[SOCUNMOD] Gorbachev Discusses 1991 Coup

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Tue Aug 14 22:24:14 PDT 2001


Somewhere on this pg. http://www.northstarcompass.org/ there is a hoax about Gorbachev wanting to destroy Communism from the get go.

Not to be missed is Columnist, Ray O. Light! Michael Pugliese

-----Original Message-----

From: John Metz <Socialist-Trekkie at excite.com> To: Communist-Party at yahoogroups.com <Communist-Party at yahoogroups.com>; ASDnet at igc.topica.com <ASDnet at igc.topica.com>; portside at yahoogroups.com <portside at yahoogroups.com>; RedYouth at ypsl.org <RedYouth at ypsl.org>; SocialistsUnmoderated at pinko.net <SocialistsUnmoderated at pinko.net>; sldrty-l at igc.topica.com <sldrty-l at igc.topica.com> Date: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 9:44 PM Subject: [SOCUNMOD] Gorbachev Discusses 1991 Coup


>Tuesday August 14 1:41 PM ET
>
>Gorbachev Discusses 1991 Coup
>By DEBORAH SEWARD, Associated Press Writer
>
>MOSCOW (AP) - His emotions have settled with time, and the details of the
>August 1991 coup attempt are fading. But a decade later, Mikhail
Gorbachev's
>dark brown eyes still flash with contempt when the former Soviet leader
>remembers how his fellow communists betrayed him.
>
>``They were serious people ... smart people,'' Gorbachev said of the coup
>plotters. ``They did it because their time was up, and they couldn't agree
>to that. They wanted to prolong being in power and keep it.''
>
>Time has been kind to Gorbachev. After the rollercoaster reforms of former
>Russian President Boris Yeltsin, many Russians now view Gorbachev's gradual
>approach to change favorably. He's a globetrotter in demand, and Russia's
>new leader Vladimir Putin has sought his counsel.
>
>Gorbachev, 70, looked tanned and relaxed during a 45-minute interview with
>The Associated Press in a room with a fireplace, an aquarium and mementos
at
>the Gorbachev fund, the Moscow political think tank he set up in the 1990s
>after resigning as Soviet leader.
>
>Gorbachev said he has no special plans for Sunday, the 10th anniversary of
>the attempt by hard-line communists to remove him from power - an event
that
>paved the way for the demise of the Soviet Union four months later. He will
>stay at his desk, in front of a portrait of his beloved late wife, Raisa,
>giving interviews, answering questions.
>
>``Time settles things down. Details are slipping away. The emotional
>atmosphere that arose at the time and the reactions already have faded,''
>Gorbachev said. ``What remains is the essence, the essence in greater
>clarity of what happened and the consequences.''
>
>Gorbachev has spent years trying to understand what happened during those
>three days in August.
>
>``Every year, ... I've analyzed it,'' Gorbachev said. ``The main analysis
>made in the first days remains the same. It was the appearance of
>reactionary forces, forces in my surroundings, in the government, the
>Central Committee that caused the coup.''
>
>While Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea, a group of hard-liners decided
to
>prevent the signing of a new treaty that would have given more power to the
>15 Soviet republics and far less to the party.
>
>Gorbachev became a prisoner in the Black Sea villa and a group of eight
>senior Communists announced they had seized power. Tanks rolled into
Moscow.
>The Soviet Union was in shock.
>
>``Their main concern was to keep the power that they were losing,''
>Gorbachev said of the coup plotters. ``They were ready to fight to death to
>stay at the helm.''
>
>Gorbachev blamed himself for being too concerned about playing by
democratic
>rules and not ridding the party of his opponents earlier.
>
>``You can't be such a Mr. Clean when such revolutionary changes are
>happening, when the system is changing,'' Gorbachev said. ``One had to be
>more decisive and reform.'' He said he had been too self-confident and had
>underestimated his opponents.
>
>While Gorbachev was under house arrest, Yeltsin rushed to central Moscow,
>jumped up on a tank and led the resistance to the coup.
>
>``You have to be objective. In that moment when he appeared, and in essence
>led the opposition to the putsch, it was a risky situation and it could
have
>gone any which way. I think here, you have to give him credit. He played a
>giant historic role'' in preventing the coup plotters from taking power,
>Gorbachev said.
>
>But as in the past, Gorbachev denounced Yeltsin's maneuvering behind his
>back in the fall of 1991 and Yeltsin's decision to forge a union with
>Ukraine and Belarus, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
>
>``Yeltsin's a gambler,'' Gorbachev said, measuring his words. ``A gambler,
>an intriguer, these qualities are well-developed in him. He has two
>indefinable wishes, incessant - to be in power ... at the very top, and of
>course his passion for fame and glory.''
>
>Yeltsin's abrupt policies are responsible for much of Russia's current
woes,
>Gorbachev said, which is making Putin's job very hard.
>
>``I think the president, step by step, is feeling his feet in his role,''
>Gorbachev said, warning there were still people in the Kremlin from
>Yeltsin's entourage maneuvering against Putin.
>
>Gorbachev said he regretted he hadn't kept Yeltsin's ambitions in check
when
>the two clashed in the 1980s.
>
>``I should have sent him somewhere as an ambassador,'' Gorbachev said.
``The
>world's a big place.''
>
>
>
>
>
>
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