Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - A wannan watan, a cikin garin Azerbaijan na Sumgait, 'yan bindigar Azerbaijan sun fara kashe membobin' yan tsirarun Armeniya. Sojojin yankin sun yi kokarin dakile tashin hankalin amma 'yan bindiga sun kai musu hari. Politburo ya ba da umarnin karin sojoji a cikin birni, amma sabanin wadanda suke son Ligachev wanda ke son nuna karfi, Gorbachev ya bukaci kamewa. Ya yi imanin cewa za a iya warware matsalar ta hanyar siyasa, yana kira ga tattaunawa tsakanin Jam'iyyun Kwaminis na Armeniya da Azerbaijan. Wani tashin hankali na Armeniya ya barke a Baku a 1990. Matsaloli sun bayyana a Jamhuriyar Socialist ta Soviet ta Georgia; a watan Afrilu na 1989, 'yan kishin ƙasa na Georgia da ke neman' yanci sun yi karo da sojoji
a Tbilisi, wanda ya haifar da mutuwar mutane da yawa. Har ila yau, 'yancin kai ya tashi a cikin jihohin Baltic; Manyan Soviet na Estonia, Lithuania, da Latvian Soviet Socialist Republics sun ayyana tattalin arzikinsu na "kai tsaye" daga Rasha kuma sun gabatar da matakan da za su takaita ƙaura na Rasha. A watan Agusta 1989, masu zanga-zangar sun kafa Baltic Way, sarkar mutum a cikin jamhuriyoyi uku don nuna burinsu na samun 'yanci. A wannan watan, Lithuanian Supreme Soviet ya yanke hukuncin cewa 1940 Soviet annexation na kasar su ba bisa doka ba ne; a cikin Janairu 1990, Gorbachev ya ziyarci jamhuriyar don karfafa shi ya kasance wani ɓangare na Tarayyar Soviet.