Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Separation of power and reform ===
{{Main|Perestroika}}
[[File:RIAN archive 699872 Dushanbe riots, February 1990.jpg|thumb|Nationalist anti-government [[1990 Dushanbe riots|riots in Dushanbe]], [[Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic|Tajikistan]], 1990]]
The [[Constitution of the Soviet Union|constitution]], which was promulgated in [[1924 Soviet Constitution|1924]], [[1936 Soviet Constitution|1936]] and [[1977 Soviet Constitution|1977]], did not limit state power.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sakwa, Richard |author-link=Richard Sakwa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vX1U5G_xnqcC |title=Soviet Politics in Perspective |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-07153-6 |page=106 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512042437/http://books.google.com/books?id=vX1U5G_xnqcC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> No formal [[separation of powers]] existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers<ref>{{cite book |author=Kucherov, Samuel |title=The Organs of Soviet Administration of Justice: Their History and Operation |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Archive Publishers]] |year=1970 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ssMUAAAAIAAJ |page=31 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512060346/http://books.google.com/books?id=ssMUAAAAIAAJ&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> that represented executive and [[legislative]] branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin<ref>{{cite book |author=Phillips, Steve |title=Lenin and the Russian Revolution |publisher=[[Heinemann (book publisher)|Heinemann]] |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_na0zfdhKQMC |isbn=978-0-435-32719-4 |page=71 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055812/http://books.google.com/books?id=_na0zfdhKQMC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> and Stalin,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |year=2005 |title=Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |page=1014}}</ref> as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,<ref>{{cite book |author=Service, Robert |title=History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century |publisher=[[Penguin Books Ltd]] |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ |page=379 |isbn=978-0-14-103797-4 |author-link=Robert Service (historian) |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511090135/http://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ&dq |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.<ref name="Khrushchev, Nikita-2007" /> All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except [[Georgy Malenkov]]<ref>{{cite book |author=Polley, Martin |title=A–Z of modern Europe since 1789 |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/azofmoderneurope0000poll |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-415-18597-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/azofmoderneurope0000poll/page/88 88] |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party.<ref name="Khrushchev, Nikita-2007">{{cite book |author=Khrushchev, Nikita |year=2007 |title=Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Volume 3: Statesman |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-271-02935-1 |page=674 |author-link=Nikita Khrushchev}}</ref>

Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]] was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |title=Gorbachev's Reform Dilemma |url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/18.htm |access-date=16 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623125043/http://countrystudies.us/russia/18.htm |archive-date=23 June 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the [[President of the Soviet Union]], concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,<ref>{{cite book |author=Polmar, Norman |title=The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute]] |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkGDkpkQh-sC |isbn=978-0-87021-241-3 |page=1 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/https://books.google.com/books?id=tkGDkpkQh-sC&dq |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> now renamed the [[Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR]], to himself.<ref>{{cite book |author=McCauley, Martin |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ycCZqmhhceMC |isbn=978-0-582-78465-9 |page=490 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/https://books.google.com/books?id=ycCZqmhhceMC&dq |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by [[Boris Yeltsin]] and controlling the newly elected [[Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR]], and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|coup attempt]]. The coup failed, and the [[State Council of the Soviet Union]] became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'.<ref>{{cite web |author=[[Government of the USSR]]: [[Gorbachev, Mikhail]] |script-title=ru:УКАЗ: ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ О МИНИСТЕРСТВЕ ЮСТИЦИИ СССР |trans-title=Law: About state governing bodies of USSR in a transition period on the bodies of state authority and administration of the USSR in Transition |url=http://www.sssr.su/zopp.html |date=21 March 1972 |publisher=sssr.su |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425162517/http://www.sssr.su/zopp.html |archive-date=25 April 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.<ref>{{cite book |author=Vincent Daniels, Robert |title=A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev |publisher=[[University Press of New England]] (UPNE) |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gTIZ2dvDKF0C |isbn=978-0-87451-616-6 |page=388 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041324/http://books.google.com/books?id=gTIZ2dvDKF0C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>