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nomic crisis was society's alienation from the socialist system. Thus, he sought to break
down the barrier between 'us' and 'them'.
His reforms were meant to engage the population and stimulate initiative.
Glasnost
(open-
ness) gave new voice to both a moribund popular culture and a stifled media. Democratisa-
tion introduced multicandidate elections and new deliberative legislative bodies. Cooperat-
ives brought the first experiments in market economics in over 50 years. Gorbachev's plan
was to lead a gradual transition to reform socialism, but in practice, events ran ahead of him.
Moscow set the pace.
In 1985 Gorbachev promoted Boris Yeltsin from his Urals bailiwick into the central lead-
ership as the new head of Moscow. Yeltsin was given the assignment of cleaning up the cor-
rupt Moscow party machine and responded by sacking hundreds of officials. His populist
touch made him an instant success with Muscovites, who were often startled to encounter
him riding public transport or berating a shopkeeper for not displaying his sausage. During
Gorbachev's ill-advised anti-alcohol campaign, Yeltsin saved Moscow's largest brewery
from having to close its doors.
More importantly, Yeltsin embraced the more open political atmosphere. He allowed 'in-
formal' groups, unsanctioned by the Communist Party, to organise and express themselves
in public. Soon Moscow streets, such as those in the Arbat district, were hosting demonstra-
tions by democrats, nationalists, reds and greens. Yeltsin's renegade style alienated the en-
tire party leadership, one by one. He was summarily dismissed by Gorbachev in 1987,
though he would be heard from again.
Gorbachev's political reforms included elections to reformed local assemblies in the
spring of 1990. By this time, communism had already fallen in Eastern Europe and events in
the Soviet Union were becoming increasingly radical. In their first free election in 88 years,
Muscovites turned out in large numbers at the polls and voted a bloc of democratic re-
formers into office.
The new mayor was economist Gavril Popov, and the vice-mayor was Yury Luzhkov.
Popov immediately embarked on the 'decommunisation' of the city, selling off housing and
state businesses and restoring prerevolutionary street names. He clashed repeatedly with the
Soviet leadership over the management of city affairs. Popov soon acquired a key ally when
Yeltsin made a political comeback as the elected head of the new Russian Supreme Soviet.
On 18 August 1991, the city awoke to find a column of tanks in the street and a 'Commit-
tee for the State of Emergency' claiming to be in charge. This committee was composed of
leaders from the Communist Party, the KGB and the military. They had already detained
