The War of Laws (Russian: Война законов, Voyna zakonov) was the series of conflicts between the central government of the Soviet Union and the governments of the Soviet republics during the so-called "parade of sovereignties" in the last years of the Soviet Union (1989–1991), which eventually contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. When Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to formally release their control of the republics, the individual governments began to reassert their own sovereignty and dominance in their respective areas. That included making their own laws separate from those of the Soviet central government and refusing to pay taxes. These events worsened the Soviet Union's economic disintegration and was a maj