ABSTRACT
True, most of the fifteen republics that made up the USSR had declared themselves independent (or at least 'sovereign') in the wake of the August 19th abortive putsch, but there still was a USSR. And, although he was a very lame duck, Mikhail Gorbachev was still its president. Few foreign states wanted to offend him by jumping the gun and recognizing what he did not--namely, that he was president of a concept in history.
