reform in Soviet historywas approved by the USSR's parliament in late 1988. As the reformunfolded, a key component came to be what Mikhail S. Gorbachevcalled "a renewed federal structure. "Reform proponents arguedthat only a renewed federalism could provide for the continuedintegrity of the Soviet state while assuring greater responsivenessto local demands. However, the attempt to breathe life intothe USSR's pseudo-federal structure unleashed long-suppressednationalist, territorial, and localist sentiments. Beginningin 1990, "refederalization" passed from mainly rhetorical discussionto a plan for a more loosely organized federation under theauspices of a Union Treaty. Following the attempted coup d'étatby Kremlin hard-liners in August 1991, pressures for decentralizationled, in the closing weeks of 1991, to the complete abandonmentof the "Great Soviet experiment." With the demise of the USSR,the plan for federal redesign was superseded by the rapid emergenceof independent states. |
