"In 1989, the country entered the fifth year of the Perestroika. Less than three years left till the USSR would collapse. But at that moment it was unlikely anyone at the higher places could foresee such an impetuous prompt and inglorious ending of the history of the 'multinational state of the workers and peasants'. Then, it was in 1989 when the symptoms of the political crisis that ultimately resulted in the USSR's disintegration became apparent. "Suddenly", the hotbeds the political conflicts came to life not just in the Transcaucasia, but also in the Central Asia, Northern Caucasus, in the Crimea. In the Baltics, the centrifugal trends proved to be dominating."

"Since the very start of the Perestroika, M. S. Gorbachev declared the need to reform, democratize the nationalities policy. At that, solving numerous problems in the life and inter-relations of the USSR nationalities and republics were being postponed till the time, when some special plenary session of the CPSU Central Committee would find out the way to solve them. But the events of the first years of the Perestroika have proved, that there was no spare time to postpone the solution of the 'burning' problems.