<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev" id="mwAas" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Mikhail Gorbachev">Mikhail Gorbachev</a> resigns as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_Soviet_Union" id="mwAaw" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="President of the Soviet Union">President of the Soviet Union</a> (the union itself is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union" id="mwAa0" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Dissolution of the Soviet Union">dissolved</a> the next day). Ukraine's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Ukrainian_independence_referendum" id="mwAa4" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="1991 Ukrainian independence referendum">referendum</a> is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.<sup about="#mwt226" class="mw-ref reference" data-mw='{"name":"ref","attrs":{},"body":{"id":"mw-reference-text-cite_note-43"}}' id="cite_ref-43" rel="dc:references" typeof="mw:Extension/ref"><a href="./December_25#cite_note-43" id="mwAa8" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 43;"><span class="mw-reflink-text" id="mwAbA">[43]</span></a></sup>
<span class="mw-reference-text" id="mw-reference-text-cite_note-43"><cite about="#mwt223" class="citation book cs1" id="CITEREFTaubman2017">Taubman, William (2017). <a class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iNDADQAAQBAJ" id="mwCdc" rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow"><i id="mwCdg">Gorbachev: His Life and Times</i></a>. New York City: Simon and Schuster. p.<span id="mwCdk" typeof="mw:Entity"> </span>638. <a class="mw-redirect" href="./ISBN_(identifier)" id="mwCdo" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a><span id="mwCds" typeof="mw:Entity"> </span><a href="./Special:BookSources/978-1471147968" id="mwCdw" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Special:BookSources/978-1471147968"><bdi id="mwCd0">978-1471147968</bdi></a>.</cite><span about="#mwt223" class="Z3988" id="mwCd4" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&amp;rft.genre=book&amp;rft.btitle=Gorbachev%3A+His+Life+and+Times&amp;rft.place=New+York+City&amp;rft.pages=638&amp;rft.pub=Simon+and+Schuster&amp;rft.date=2017&amp;rft.isbn=978-1471147968&amp;rft.aulast=Taubman&amp;rft.aufirst=William&amp;rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DiNDADQAAQBAJ&amp;rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ADecember+25"></span></span>