National holidays with names like Independence Day sound like they ought to be major events and defining symbols in a state's life. But Russian Independence Day, celebrated on June 12, still has an unfamiliar ring about it. For most, it is just a convenient opportunity to spend a summer's day at the dacha or in the vegetable plot.

In most cases, independence is a clear enough notion. One state, usually a colony of some form or another, wins sovereignty from a colonizer. The United States won its independence from Great Britain, 14 former Soviet Republics won their independence from Moscow. But in the case of the 15th-Russia-definitions become somewhat blurred.

Independence from whom? That is the question often asked in regard to Russia. In the minds of a good number of Westerners, Russia and the Soviet Union were often synonymous. The same could be said of how Russians themselves saw their country.

Decades of state propaganda reinforced the idea that Russia was the core and foundation of the entire state. Even when Joseph Stalin, a Georgian by nationality, ruled the country, he liked to emphasize Russia's leading role and identify himself with Russia, particularly during the war years. The Soviet national anthem spoke of Russia welding the Soviet Union together, Russian as the common language, and Russia the historic power in the region.

But Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost, by loosening the ideological straitjacket that had kept the Soviet Union bound together, inadvertently unleashed independence movements throughout the country.

Many likened the movements to a centrifugal force, with the various republics spinning inexorably further and further out of Moscow's control. Several republics, led by the three Baltic states, proclaimed their independence and pressed the Kremlin to enter negotiations on a redistribution of power.

Each of the Soviet republics had the attributes of a sovereign state-political and administrative institutions that duplicated the All-Union structures and wielded little real power. In a sense, by allowing political debate to spread, Gorbachev let the sovereignty genie out of the bottle. As perestroika gathered momentum, the republics demanded a greater role for their own institutions and Russia had no intention of being left behind.

The Russian Congress of People's Deputies, with Boris Yeltsin at its head, adopted a declaration of independence on June 12, 1990 in a rare show of near-unanimity. What the declaration meant in theory was that Russian power structures had the right to make their own decisions regarding all political and social issues in the country, except in cases where powers were voluntarily delegated to Soviet power structures.

But the practical implications of the declaration went much further. It sounded the death knell for the Soviet Union as a unified state. By proclaiming the precedence of Russian laws and authority on Russian territory, the Russian Congress of People's Deputies effectively set up a dual system of power.

It was not the first time in recent history that this notion took hold. The term was first applied to the situation in 1917 following the February revolution, when a provisional government composed of mostly centrists and democratic socialists found themselves having to share power with the Petersburg Soviet, which uniting more radical elements.

Dual power proved a disaster in 1917, and along with Russia's continued participation in the First World War, was one of two main factors that led to the government's downfall after only eight months in power. Neither the provisional government nor the Soviet could act effectively, and Lenin turned the ensuing paralysis to his advantage.

In the beginning of this decade, Moscow became home to two power centers, headed by Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Each was determined to champion what he saw as overriding interests--those of the Soviet Union in the case of Gorbachev, and those of Russia in the case of Yeltsin.

Yeltsin believed that Gorbachev and the Supreme Soviet were moving too slowly in reforming the USSR. The Soviet Union was sinking ever-deeper into economic crisis while Russia was pressing for an acceleration of reforms, especially economic ones.

When Soviet authorities rejected a "500 day plan" of radical reform proposed by economists Sergei Shatalin and Grigory Yavlinsky-which was supposed to lay the foundations of a market economy-Russia took it on instead.

These attempts to move at different speeds led to legislative conflict between Soviet and Russian authorities, with Russia moving to limit the jurisdiction of Soviet laws on its territory.

Thus, the nucleus of the Soviet Union became fragmented and it was only a matter of time before the whole structure fell apart. Two presidents faced each other. Gorbachev was then subject to increasing criticism at home while Yeltsin rode a wave of popularity.

Gorbachev was elected President of the Soviet Union by the USSR Congress of People's Deputies on March 27, 1990. Yeltsin swept to victory in Russia's first direct national presidential election. His June 12, 1991 victory coincided with the first anniversary of the declaration of independence.

By then, the Soviet Union was on its last legs. Talks began in April 1991 at Novo-Ogaryovo on the future of the union, with the leaders of the different republics pushing for the idea of a loose confederation of states.

Yeltsin and Gorbachev were finally working together in a more cooperative spirit, but it was too late for the USSR. Conservative forces led by KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, among others, launched a coup d-etat on August 19, 1991, ostensibly in the name of saving the Soviet Union.

The coup failed, but so did Gorbachev's efforts to revive the idea of a de-centralized "Union of Sovereign States." Ukraine and Belarus refused to sign the treaty to which they had earlier agreed, the Baltic States also declined to be part of any new union.

Finally, on December 8, 1991, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, near Minsk in Belarus, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus-Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich-signed an agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The agreement ended the USSR's existence as a unified state. Gorbachev resigned as president. And as the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin a page was turned in Russian history.

All of these events gave rise to mixed feelings among the Soviet population, and especially the Russian population. Nine years after the declaration of independence was made, many still wonder whether there really is any cause to celebrate.