Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE NEW RUSSIA
Earthshaking political events suggest geologic counterparts. What happens on the earth's
surface results from the unseen movement of deep tectonic plates. The Soviet Union's col-
lapse took the world by surprise. Mikhail Gorbachev had slid into authority as the first
university-educated leader in Soviet history. Like Martin Luther, he sought to save the insti-
tution of which he was part. And like Luther, he ended by creating a new one. Gorbachev's
instruments of salvation were glasnost (openness, or speaking aloud), perestroika (econom-
ic reconstruction), and democratization (allowing political competition). Once given the
opportunity to speak aloud and openly—acts that previously would have brought death,
prison, or the lunatic asylum—the dams of resentment broke. The social tectonic plates had
collided and collapsed. Grievances flashed from every part of Russian society. People were
tired of living two and three generations in a tiny apartment. They were disgusted with the
special privileges (clothes, cars, trips abroad, spacious apartments, and special food) for
the Soviet Party elite. College graduates seethed at knowing that the best universities were
reserved for children of the elite and that a graduate's job and its location were determined
by bribes to placement officers. The military felt cheated by its failure to match the tech-
nology of the West and by the failure of its war to bring Afghanistan into the Soviet fold.
And everywhere, everyone was bitter over long lines at food shops, at clothing that came in
only one size (the better to fill production quotas), and at the constant shortage of consumer
goods. They were angry over television sets that exploded, and above all, they were angry
at their government's lies, telling them that they lived better than most everyone else in the
world.
Alarmed and desperate, Communist Party plotters attempted to arrest Gorbachev at his
Black Sea villa. (Newspaper photos further inflamed public opinion by revealing no or-
dinary comrade's vacation retreat, but a sumptuous holiday palace, complete with an es-
calator to carry bathers down to the sea.) Key elements of the military refused to join the
coup, however. Boris Yeltsin, a dismissed aide to Gorbachev and who later became Pres-
ident, led street demonstrations against tank units loyal to the old guard. Following this
massive defiance, Gorbachev proclaimed the Communist Party dissolved. Shortly there-
after the Soviet Union was declared legally nonexistent. And Russia resumed its traditional
name and began a parliamentary regime.
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