Well, in the first place, the actual way in which the Soviet Union was dissolved is questionable. At least, it certainly has been questioned!
The three leaders of the three Slav republics -- Russia, Ukraine, Belarus -- get together over a bottle of hootch, and sign a piece of paper, announcing the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This took not only the leaders of all the other republics by surprise (and for some it was an unpleasant one), but the population of the Soviet Union as well. Yet another traditional Russian revolution from above! Not in the least democratic -- except where the Ukrainians were concerned (they at least had already taken a vote on the matter).
On top of that, in my personal opinion, Yeltsin was guided primarily
by his fixation on getting his revenge on Gorbachev (goes back to the day when Gorbachev got him booted from his position of Moscow party boss). Yeltsin is a vindictive man, and he never forgets an "insult."
He definitely wanted to stick it to Gorbachev -- "Now I'M Number One! Eat your heart out!"
Let us not forget why the August Politburo coup was mounted: it was to prevent the signing of a new Union Treaty, which would have transformed the Soviet Union into a confederation. Yeltsin, along with the leaders of most of the other republics, was ready to sign it then. So why not have signed it after the coup failed (as it inevitably
would have, whether Yeltsin stood on a tank or not)? Because Gorbachev personally had been seriously weakened by the coup, and Yeltsin could not resist making him eat s***.
I doubt whether the confederation would have worked; it might have
evolved into something like the present-day CIS. But evolution is generally better, in the long run, than revolution, whether from below or from above. Some of the horrendous problems that have subsequently developed might have been anticipated, and perhaps even avoided altogether. Just my take. Pity we can't run the tape back to the beginning, and test out my take. <g>
Incidentally, that August coup was a joke. I think I have posted this somewhere on SI before, so forgive me if I repeat myself. From the very first day, I maintained that there was NO WAY that coup would have been successful. In first place, the leaders were drunk round the clock (as some of them later admitted), which does not testify either to their confidence or to their competence. In the second place, they had nowhere near enough tanks or troops, to send into all the republic capitals, LET ALONE into every single major city of the Soviet Union, which they would have had to do, if the coup was to be successful. In short, the whole thing was what the Russians
call a "klounada" -- a performance of circus clowns (or a Keystone Cops episode).
I remember one moving moment --which tells you a lot about Yeltsin.
Two young men were killed (the only fatalities of this dreadful "coup") -- squashed (accidentally) by a tank. Yeltsin gets up before the crowd, and says, very affectingly, "I am so sorry that I was unable to protect your sons..." I have to confess, I cried.
But do you know how many "sons" were killed during the 1993 standoff with Parliament? Or during the totally unnecessary 1994-1996 Chechen
War? Or how many are being killed now, right at this very moment? (I am reminded of that Russian movie: "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.")
I followed Yeltsin pretty closely, especially when I was in Moscow in 1990, and going to the Soviet Parliament (where Yeltsin was a deputy) almost every day. I always thought he was a bit...well...weird. I think he has had major depressive episodes. No crime, of course, but depression does affect one's judgment.
When Yeltsin was kicked out as Moscow Party boss, for example, he was
in the hospital, sick with one of his usual unspecified illnesses. He crawled out of bed so he could attend the "scolding" session Gorbachev was presiding over, where all Yeltsin's subordinates, one by one, submitted him to scathing criticism. His reaction was to grovel, to confess that he was wicked & awful & so forth. He later explained that by saying he was "over-medicated."
Anyway, that is what made him a hero to the Russians. In those good old days, Russians loved nobody more than a persecuted victim. In the first elections to the Russian Parliament, for example, every former prisoner of the Gulag who ran for office was elected. (Now the
Russians are more cynical, alas.) Can you imagine -- Yeltsin as a persecuted victim? How times change!
Wow! Rant, rant, rant! And I haven't even gotten to Yeltsin's actual performance in office! That will have to wait for another day, I fear.
Joan |
