Gorbachev and Yeltsin, Part III

Gorbachev and Yeltsin, Part III

So to review, it”s Aug. 18th, 1991 and Gorbachev is vacationing

in the Crimea when a delegation of the coup leaders appears at

his dacha.

[The coup leaders (back in Moscow) are Vice President

Yanayev, Defense Minister Yazov, Prime Minister Pavlov,

Interior Minister Pugo, Supreme Soviet Chairman Lukyanov, and

KGB Chief Kryuchokov. *All of these were leaders of the

U.S.S.R. Other names to be mentioned were leaders of the

Russian Federation. Remember, the republics were attempting to

gain more independence from the Soviet government and

Gorbachev was to be flying back to Moscow to sign a new treaty

granting the republics much of what they sought. This was the

trigger to the coup leaders who didn”t want to give up their

privileges.]

So the delegation met with Gorby and asked him to back down.

He refused. They then flew back to Moscow, drinking along the

way. Gorbachev was particularly upset at the list of the coup

plotters that he had been handed. As we”ve discussed before in

previous installments, he naively thought they were loyalists.

Back in Moscow, Vice President Yanayev suddenly didn”t want

to sign the document creating the Emergency Committee and

making him the new president. Some of the Committee

members said Gorbachev was sick (he wasn”t). Finally, Yanayev

signed the State of Emergency. Foreign Minister Bessmertnykh

arrived and didn”t believe the report that Gorby was ill. [He

then disappears for the balance of the adventure]. It was around

then that the coup leaders realized they had no real plan.

It”s now early in the morning of August 19th. Yanayev, very

drunk, took power at 4:00 a.m. Marshal Yazov ordered a

heightened state of alert for all the military units. Prime Minister

Pavlov, who had stayed up most of the night drinking with

Yanayev, was losing control of himself. Around 7:00 a.m. a

doctor was summoned to his dacha and found him hysterically

drunk.

That morning, Boris Yeltsin was at his home near Moscow. He

had been warned of the coup attempt. Leningrad Mayor

Sobchak, staying in Moscow, made it untouched to Yeltsin”s

place. Sobchak, an extremely popular figure in Leningrad and

Yeltsin loyalist, was on the arrest list with Yeltsin. Yeltsin

strapped on a bulletproof vest and then his suit and headed for

the “White House,” the massive Parliament building. It would

be used as a barricade, an oasis and symbol of democratic

resistance, as well as a place to communicate with the outside

world by whatever means possible. Yeltsin and his allies began

broadcasting from a makeshift radio station inside the White

House. Then Foreign Minister (of the Russian Federation)

Andrei Kozyrev was dispatched to Paris to seek Western support

and establish a Russian government abroad if resistance was

crushed.

4 hours after tanks arrived in the streets of Moscow, the people

were laughing at the soldiers. After noon, Yeltsin clambered on

to one tank and made his historic appeal to the citizens of Russia

to return the country to normal constitutional development. Then

a retired general clambered on and said not a hand will be raised

against the people. Vice President (of Russia) Rutskoi, an

Afghan war hero, appealed to the army not to act against their

comrades. Ten tanks then turned their guns away from the White

House. They were now ready to defend it.

Yeltsin went on the radio. “Soldiers and officers of the army, the

KGB, and the troops of the Interior Ministry! Countrymen! The

country is faced with the threat of terror. At this difficult hour of

decision remember that you have taken an oath to your people,

and your weapons cannot be turned against the people. You can

erect a throne of bayonets but you cannot sit on it for long. The

days of the conspirators are numbered…clouds of terror and

dictatorship are gathering over Russia, but this night will not be

eternal and our long-suffering people will find freedom once

again, and for good. Soldiers, I believe at this tragic hour you

will make the right decision. The honor of Russian arms will not

be covered with the blood of the people.”

In Leningrad Sobchak returned to find that the local military

commander had taken charge but there were no troops in the

street. Sobchak confronted the commander and forced him to

back down. It was all so easy.

Meanwhile at Izvestia, the largest newspaper in the U.S.S.R,

there was war. The printers demanded that Yeltsin”s appeal to

the people be printed. The editors said no. A worker said “You

can shoot us but we”re not going to put this paper out without

Yeltsin”s statement.” Another said, “We voted for Yeltsin! You

can publish the statements of the committee but we insist on

Yeltsin”s statement as well.” A standoff ensued but in the end,

20 hours late, Izvestia appeared on the streets of every city and

village of the Soviet Union. The Emergency Committee”s

proclamations blared out from page one. Yeltsin”s appeal to

resist the coup was on page two.

In the early evening of the 19th, the junta called a press

conference. But the press was merciless against them,

particularly Yanayev, the new president. They laughed at him.

Yanayev was half-drunk and his performance was pitiful.

Yeltsin set up a shadow government outside of his home city in

the Urals if the White House was captured. They went to work

sending faxes and telexes calling on local organizations and

governments around the U.S.S.R. to resist. The people were

increasingly with Yeltsin.

Pavlov, the prime minister, convened a meeting of the

government”s ministers. They all agreed that their Emergency

Committee was the only way to hold onto their last vestiges of

privilege. But when Pavlov called Defense Minister Yazov,

Yazov could tell Pavlov was, you guessed it, drunk.

One of Moscow”s new television stations was taken over by the

junta but a young reporter somehow managed to get on the air a

piece showing Yeltsin on the tank (reassuring the people that

Yeltsin was still alive and resisting). Boris Pugo, the interior

minister, was furious. “The story on Moscow was treacherous.

You will answer for this.” Later Yanayev called, too, but he

didn”t seem to know what to talk about so the producer prodded

him. “(Yes), I saw it, it was a good balanced report.” “But they

said I would be punished for it,” said the producer. “Who are they?

From the Central Committee? F— ”em,” said the drunk

president.

Now it”s August 20th. Yeltsin and his group were holed up in the

White House and supporters were coming from all over. The

famous cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich, held an AK-47 outside of

Yeltsin”s office. A crowd of about 10,000 was milling about

outside. The crowds were key to Yeltsin”s success. He needed

to prove he had popular support.

The crowd grew to 100,000 and Yeltsin made another speech

whereby he blasted Yazov and Pugo in an incredibly gutsy

performance. The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko took to the mike

and the crowd loved it.

Meanwhile Yanayev was on the phone winning support from

Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Fidel Castro. But

support for the resistance was pouring in from all over. And

what of Gorby? He kept demanding to be allowed to speak to

the people but his captors said nyet.

So no one knew for certain if the White House would be stormed

the evening of the 20th. The coup leaders had set up every

possible elite unit to rush it but they had no idea the dissension

that existed within the units. General Alexander Lebed said that

there would be heavy casualties if they stormed the White House.

Yazov called for more troops but didn”t follow up. Later Lebed

and the KGB toured the barricades. They were toys and could

have been smashed easily. But Lebed held off. On the Russian

army side (Yeltsin supporters) they planned to bomb the Kremlin

if the Emergency Committee stormed the White House.

And just like that it was over. Kryuchkov said there was massive

support for the coup. Yanayev said no there wasn”t. Yazov

ordered the troops back to their barracks and by the morning of

the 21st the first tanks turned around. The soldiers acted as if

they had won a great victory and they had; they didn”t shoot at

their brothers and sisters. Construction crews along the way

stopped work and applauded the retreating troops.

Yanayev, the man who was to be president, drank himself silly in

his office. Meanwhile, the putsch leaders and Yeltsin”s

representatives flew to the Crimea (on separate planes) to meet

with Gorbachev. [Yeltsin was afraid of a trap and sent his vice

president, Rutskoi]. Gorby only met with the Russians, not

Kryuchkov or Yazov. The Russians, including Yevgeny

Primakov (a Gorby loyalist) informed Mikhail that Yeltsin had

been the real hero and the coup leaders were Gorby”s own

people. Gorby took the Russian plane home, not his presidential

one.

Next week, the aftermath.

[I have relied, once again, heavily on David Remnick”s “Lenin”s

Tomb.” Remnick, in turn, relied on information gleaned from

the trials of the coup leaders as well as personal interviews. The

quotes are accurate.]