The Russian "Coup" of 1991
It is the belief of Donald Mc Alvany, who publishes the Mc Alvany Intelligence Advisor, that the coup was a hoax. He reported that all eight coup leaders were Gorbachev appointees, and coup leader, Gennady Yanayev, referred to 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 number 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 50.000 demonstrators at he 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 had 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. They were later released from prison.
Shortly after the coup, the President of 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. Howewer, Gorbachev would not be the one to lead it. The coup was not able to rally the support that he needed, and December 25th, he resigned, and said: "I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We are 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.