Transition period of the Soviet Union

The transition period of the Soviet Union was declared by the adoption of the Law of the Soviet Union "On the bodies of state power and administration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the transition period", which was signed into law on 5 September 1991.
It was assumed that the Soviet Union would come out of the transition period with a new name after all treaties were signed and came into force. However, this did not happen.

Background

In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika aimed to revitalize the Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling. Nationalist, democratic and liberal movements gained momentum across the Soviet republics, and the control of the Communist Party weakened.
In the Soviet Union, a Union Republic was a constituent federated political entity with a system of government called a Soviet republic, which was officially defined in the 1977 constitution as "a sovereign Soviet socialist state which has united with the other Soviet republics to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and whose sovereignty is limited by membership in the Union. As a result of its status as a sovereign state, the Union Republic de jure had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude treaties with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives and participate in the activities of international organizations.
In the process of perestroika, it was once again confirmed that de jure all Union republics have, constitutionally and in practice, the right to freely withdraw from the Soviet Union and even without the consent of the central government, but this process must be orderly. In particular, the consent of the Soviet Union as a permanent member of the UN Security Council was required to become a new member of the UN.
Another project of deep reform of the Soviet Union was also proposed. In 1989, the European-Asian Union was proposed by the co-chairman of the Interregional Deputy Group Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and with the participation of members of the group Galina Starovoitova, Anatoly Sobchak and others. Sakharov presented Gorbachev with his draft Constitution of the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia on 27 November 1989.

New Union Treaty

A less centralized federal system was proposed by Gorbachev during the Communist Party Congress of July 1990. A draft of the New Union Treaty was submitted to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on 23 November 1990. A drafting committee started work on the text on 1 January 1991. Six of the fifteen Soviet republics, however, did not participate in the drafting of the treaty: Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The proposal was approved by the Soviet of the Union on 6 March and sent to the Supreme Soviets of each republic for approval.

Referendum

A referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held on 17 March 1991 across the Soviet Union. The referendum asked whether to approve a new Union Treaty between the republics, to replace the 1922 treaty that created the USSR. The question put to most voters was:

Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any ethnicity will be fully guaranteed?

Coup attempt and response

A ceremony of the signing the New Union Treaty was scheduled for 20 August 1991, but was prevented by the August Coup a day earlier. Mikhail Gorbachev proved himself a weak leader and began to lose authority even more rapidly.
By September 1991, support for continuing the Soviet system had transitioned into reforming the Soviet Union into a confederation of sovereign states.
The Committee for Operational Management of the National Economy of the USSR was established by the Decree of the President of the USSR “On the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR” of 24 August 1991. Ivan Silayev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, was appointed to head the committee.

Transition period and new bodies of state power and administration

On 5 September 1991 the Law of the USSR “On the bodies of state power and administration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the transition period” was signed. According to it, the coordination of management of the national economy, economic reforms and social policy were entrusted to the Inter-Republican Economic Committee, which was being created by the Union Republics on a parity basis. According to the decree of the President of the USSR of 6 September, the committee was to cease its activity from the moment the IEC began its work. On 20 September, Ivan Silayev was appointed Chairman of the IEC.
According to the text of the law:

Article 1: During the transition period, the highest representative body of power of the Union of the USSR shall be the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, consisting of two separate chambers: the Soviet of the Republics and the Soviet of the Union.
Article 3: For the coordinated decision of internal and foreign policy matters affecting the common interests of the republics, the State Council of the USSR shall be formed on an inter-republican basis. The State Council of the USSR shall consist of the President of the USSR and the highest officials of the Union republics named in the Constitution of the USSR. The work of the State Council of the USSR is directed by the President of the USSR. The State Council of the USSR determines the procedure for its activities. Decisions of the State Council of the USSR shall be binding.
Article 4: The post of Vice-President of the USSR shall be abolished.
Article 5: In order to coordinate the management of the national economy and the coordinated implementation of economic reforms and social policy, the Union republics shall form, on a parity basis, the Inter-Republican Economic Committee. The Chairman of the Committee shall be appointed by the President of the USSR with the consent of the State Council of the USSR. The leadership of the Union-wide bodies in charge of defense, security, law and order and international affairs shall be exercised by the President of the USSR and the State Council of the USSR.
The Inter-Republican Economic Committee and the heads of the Union-wide bodies are accountable in their activities to the President of the USSR, the State Council of the USSR, and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

On 6 September 1991, the State Council of the USSR at its first meeting recognized the independence of the three Baltic republics: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Russia's special role as the legal successor to the Soviet Union and conflicts in RSFSR government

On 24 September, RSFSR State Secretary Gennady Burbulis arrived to Boris Yeltsin, who was on vacation at the Black Sea coast. He brought a document “Russia's Strategy for the Transition Period”, which later received the unofficial name “Burbulis Memorandum”. The “memorandum” contained an analysis of the situation in the country, proposals on what should be done without delay, prepared by Yegor Gaidar's group. The document concluded that Russia should take the course of economic independence with a “soft”, “temporary” political alliance with other republics, i.e. to create not a declared, but a truly independent state of Russia. 30 years later, Burbulis recalled that the Burbulis Memorandum was the reform concept of Gaidar's group: There was not any secrecy. First Yegor Gaidar made a report at the State Council of the RSFSR, and then Burbulis spoke at the State Council and said he would make a report for Yeltsin.
As the Kommersant newspaper wrote on 7 October 1991, a series of conflicts occurred in the RSFSR government during preparations for the signing of the Treaty on the Economic Community. In his speech to members of the Russian parliament, RSFSR State Secretary Gennady Burbulis declared Russia's special role as the legal successor to the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the ways of drafting agreements with the republics should be determined by the Russian leadership. Instead of the planned order, he suggested signing a political agreement first, followed by an economic one. The newspaper suggested that Burbulis' goal was to persuade Yeltsin not to sign the agreement as it stands at the time. Yegor Gaidar, Alexander Shokhin and Konstantin Kagalovsky were named as the developers of the statement made by Burbulis. In the same time, a group of "isolationist patriots" consisting of Mikhail Maley, Nikolai Fedorov, Alexander Shokhin, Igor Lazarev and Mikhail Poltoranin criticized Ivan Silaev and Yevgeny Saburov for wanting to preserve the Soviet Union.

Negotiations on an Economic treaty

On 1 October in Alma-Ata, at Nazarbayev's invitation, the leaders of 13 sovereign states and the Inter-Republican Economic Committee met in the format of Nazarbayev's plan “15 + 0”. Only Lithuania and Estonia did not participate. Nazarbayev announced that 10 of the 13 republic leaders present in Alma-Ata had pre-agreed to adopt an economic community treaty in the near future. As a result of the meeting a communiqué was signed. 8 republics - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan - adopted a statement on the need to sign a treaty on economic community before 15 October 1991. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova expressed their intention to join it later. According to Grigory Yavlinsky, on 1 October the draft Treaty was approved by the prime ministers and plenipotentiary representatives of the 12 sovereign republics.
Nazarbayev said that “the economic treaty is not only an economic, but also a political document. And the fact that 12 republics have clearly stated their intention to sign it allows me to be optimistic about the future.”
On 3 October, Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis held a press conference in Riga, where he spoke about the results of the meeting of leaders of 13 former Soviet republics held in Alma-Ata on 1 October. The Latvian prime minister confirmed that his state intends to become an associate member of the economic area and common market, which are formed by the former Soviet republics, but Latvia does not intend to use the ruble. Ivars Godmanis was the only representative of the Baltics: representatives of Estonia and Lithuania did not come to Alma-Ata.
The original proposed name was the Treaty on Economic Union, which was renamed the Treaty on Economic Community with a lower degree of integration. On 18 October 1991, in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace Mikhail Gorbachev and the leaders of eight Union republics signed the Treaty on the Economic Community as planned. Ukraine and Moldova said they would sign at a later date.
The signing ceremony was attended by a Ukrainian delegation headed by Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine Ivan Plyushch and Deputy Prime Minister Masik. Plyushch told journalists that the situation should not be perceived as “Ukraine slammed the door”. He firmly assured that Ukraine would join the community after discussing some remarks and concluding bilateral agreements between the republics. The signing ceremony was also attended by representatives of Moldova, who also clearly expressed the republic's desire to become a member of the newly created economic union.
The Treaty was signed in Moscow on 18 October 1991 in a single copy in the Russian language by the competent representatives: