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PART THREE - "HIS FINEST HOUR"
Part Three - "His Finest Hour"
PART THREE - "HIS FINEST HOUR"
New York Times
Gorbachev ousted in apparent coup
By Alice Kaufman
August 19, 1991
New York Times
by Alice Kaufman
MOSCOW, Monday, August 19- Mikhail S. Gorbachev was apparently ousted from power today by hard-line KGB and military factions of the Communist Party while he was vacationing in the distant Crimea.
The announcement by the self-proclaimed “Soviet leadership” came as Mr. Gorbachev was about to announce a new union treaty, which would have ushered in a new era of power-sharing between the various Soviet republics.
The announcement this morning shocked the nation and left it desperate for information as Kremlin officials declared a state of emergency. The apparent ousting of president Gorbachev, six years into his "perestroika" reform program, came a mere three days after his former ally and reform adviser, Aleksandr Yakovlev, resigned from the Communist Party, warning of a potential coup d’état.
Tass, the Soviet news agency, cited “health reasons” which rendered Mr. Gorbachev's unable to perform his duties as President as the reason for his removal.
Tass also reported that Vice President Gennady I. Yanayev was assuming presidential powers under a newly proclaimed entity called the State Committee for the State of Emergency. The committee is also made up of Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, chief of the K.G.B., and Dmitri T. Yazov, the Defense Minister.
The scene on the streets of Moscow was calm at 6 A.M. when the announcement was made. However, there have been unconfirmed reports of violence at a political rally for an opposition leader. Early reports indicate that military attempts to arrest Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky were met with fierce opposition from anti-communist factions of the Soviet military, forcing troops to withdraw.
Excerpts from the book: Yeltsin, An Unfinished Life, by William Hinton.
Published by Random House, © 2005.
Chapter 12: His Finest Hour
As soon as Yeltsin realized that the coup was in fact happening he gathered a handful of his closest advisers and rallied at the Soviet White House. Among the supporters with him that morning were top adviser Gennady Burbulis, Sergei Filatov, Mikhail Arutyunov (a deputy in the Russian Parliament), and General Viktor Ivanenko, head of the Russian KGB.
When Yeltsin and his inner circle arrived at the White House, they discovered crowds of supporters already starting to gather around. When the first tanks rumbled up about an hour later they were met by a large crowd of several hundred.
“At first we came out to defend our government," said Konstantin Truyevtsev, a student who was among those surrounding the White House, “but second to defend Yeltsin. We started hearing about the failed attempt to seize Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and we were determined to show the KGB and the military that we also would fight to protect our President.”
Gennady Burbulis would go on to say years later that the presence of General Ivanenko proved to be most important for the anti-coup movement.
“Earlier that year Yeltsin had succeeded in creating a separate Russian KGB,” Burbulis would say in an interview in 2011, “And it was headed by General Viktor Ivanenko, whose loyalty to Boris Yeltsin was very, very strong.”
Ivanenko immediately began undermining the coup plotters and rallying support from inside the KGB.
“From the moment we arrived at the White House, Ivanenko was in my office and on the phone,” Burbulis said, "for three days he remained on the phone. He made call after call to his fellow officers, to the very people who would make or break the coup."
Besides Ivanenko, other Yeltsin supporters worked to bring military commanders over to the president’s side.
Sergei Filatov organized groups that were sent to army bases and military academies around Moscow to persuade commanders not to obey orders to seize Yeltsin.
“I am not sure how vigorously and aggressively they would have pushed this had it not been for the failed seizure of Zhirinovsky.” US Ambassador Jack Matlock said about the supporters of Boris Yeltsin, “They heard the rumors about the Gorky Park incident and they realized that some soldiers were actively in revolt against the coup, and they decided to capitalize on it, with great success.”
“In 1991 I didn’t know a single person who liked Vladimir Zhirinovsky,” Gennady Burbulis said, “and so it was very reassuring to us that the Soviet military was unwilling or unable to arrest that man. If they met resistance there, imagine what would happen if they tried to arrest Yeltsin?”
In the end, both General Ivanenko and Sergei Filatov did succeed in rallying large groups of the military and KGB to support Yeltsin and the opposition.
“What Ivanenko and Filatov did was succeed in creating an anti-coup faction that had stuck their neck out for Boris Yeltsin,” Jack Matlock would say years later, “they couldn’t turn back after supporting the Russian President. So when something happened to Yeltsin, well, they needed to find someone else to rally around because the fear was that the only thing waiting for them on the other side was a firing squad.”
New light shed on 1991 anti-Gorbachev coup
BBC
August 15, 2012
It has been 20 years since the coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Though the coup failed, new BBC interviews underline how fragile Gorbachev’s hold on power had become - and how strong opposition to the Communist Party had become not only with average Russians, but with many inside the party itself.
Although Mr. Gorbachev faced the emergence of a powerful pro-reform opponent in Boris Yeltsin, a former political protégé who had become Russian president, opposition to the coup also came from inside the KGB and military.
“I was shocked when I learned that Yeltsin had been able to organize so much of the military to support him,” Mr Gorbachev said, “but it shouldn’t have surprised me. He wanted a dictatorship. He just expected that he would be the head of it. Not Vladimir Zhirinovsky.”
Looking back, Mr Gorbachev cannot conceal his bitterness towards Yeltsin.
"I made a mistake," Mr Gorbachev told the BBC, "I should have got rid of him. It was because of Yeltsin that events unfolded as they did."
To this day, Mr Gorbachev blames Yeltsin’s “cronies” for handing the reigns of the country to Mr Zhirinovsky.
“Gorbachev: The calm before the storm” can be seen globally, on BBC World News at 09:30 and 21:30 GMT on Saturday 20 August (check BBC World News TV schedules for local screening times).
Excerpts from the book “Three Days in Moscow” by Edward Ellis.
Published by Random House © 1999.
Moscow, USSR. August 19, 1991.11:22 A.M.
As Yeltsin and his supporters strengthened their position in the White House, a sense of overconfidence would lead Yeltsin to tragically make the mistake that would lead to the emergence of Vladimir Zhirinovsky as undisputed leader of Russia. Right before lunch a young Yeltsin aid would come rushing in from the street with a curious report.
“This young boy ran into Yeltsin's office to inform him that some of the soldiers had gotten out of their tanks and were talking with the people in the crowd,” Gennady Burbulis would recount, “and Yeltsin, inspired by the support he was receiving from the people outside and the support General Ivanenko had been able to obtain inside the military and the KGB decided to go out there.”
It was a decision that was met with fierce opposition from Burbulis.
“I tried to talk him out of it, to tell him there could be snipers, but he refused to stand down,” Burbulis recalled, “and sadly, I think he let the reports of the Gorky Park incident influence him too much. He didn’t want to be seen as less courageous than Zhirinovsky.”
It would go on to become of the most tragic moments in recent Russian history. With television cameras rolling, Yeltsin shook hands with the tank crew and then climbed up on top of the tank. Once a symbol of Soviet oppression, for a few moments it became a symbol of hope and of freedom. Yeltsin stood facing the crowds as security personnel and close supporters rushed up along side him to protect him. Yeltsin waited just a moment before looking down at a short, prepared speech. It was a call for the “citizens of Russia” to oppose the coup and stand firm.
“I really think that if he had the opportunity to give that speech, if he could have just been able to speak to the Russian people, that we would be living in a different country today,” Burbulis said many years later, “a democratic country.”
A single shot from a sniper struck Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the chest, killing him instantly.
Former Russian KGB Director Victor Ivanenko in 2010.
Gennady Burbulis during a 2011 interview, recounting the 1991 failed coup
PART THREE - "HIS FINEST HOUR"
New York Times
Gorbachev ousted in apparent coup
By Alice Kaufman
August 19, 1991
New York Times
by Alice Kaufman
MOSCOW, Monday, August 19- Mikhail S. Gorbachev was apparently ousted from power today by hard-line KGB and military factions of the Communist Party while he was vacationing in the distant Crimea.
The announcement by the self-proclaimed “Soviet leadership” came as Mr. Gorbachev was about to announce a new union treaty, which would have ushered in a new era of power-sharing between the various Soviet republics.
The announcement this morning shocked the nation and left it desperate for information as Kremlin officials declared a state of emergency. The apparent ousting of president Gorbachev, six years into his "perestroika" reform program, came a mere three days after his former ally and reform adviser, Aleksandr Yakovlev, resigned from the Communist Party, warning of a potential coup d’état.
Tass, the Soviet news agency, cited “health reasons” which rendered Mr. Gorbachev's unable to perform his duties as President as the reason for his removal.
Tass also reported that Vice President Gennady I. Yanayev was assuming presidential powers under a newly proclaimed entity called the State Committee for the State of Emergency. The committee is also made up of Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, chief of the K.G.B., and Dmitri T. Yazov, the Defense Minister.
The scene on the streets of Moscow was calm at 6 A.M. when the announcement was made. However, there have been unconfirmed reports of violence at a political rally for an opposition leader. Early reports indicate that military attempts to arrest Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky were met with fierce opposition from anti-communist factions of the Soviet military, forcing troops to withdraw.
Excerpts from the book: Yeltsin, An Unfinished Life, by William Hinton.
Published by Random House, © 2005.
Chapter 12: His Finest Hour
As soon as Yeltsin realized that the coup was in fact happening he gathered a handful of his closest advisers and rallied at the Soviet White House. Among the supporters with him that morning were top adviser Gennady Burbulis, Sergei Filatov, Mikhail Arutyunov (a deputy in the Russian Parliament), and General Viktor Ivanenko, head of the Russian KGB.
When Yeltsin and his inner circle arrived at the White House, they discovered crowds of supporters already starting to gather around. When the first tanks rumbled up about an hour later they were met by a large crowd of several hundred.
“At first we came out to defend our government," said Konstantin Truyevtsev, a student who was among those surrounding the White House, “but second to defend Yeltsin. We started hearing about the failed attempt to seize Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and we were determined to show the KGB and the military that we also would fight to protect our President.”
Gennady Burbulis would go on to say years later that the presence of General Ivanenko proved to be most important for the anti-coup movement.
“Earlier that year Yeltsin had succeeded in creating a separate Russian KGB,” Burbulis would say in an interview in 2011, “And it was headed by General Viktor Ivanenko, whose loyalty to Boris Yeltsin was very, very strong.”
Ivanenko immediately began undermining the coup plotters and rallying support from inside the KGB.
“From the moment we arrived at the White House, Ivanenko was in my office and on the phone,” Burbulis said, "for three days he remained on the phone. He made call after call to his fellow officers, to the very people who would make or break the coup."
Besides Ivanenko, other Yeltsin supporters worked to bring military commanders over to the president’s side.
Sergei Filatov organized groups that were sent to army bases and military academies around Moscow to persuade commanders not to obey orders to seize Yeltsin.
“I am not sure how vigorously and aggressively they would have pushed this had it not been for the failed seizure of Zhirinovsky.” US Ambassador Jack Matlock said about the supporters of Boris Yeltsin, “They heard the rumors about the Gorky Park incident and they realized that some soldiers were actively in revolt against the coup, and they decided to capitalize on it, with great success.”
“In 1991 I didn’t know a single person who liked Vladimir Zhirinovsky,” Gennady Burbulis said, “and so it was very reassuring to us that the Soviet military was unwilling or unable to arrest that man. If they met resistance there, imagine what would happen if they tried to arrest Yeltsin?”
In the end, both General Ivanenko and Sergei Filatov did succeed in rallying large groups of the military and KGB to support Yeltsin and the opposition.
“What Ivanenko and Filatov did was succeed in creating an anti-coup faction that had stuck their neck out for Boris Yeltsin,” Jack Matlock would say years later, “they couldn’t turn back after supporting the Russian President. So when something happened to Yeltsin, well, they needed to find someone else to rally around because the fear was that the only thing waiting for them on the other side was a firing squad.”
New light shed on 1991 anti-Gorbachev coup
BBC
August 15, 2012
It has been 20 years since the coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Though the coup failed, new BBC interviews underline how fragile Gorbachev’s hold on power had become - and how strong opposition to the Communist Party had become not only with average Russians, but with many inside the party itself.
Although Mr. Gorbachev faced the emergence of a powerful pro-reform opponent in Boris Yeltsin, a former political protégé who had become Russian president, opposition to the coup also came from inside the KGB and military.
“I was shocked when I learned that Yeltsin had been able to organize so much of the military to support him,” Mr Gorbachev said, “but it shouldn’t have surprised me. He wanted a dictatorship. He just expected that he would be the head of it. Not Vladimir Zhirinovsky.”
Looking back, Mr Gorbachev cannot conceal his bitterness towards Yeltsin.
"I made a mistake," Mr Gorbachev told the BBC, "I should have got rid of him. It was because of Yeltsin that events unfolded as they did."
To this day, Mr Gorbachev blames Yeltsin’s “cronies” for handing the reigns of the country to Mr Zhirinovsky.
“Gorbachev: The calm before the storm” can be seen globally, on BBC World News at 09:30 and 21:30 GMT on Saturday 20 August (check BBC World News TV schedules for local screening times).
Excerpts from the book “Three Days in Moscow” by Edward Ellis.
Published by Random House © 1999.
Moscow, USSR. August 19, 1991.11:22 A.M.
As Yeltsin and his supporters strengthened their position in the White House, a sense of overconfidence would lead Yeltsin to tragically make the mistake that would lead to the emergence of Vladimir Zhirinovsky as undisputed leader of Russia. Right before lunch a young Yeltsin aid would come rushing in from the street with a curious report.
“This young boy ran into Yeltsin's office to inform him that some of the soldiers had gotten out of their tanks and were talking with the people in the crowd,” Gennady Burbulis would recount, “and Yeltsin, inspired by the support he was receiving from the people outside and the support General Ivanenko had been able to obtain inside the military and the KGB decided to go out there.”
It was a decision that was met with fierce opposition from Burbulis.
“I tried to talk him out of it, to tell him there could be snipers, but he refused to stand down,” Burbulis recalled, “and sadly, I think he let the reports of the Gorky Park incident influence him too much. He didn’t want to be seen as less courageous than Zhirinovsky.”
It would go on to become of the most tragic moments in recent Russian history. With television cameras rolling, Yeltsin shook hands with the tank crew and then climbed up on top of the tank. Once a symbol of Soviet oppression, for a few moments it became a symbol of hope and of freedom. Yeltsin stood facing the crowds as security personnel and close supporters rushed up along side him to protect him. Yeltsin waited just a moment before looking down at a short, prepared speech. It was a call for the “citizens of Russia” to oppose the coup and stand firm.
“I really think that if he had the opportunity to give that speech, if he could have just been able to speak to the Russian people, that we would be living in a different country today,” Burbulis said many years later, “a democratic country.”
A single shot from a sniper struck Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the chest, killing him instantly.
Former Russian KGB Director Victor Ivanenko in 2010.
Gennady Burbulis during a 2011 interview, recounting the 1991 failed coup
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