Demise of USSR was Anything But Bloodless
Deadly violence was widespread immediately afterward across the country if not in Moscow and St. Petersburg […]
» Read moreTag: 1991
RUSSIALINK: “‘It Was All for Nothing’: Russia Marks August Coup With Regret, Indifference” – Moscow Times
Thirty years on, The Moscow Times spoke to surviving participants in the events that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of a new Russia. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light – Aug. 18, 2021) In the center of Moscow, hidden behind two lanes of heaving traffic on the New Arbat commercial thoroughfare, stands a […]
» Read moreRUSSIALINK: “Russia’s democratic development is the only correct path – Gorbachev” – Interfax
MOSCOW. Aug 18 (Interfax) – Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev blames the organizers of the coup attempt of August 1991 and the signatories to the Belavezha agreements for the collapse of the Soviet Union, calls for defending the principles of democracy, and believes that Russia can develop and solve any problems only on a democratic path. “I believe that the […]
» Read morePutin Driving Russia to Where the USSR was in 1991, Zyuganov Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 22, 2020) Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the KPRF which is the only parliamentary party that has come out against approving the constitutional amendments by referendum, says that Vladimir Putin’s recent actions have been “not simply disappointing but depressing.” In the course of a wide-ranging 3,000-word interview with Anastaya Melnikova of […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK: “Russians Get a Revisionist View of Soviet Union’s End; A new narrative paints from a former vice president paints Yeltsin as a tool of the U.S. in thwarting 1991 coup by hardliners” – Bloomberg/Leonid Bershidsky
“Only 27 years after the failure of a coup meant to keep the Soviet Union alive, some of the people who helped crush the revolt are doing their best to blacken their own victory. It’s been many years since Russia celebrated an anniversary of those three days, Aug. 19-21, 1991. Resolute action by Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, and by […]
» Read moreMore than Half of Russians Say Neither Side in August 1991 Putsch was in the Right
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, August 14, 2018) Fifty-three percent of Russians say that neither those who launched the August 1991 putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev nor those who defended the legitimate government were in the right, a figure that has remained more or less constant over the last 12 years, the Levada Center reported today. The polling […]
» Read moreA Lesson for Today: August 1991 Coup Failed because KGB Didn’t Support It, Gennady Gudkov Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, August 20, 2017) Force structures have invariably played a key role in all revolutions, revolts, or palace coups, either by supporting the incumbent regime or supporting its challengers, Gennady Gudkov says; and August 1991 was no exception because in his view, the attempted coup failed because it did not have the backing […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Foreign Policy Magazine/Leon Aron: “Even Vladimir Putin Cannot Kill the Russian Revolution. Twenty-five years after the great revolution that toppled the Soviet regime, the spirit of dignity and freedom still burns”
Opposition Must Admit Most Russians Were Deceived about What 1991 Meant, Eidman Says
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 20, 2014) “It is time to acknowledge the responsibility of the successful minority before the 90 percent of [Russian] citizens, whose hopes for a better future were deceived” following the collapse of the Soviet system, and for that minority to make changes “in the interests of the majority which suffered these […]
» Read moreInterfax: Poll: Russians say Aug 1991 events are tragedy, not triumph of democracy
(Interfax – August 19, 2014) A relative majority of Russians (41 percent) see the August 19, 1991, putsch in the former Soviet Union as a tragedy which had harmful implications for the country and its people. The number has grown 14 percent in the past 20 years, from 27 percent in 1994, the Levada Center pollster told Interfax, referring to […]
» Read moreSergei Roy: “Ukraine: Triumph, Tragedy, or Farce?”
Subject: 1991 vs.2014: Ukraine: Triumph, Tragedy, or Farce? Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 From: Sergei Roy (sergeiroy@yandex.ru) Ukraine: Triumph, Tragedy, or Farce? By Sergei Roy Former Editor-in-Chief, Moscow News. [Sergei Roy (b. 1936) – journalist and writer based in Moscow. Writes in English and Russian. Translated into English scores of books, especially poetry, for Russian and foreign publishers. Chief editor […]
» Read moreCollective appeal to President Obama to make August 22 Russian-American Freedom Day
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 From: Dmitri Daniel Glinski <dmitri@rccmb.org> Subject: Collective appeal to President Obama to make August 22 Russian-American Freedom Day We hope the attached letter signed by 4 Russian-American organizations and 2 Russian-American elected officials will be of interest to your readers. It was sent out this morning and is also on our website, http://amrusrights.wordpress.com, with our […]
» Read more1953 Says More about Future of Russia than Does 1991, Pastukhov Argues
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 25, 2013) Most people in Moscow and the West see Russia’s current political problems as a working out of the events of 1991, a view that very much defines what they are doing and what they expect to happen next, according to Vladimir Pastukhov, perhaps the most penetrating analyst writing on […]
» Read moreEffects of 1991 August Putsch still felt in Russia
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – August 23, 2013) The collapse of the Soviet Union, the transition to a market economy, the ban on the Communist Party, the complete transformation of the public and the economic structure of the country all of these followed the coup attempt on Aug. 19-21, 1991. The […]
» Read more