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himself as the “acting President,” saying that Gorbachev would return to power after he
recovered from his “illness.” In all past coups and revolutions, the KGB would have killed
Gorbachev, and other reform leaders; but they weren’t even arrested. Only a minimal amount of
troops participated in the coup, the internal or international lines of communication were not cut,
the press was not controlled, and the airports were not closed. A very strange “coup” indeed.
Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Republic, denounced the coup, and called for a
show of force, which produced about 50,000 demonstrators at the Russian parliament. The
picture of him on top of a Soviet tank, in open defiance of the Communist hardliners, was an
indelible image in the hearts of the Soviet people, and the world. This Russian “John Wayne”
had joined the Communist Party in 1961, at the age of 30, and by December, 1985, had been
appointed head of the 1.2 million member Moscow City Party Committee, the largest
Communist organization in the Soviet Union. However, he resigned from the Communist Party
in July, 1990, and was now known as a “non-Communist reformer.”
By August 21, 1991, the coup had failed, and Gorbachev was restored as President. Of the
eight coup leaders, one was said to have committed suicide, and may have been murdered; the
other seven were tried and imprisoned. In the past, such men would have just been shot, which
gives credibility to the theory that the coup was a hoax. They were later released from prison.
Shortly after the coup, the President of Soviet Georgia accused Gorbachev of masterminding
the coup. Eduard Shevardnadze, Gorbachev’s former foreign minister, even said that he may
have been behind it. Private polls indicated that 62% of the Soviet people believed the coup to be
staged. So what did the coup accomplish? In light of the sagging economy, the coup was to give
Gorbachev the appearance of grabbing control back from the old-guard Communists, which
would boost his popularity with the Soviet people, and make the West think that there was a
potential for widespread democratic reforms in Russia.
On August 24th, Gorbachev resigned as the leader of the Communist Party, and
recommended that its central committee be discontinued. On August 29th, the Soviet parliament
voted to suspend all activities of the Communist Party. Political insiders believe that the
Communist Party has not discontinued, but has undergone a massive restructuring to streamline
it, which will be reborn with a new image and a new name, but with the same old goals. The
Communist Party in Italy became known as the Democratic Party; in Poland, it became known as
the Social Democratic Party; and in Romania, it was called the New Salvation Front.
On September 2nd, Gorbachev announced that his country was “on the brink of catastrophe,”
and that all authority was to be transferred to himself, the Presidents of the ten independent
republics, and an appointed legislative council, which would be the basis for a new Soviet Union.
However, Gorbachev would not be the one to lead it. The coup was not able to rally the support
that he needed, and on December 25th, 1991, he resigned, and said: “I hereby discontinue my
activities at the post of president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We’re now living in
a New World!” The next day, the Soviet Union officially broke up, ending the domination of the
Communist Party.
Yeltsin became President of a Russian Federation known as the Union of Soviet Sovereign
Republics. His first actions were to eliminate state subsidies on most goods and services, which
caused prices to rise; and initiated a program to privatize thousands of large and medium-sized
state-owned businesses.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) had been signed July 31, 1991, in Moscow,
by Gorbachev and President Bush, and it was to reduce the amount of strategic offensive arms by
about 30%, in three phases, over the next seven years. It was approved by the Senate on October