Chpater 9. “1991, chronicle of unannounced catastrophe”
The title of the next two chapters refers to the book of author Marquez (Chronicle of an announced death). The parallel is obvious: 1991 is the year of the Putsch.
The events start with the escalation of problems in Vilnius in January, which was one of the earliest states that claimed independence and waited for a formal resolution. During the year a solution is developed in the preparation of a new union, and it does not become clear how the federal states relate to the central Soviet Union. Yeltsin becomes president of the Russia federation in June after elections.
Two camps in the communist party conflict in whether or not to sign the new union which will dissolve the Soviet Union completely. After long and hard negotiations Gorbachov decides to take a short leave. It is at that moment not clear whether Yeltsin will sign the agreement.
Why this vacation is planned remains unclear. Gorbachov is exhausted after month of negotiations and change…
It is during his leave in the Crim that the group that opposes (the Party’s emergency committee) visit Gorbachov in his datscha to persuade him not to sign… at the mean time the soviet vice president announces “a health” problem on the Russian television.
On the morning of August 19, 1991, Soviet state television suddenly and ominously switched to playing classical music, a programming change that usually preceded a significant political announcement. Soviet vice president Gennady Yanayev issued a statement that President Mikhail Gorbachev had been removed for health reasons and that he, as vice president, was now acting president. In reality, Gorbachev was under house arrest at his vacation home in Foros. Yanayev and seven other hard-line communists, under the rubric of the State Committee for the State of Emergency, had seized power to prevent a major reorganization of the Soviet Union.(1)
In addition to public sources in the internet, the coup (Putsch) described in the book mentions the interesting red button… “After Gorbachov was back in power he called Bush to communicate that the second nuclear superpower was back under control…”
The degree of Gorbachev’s complicity in the putsch remains a source of controversy. (1). When I read the biography, I only wondered; why did he had to take a leave? He was always working, but now the biographer mentioned a vacantion. Well it was august after all…
Gorbachov resigns after the coup, because the party had not supported him.
Since then everything changed. It showed (to the world) that Gorbachov had not adapted the role of the leader to change the country. The putsch in that sense triggered the declarations for independence of the various states.
Gorbachov changed. He was now politically in debt with his main rival: Yeltsin. All his mistakes had harmed his authority as a leader. For Gorbachov as a “change leader” he had to accept that his change plans of a gradual (pacific) and evolutionary change had failed.
Gorbachov affirmed that the soviet society was tired of profound changes. It was him who was honored to shed light over the recent history “an honor that corresponds only to great man.” He discarded the classics of Marxism who taught that only violence can be the midwife (or “obstetrician” which translation would fit better with the “high risk” of this birth metaphor)
10. In the shadow of his own statue
This is when “the life of the politician continues after the state has died,” and Yeltsin is the new leader of the new Russian state. This is when the evaluation takes place. Gorbachov travels through the country as President “Lear” and wonders what has happened to his devastated land. And others too evaluated his presidency; did he suffer from Raisa’s grandeur? It is only short before she is attacked by a sudden and fatal disease: leukemia. “She was certainly contaminated by the political as by Chernobyl radiation.” It is only then when Gorbachov realizes that his life has ended…
A disgrace that raised compassion from all over the world.
11. Epilogue: the opportunity of Gorbachov
But what life had ended, the journalists and historian asked themselves. As the matriochka, the Russian dolls, his life was a compound of different roles: head of the provincial party, regional secretary, general secretary, president of the Soviet republic…
How to evaluate this biography as there is no history but only biography (As the book started with this wisdom from Ralph Emerson)? Should we evaluate by his intentions or by the results. And what were these? For some it is about the talent to intercept the buzz of history and “to catch it by its tale.” And… not to cede, even when unexpected consequences pop up. “For the first time in the history of this country,” he affirms to a group of journalists, “I have tried to humanize it by civil means.”
This personal evaluation is categorized by the biographer that this intention shows the flagrant naivety of Gorbachov to change a country with democratic methods where the previous examples of Peter the Great and the Bolchevique revolution where anything but human (barbarism was a mere euphemism).
… Personal view on the biography…
To start with the last chapter and Mikhail’s personal statement, I think that in order to change, you must show some naivety… A realist will never make change happen.
Then of course – most of the biography is about the Putsch. I didn’t capture any secret or hidden key, but I think after reading the story that Gorbachov’s role in the Putsch didn’t exist.
What I missed in the biography was a more profound analysis of the economy and the historic context. During the putsch in 1991 the economy was nearly bankrupt of which the books remains silent. The historic context that is missing shows the pressure and the original conflict of the enclosed (Baltic and Caucasus) states during the First World War that represented a legacy of resistance to the soviet paradigm.
Finally this book is written by the Russian advisor of Gorbachov and shows the internal approach of the book. That is fine, but the down-side is that many events are not so clear for an outsider.
Therefore this first reading (and resume) is not enough. It gives only a slight impression of the complex reality and of the change…
H.J.B.
The Biography of Mikhail Gorbachov - Part 3
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