English: Map of the Soviet Union showing how the republics voted in the March 1991 referendum to preserve the Soviet Union. The question posed to most voters was: Do you consider it necessary to preserve the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedoms of people of every nationality are fully guaranteed? Authorities in the republics of Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova boycotted the referendum; the majority of voters in the other nine republics voted yes. However, follow up action was prevented by political instability, and ultimately a series of independence referendums followed in the individual republics, leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991 .