1991 in the Soviet Union and Russia

• President of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev (until 25 December)
• General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev (until 24 August), Vladimir Ivashko (24–29 August)
• Chairman of the Supreme Soviet – Mikhail Gorbachev
• Vice President of the Soviet Union – Gennady Yanayev (until 4 September)
• Premier of the Soviet Union –
  • until 14 January – Nikolai Ryzhkov
  • 14 January - 22 August – Valentin Pavlov
  • 22 August - 6 September – vacant
  • 6 September - 26 December – Ivan Silayev

• Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia as head of state – Boris Yeltsin (until 10 July)
• President of Russia – Boris Yeltsin (from 10 July)
• Vice President of Russia – Alexander Rutskoy (Patriots of Russia) (from 10 July)
• Prime Minister of Russia – Ivan Silayev (until 26 September), Oleg Lobov (26 September – 6 November, de facto acting Prime Minister), Boris Yeltsin (President as extraordinary head of cabinet from 6 November)

January Events (Lithuania)

1991 Soviet Union referendum

• 10 March - 500,000-participants rally on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow. The main slogans of the action were the resignation of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, support for Boris Yeltsin, active participation in the all-Union referendum. Organizers: Democratic Russia, Moscow Association of Voters, Memorial Society.
• 17 March - 1991 Russian presidential referendum: 71% of the participants voted in favor of introducing the post of the President of Russia. At the same day the referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held.[1]

• 12 June - 1991 Russian presidential election. Boris Yeltsin and Alexander Rutskoy elected as the first President and Vice President of Russia.[1]

George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign START I treaty in Moscow

• 19 to 22 August - 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
• 19 August -
  • The "State Committee for the State of Emergency" created from the hardline Union-level functioners wishing to reverse the USSR's disintegration. State of emergency declared in certain regions of the country, military units and tanks entered in Moscow.
  • The first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin issued an address "To the citizens of Russia", in which the actions of the State Emergency Committee are characterized as a coup. Yeltsin urged the population to rebuff the putschists. Start of mass pro-democratic rallies in Moscow and Leningrad.
  • 22 August - Putschists arrested. The white-blue-red flag restored as the Russian national flag.

• 8 December - Belovezha Accords signed by Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, declared USSR had effectively ceased to exist and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
• 21 December - Alma-Ata Protocol signed by 11 of 15 former union republics except Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Georgia, declared USSR had effectively ceased to exist and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
• 25 December -
  • The sole President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned.
  • Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic officially renamed into the Russian Federation.
• 26 December - The Soviet of the Republics, the upper house of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, declared the dissolution of the Soviet Union.