They presented him with documents signing away his powers as General Secretary. Gorbachev exploded and ordered them to leave. They did, but Gorbachev knew he was in a grave situation, cut off from the world, not telephones, and guarded.
Yeltsin
However, the "old guard" had made one huge mistake. They had failed to take into account or arrest the second most powerful man in the country, a man by the name of Boris Yeltsin. He had just been elected as the first President of Russia, and he and Gorbachev were bitter rivals to control the entire USSR. However, not today. By Yeltsin's choice, he joined with Gorbachev in spirit and ideology, rushed to the Russian parliament and declared the supposed coup the act of mad men and threw his support behind Gorbachev.
By now the public grasped what was happening and began gathering in the streets. They had long forgotten their fear of the Communist Party. Yeltsin climbed on top of a tank and declared the coup a failure and that he was personally taking control. It was the beginning of the end of the coup. World leaders joined in support of Yeltsin and Gorbachev. The leaders of the coup were arrested and Gorbachev returned to Moscow.
But the Soviet Union was never the same. The power of the Communist Party was broken.
Within a few months the U.S.S.R. would disappear. Gone. The second most powerful country on the face of the earth -- no more. Since he was officially head of the Communist Party, Gorbachev conceded his authority. On Christmas Day, 1991, he resigned. The next month, the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist and the "Commonwealth of Independent Republics" took its place. When Gorbachev resigned he did so with regrets and great hope:
"...The August coup brought the general crisis to its ultimate limit. The most damaging thing about this crisis is the breakup of the statehood. And today
I am worried by our people's loss of the citizenship of a great country. The consequences may turn out to be very hard for everyone.
I am leaving my post with apprehension, but also with hope, with faith in you, your wisdom and force of spirit. We are the heirs of a great civilization, and its rebirth into a new, modern and dignified life now depends on one and all.
Some mistakes could surely have been avoided, many things could have been done better, but I am convinced that sooner or later our common efforts will bear fruit, our nations will live in a prosperous and democratic society"
(Gorbachev, 1991).
Could It Have Been Avoided?
Probably not. The "visible" Soviet strength that the worlds' public saw was evidently hollow and had been headed in that direction for years. What we saw were squadron after squadron of marching, stomping military might, thousands of tanks and rockets, millions of tons of cement and steel. But what we didn't see so much were the factories producing stuff the public wouldn't buy. They needed food. They got TV coverage of military parades and the military might of the Soviet Union. The country was producing goods that were worth less than the cost of the materials to make them.
A black market developed because of the tremendous shortages that had a value close to one-third of the real economy.
Despite Gorbachev's brilliant management and leadership the U.S.S.R. would have struggled, hoping for the best, and it would have failed. It would have miserably disintegrated anyway because it could not keep up. In an age of microchips, computer-operated fighter jets that could shoot down dozens of aircraft without even seeing them, Ronald Reagan's star wars, and so much more, the old Soviet Union could not keep up.
Even if the Berlin Wall had not come tumbling down, the financially cash poor country was overstretched in areas that could not possible pay it back for its investments. Huge, worthless soft currency subsidies from the U.S.S.R. To Comecon, the block of European satellites, Mongolia, Cuba, and Vietnam was the only thing that allowed them to struggle along in existence. In addition, the financing of unpopular, cash-strapped guerilla activities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Angola and Afghanistan only increased the enormous pressure on the Soviet economy.
The management of industry, controlled by Communist Party political hardliner hacks, whose only value was their belief in everything socialist, squandered resources, developed huge shortages, wasted what talent they did have to work within their middle managers and workers, and set the industrial side of the country into a slow decline.
The country's best farmers, who could turn nutritionless dirt into fields of abundance, were eliminated by the forced nationalization of agriculture and presented with absolutely no motivation or incentive to produce.
As we have mentioned, black markets were about the only way a Soviet citizen could have their daily nutrition needs met. Private business...
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