On December 25

On this day in ...
... 1991 (20 years ago today), what The New York Times called "70 years of Communist tyranny" ended when Mikhail Gorbachev resigned with these words:

'I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.'

The televised 10-minute announcement came the demise of the Soviet Union, replaced by the Russia Federation (flag above right) and an 11-republic Commonwealth of Independent States "under the informal lead of President Boris N. Yeltsin of Russia." The former leader resurfaced in the news this month: Gorbachev "called on Russian authorities to annul the disputed results of parliamentary elections," held December 4, which critics called unfair.

(Prior December 25 posts are here, here, here, and here.)