Boris Yeltsin served as the first President of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999. He played a pivotal role in the transition of Russia from a socialist state to a post-Soviet market economy, overseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the new Russian state structure.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was formed in December 1991 by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, and was later joined by other former Soviet republics. It was created to facilitate a managed transition and maintain cooperation among the newly independent states in areas such as trade, security, and law enforcement, following the collapse of the USSR.

In August 1991, a group of hardline members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union attempted a coup d'état against President Mikhail Gorbachev. They sought to reverse his reform policies of glasnost and perestroika. The failure of this coup accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to its formal dissolution in December 1991.

The Bolshevik Revolution, also known as the October Revolution of 1917, took place in Russia. Led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, it resulted in the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government and the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. This event fundamentally altered the course of 20th-century history, leading to the creation of the Soviet Union and the spread of communist ideology globally, significantly impacting international relations for decades.

Within the structure of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was the largest. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic held the position of the second-largest republic in terms of both population and industrial significance before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was composed of 15 constituent republics. These included the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR, Armenian SSR, Turkmen SSR, and Estonian SSR.

Boris Yeltsin became the first President of the Russian Federation in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He served until his resignation in 1999, overseeing the transition from a socialist planned economy to a market-based system during the early post-Cold War era.

Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Russian Federation was recognized by the international community as the successor state, inheriting the Soviet Union's seat at the United Nations Security Council and its nuclear arsenal.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in the emergence of 15 independent sovereign states. This event fundamentally altered the international system, ending the bipolarity of the Cold War and presenting a significant challenge to realist theories that had predicted the long-term stability of the superpower rivalry. The transition of these republics into independent actors remains a critical subject in the study of post-Cold War international relations.

Leonid Kravchuk was elected as the first President of independent Ukraine in December 1991 after the collapse of the USSR. While Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the current leader, serving as the seventh president, Kravchuk played a pivotal role in the early transition of the Ukrainian state during the post-Soviet era.