By most historical accounts, the day after Christmas in 1991 will be remembered as a good one for global human rights. With a failed coup behind it, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), the West's chief rival over the course of the three-plus decade Cold War, was officially dissolved, leaving returning member states independent and ending the Soviet Union's deplorable history of human rights abuses. Russia emerged the regional power, humbled and, for a time, appearing to liberalize the state-controlled economy and restrictions on religion, free speech and protests. Although many in Russia and the buffer nations once under its control struggled, human rights watchers and the international community were initially pleased at the movement toward liberalization.
