History of the United States (1980–1991) which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony." Nationalist agitation in the Baltic States for independence led to first Lithuania and then the other two states, Estonia and Latvia, declaring independence from the Soviet Union. On December 26, 1991, the USSR was officially disbanded, breaking up into fifteen constituent parts. The Cold War was over, and the vacuum left by the collapse of governments such as in Yugoslavia and Somalia revealed or reopened other animosities concealed by decades of authoritarian rule. While there was a certain reluctance among the U.S.
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the USSR Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the USSR The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the USSR refers to the period in its history between 1939 and 1991, when Western Ukraine was under Soviet rule. Soviet policy toward the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church cannot be understood simply in terms of Marxist–Leninist ideology. The precedent for Stalinist church policy in Western Ukraine can be found in the treatment of the Greek-Catholic Church during centuries of tsarist rule and the pattern of relations between the Russian state and the Orthodox Church. Hostility toward the so-called "Uniate Church" dates back to the Union of Brest