It was a landmark celebration that ended an era: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation 30 a long time in the past finalized the USSR’s demise. The AP’s Moscow picture chief at the time, Liu Heung Shing, was the only international photographer who captured the pivotal minute on Dec. 25, 1991. In the slide of 1991, the Soviet Union was dashing up promptly to its dissolution. On Dec. 8, 1991, the leaders of the a few Slavic Soviet republics fulfilled to declare that the Soviet Union was no a lot more, and to make the new Commonwealth of Unbiased States, which was joined by eight other republics two months later. ___…