Communist Party of the Soviet Union along with the institution of free multiparty elections led to a decline in the party's power, and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the banning of the party by later last RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin and subsequent first President of an evolving democratic and free market economy of the successor Russian Federation. A number of causes contributed to CPSU's loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the early 1990s. Some historians have written that Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost" (political openness) was the root cause, noting that it weakened the party's control over society. Gorbachev maintained
Gorbachev Peace (Fabergé egg) Gorbachev Peace (Fabergé egg) The Gorbachev Peace Egg is a Fabergé egg by Fabergé workmaster Victor Mayer. In 1991 Herbert Mohr-Mayer gave the Gorbachev Peace Egg to Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the former Soviet Union. It was given as a tribute to the way in which Gorbachev had succeeded in reducing tensions between East and West. Mikhail Gorbachev donated this Fabergé egg as an Easter present to the Kremlin Museum in Moscow. The egg is made of 18Kt yellow gold and covered with transparent green vitreous enamel. The upper half of the egg opens up and reveals a golden dove.