On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag flies over the Kremlin in Moscow for the last time. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announces that after 74 years as one of the world's most powerful nations, the Soviet Union no longer exists, and will break up in 15 separate countries.

Though the groundwork of the political and economic collapse was laid during the later part of the reign of Leonid Brezhnev, one economic asset will lead to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union.