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Gorbachev was born in the small town of Privolnoye, Russia.
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The Soviet Union wanted a younger leader who could last longer than the previous leaders, so the Central Committee decided to elect Gorbachev as the General Secretary.
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In countries lying on the outskirts of the Soviet Union, there developed dissention. First, Estonia wished to withdraw from the Soviet Union, then the region of Nagorno-Karabagh followed in Estonia's footsteps. Gorbachev refused to allow them to secede and this led to a war over territory which has not stopped even to this day.
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Gorbachev is elected to be the Executive President of the Soviet Union by the new parliament.
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Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Byelorussia, and the Central Asian republics all wanted to separate from the Soviet Union and become their own country. Gorbachev was struggling to hold the Soviet Union together.
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A coup formed to kidnap Gorbachev. Once he was kidnapped, the coup announced to the people of the Soviet Union that Gorbachev had fallen ill and that he could not rule anymore. The people of the Soviet Union rebellled and the coup ordered the army to attack the people and end the rebellion. The army refused to attack their fellow countrymen and the coup soon fell apart without the army to back them up.
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The countries were able to rebel without repurcussions from the Soviet Union's army because the army rebelled against the coup and the Soviet Union fell apart into 15 separate countries.
