Gorbačëv e l’Ucraina: un rapporto contrastato

Historians have questioned Ukraine’s role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, offering conflicting assessments of the extent to which Kyiv’s disengagement influenced the Soviet state’s final fate. Despite the wealth of historiographical reflection on Ukraine’s significance in the collapse of the Ussr, studies on the reception of perestroika in Ukraine and on Gorbachev’s attitude toward the republic are scarce. This essay aims to fill this gap by examining memoirs, speeches by the general secretary, and firsthand archival sources. The essay reveals that Gorbachev had a personal and familial connection to Ukraine and considered its participation in the new Union treaty he was drafting to be essential. Furthermore, the efforts of the first and last Soviet president were guided by fears of a «Yugoslavia squared» scenario in the second Slavic republic. In his opinion, this scenario could have played out in Crimea, Donbas, and the southern regions if the leadership in Kyiv had not only embarked on the path to independence but also on the path of “separation” from the remnants of the Soviet Union.