Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev looks
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev looks downcast as he addresses the Nation to announce his resignation on a TV image taken in Moscow on December 25, 1991. Gorbachev thus ended nearly seven years of power and signalled the end of the Soviet Union which had begun in 1917 with the Revolution. AFP PHOTO TV/APH (Photo credit should read TV GRAB/AFP via Getty Images)