August Coup Attempt - 1991

Author: Linda DeLaine
Website: RL Online
Department:
Page: 4   ( 4) pages

Summary: Part IV - Ten Years Later

Over the past ten years, Mikhail Gorbachev has come to digest his anger and, most of all, hurt at the personal betrayal by the coup conspirators. These men said they were trying to save the Soviet Union when in reality they wanted to get rid of Gorbachev completely and establish another dictatorship.

Gorbachev's distaste for Boris Yeltsin is similar. This so called Guardian of Democracy did little, in Gorbachev's opinion, to further democracy in Russia during his eight year tenure as president. During the past ten years, Gorbachev has been relegated to the lecture circuit, book signings, Pizza Hut commercials and, worst of all, forced to deal with the death of his beloved wife.

Of President Vladimir Putin, the former Soviet leader has said, What he has been able to do over the past year inspires me. I like the caution with which Putin works to implement social and economic reforms. (BBC) He added that, Putin is trying to take the country out of chaos left by Yeltsin, but he's only at the start of the road. He has gotten some bruises, but has learned a lot already. Gorbachev went so far as to say that in the next presidential election, his Russian Social Democratic Party would back Putin for a second term.

Gorbachev has pointed out that in 1991 his focus was on the writing and signing of the Union Treaty. This document would have decentralized the Soviet government and awarded more local authority to the governments of the fifteen individual republics which comprised the USSR. He says that he was so occupied with this goal that he failed to recognize the power hungry motives of his closest advisors and ministers.

History will remember Gorbachev most for bringing down the Soviet Union not for the reforms that he attempted. However, it is important to remember that the Soviet Union was in economic trouble before Gorbachev came to power. It was this economic crisis that caused the USSR to pull out of Afghanistan and to bring a halt to the arms race in the 1980s. The Soviet public was aware that capitalism of the outside world was getting the better of them and, at the same time, there was a growing sense of national consciousness within each of the republics. The 15 republics of the USSR had lost confidence in the Soviet government and communist system.

One could argue that no one could have saved the Union and that Gorbachev should not shoulder the blame. In fact, many coup opponents today lay heavy blame at Yeltsin's doorstep for failing to bring Russia into full democracy. They point out that emotion and support was so high after 1991 that Yeltsin could have easily made Russia a thriving nation in short order. On the other hand, Yeltsin supporters consider Putin to be the problem as he has turned towards a more centralized style of government taking a hard line in favor of law and order and discipline.

Today, there is a brave new world. Russians communicate freely with the outside world. We email each other, come together in chat rooms and forums, exchange gifts and even pray for each other when tragedy claims 118 lives. But, how much of this is the result of the collapse of the Soviet giant or the onset of modern technology. The advent of the Internet certainly has increased the amount of contact between the West and persons of the former Soviet states. The freedom to make contact exists because of the demise of the Soviet system.

The world has most assuredly changed since 1991. The new threat is international terrorism and groups who hold no loyalty or accountability to any one nation or superpower and are, thus, even harder to bring to any form of justice. We no longer have the clearly defined and easy to understand Cold War world of them and us, east and west, etc. We have found that, as people, we are not so very different from each other. We all have the same hopes, dreams, love our families and fear the same things. Our governments do not always represent our views but they have learned over the past decade that public opinion is a powerful force especially when people are free to voice their opinions and communicate with those in other countries. Borders are much more translucent and barriers have come down. Thanks in no small part to the collapse of the Soviet regime, we find ourselves living in a truly global community today.

Russia Changes
The Events of August 1991 and the Russian Constitution
A. S. Durgo (Editor)

Library Binding, 162pp.
Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated
January 1992