How The End Of The USSR Changed Eastern Europe

On December 26 1991, the USSR was officially disbanded and fifteen new countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia were created. The chart below marks them with a squiggly red line.

Many of the 15 had already formalised declarations of independence before the legal dissolution of the USSR.

The parliament of Ukraine had already declared independence in August

Eastern Germany had joined up with West Germany in October 1990.

In 1991 and 1992, Yugoslavia broke up into Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In December 1992, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 but is only partially recognised by the UN with Russia, China, Serbia and others still seeing it as part of Serbia.