Gorbachev was on vacation in I believe somewhere in the Crimea when communist hardliners backed with some elements of the Soviet army staged a coup. Yeltsin who was Grobachev's deputy told Gorbachev to stay where he was while the coup was unfolding and thwarted the coup by means of a popular uprising by Russian citizens. Following the coup Gorbachev resigned from office and in doing so dissolved the communist party and handed power over to Yeltsin to become president of the new CIS.
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floridays
Well-Known Member
And this wonderful story of the dissolution of the USSR was precipitated by What?
Fred's Myth
Nonhyphenated American
ROFL.....dude, I couldn't find a sarcasm emoji!
MAKAVELI
Well-Known Member
Don't disrespect greatness.....dude.
floridays
Well-Known Member
I like that response, I'll deliver the same message to you.....dude.Don't disrespect greatness.....dude.
floridays
Well-Known Member
Come on bro.... straighten up, you've been reprimanded by two crap shacker via @ makaveli. Carry on
MAKAVELI
Well-Known Member
Don't bite my sh* .... Dude.
floridays
Well-Known Member
Learned a new word tonight, dying to try it out and then you show up....
... Dude.
floridays
Well-Known Member
Forgot to mention, Long Beach in da Houzzz
.
MAKAVELI
Well-Known Member
Yeah right.......Forgot to mention, Long Beach in da Houzzz
floridays
Well-Known Member
Right, I'm down with my
Fred's Myth
Nonhyphenated American
Can't find a humbled and penitent emoji either....
Oh well, back to business as usual, then.
I saw an interview with Gorbachev before those events unfolded where he made clear he didn't trust Yeltsin. To Gorbachev's credit he had started the glasnost policy.
True, but there had to be a man on the ground taking the lead. Yeltsin was that guy.
floridays
Well-Known Member
Carry on Sir.
floridays
Well-Known Member
No disagreement.
Gorbachev was the one who had to unwind 70 years of communist ideology and bureaucracy and usher in the framework for a market based economy with the eventual goal of becoming a full fledged member of the European Union. A job way too big for Yeltsin a populist drunk and the West's flavor of the month. If Russia had followed the path set forth by Gorbachev chances are it would not have created the power vacuum that resulted in the rise to power of Vladimir Putin.
But Gorbachev wanted to hold the Soviet Union together. Never discount the power of nationalism. If Gorbachev wanted to let the various republics go their own way he'd be much more fondly remembered. Look around the world. The Kurds want their own country. So do many Catalonians. The Scottish are leaning that way. French Canadians. And on and on. Same with the Soviet Union. So many different ethnicities and languages, so many people wanting self rule. Heck, look at the divides between ethnicities and races in this country, not too mention the political divide.
floridays
Well-Known Member
Market based economy? Your serious, and the associated pablum is just that.
When it appeared that there wasn't going to be another Czechoslovakia 1968 or another Hungary 1956 and that Gorbachev wasn't likely to invade the Warsaw Pact nations realized that this could be their best chance to make a break for it and break for it they did. Likewise Jim Baker told the Russians that NATO's only expansion would be the reunification of Germany. Check the map and you'll see that it was a lie. It really honked off Putin and is his publicly proclaimed goal to is resurrect the Warsaw Pact and the old Soviet Empire. Judging by what he's doing in Crimea and Syria there's no reason to doubt him.
As far as the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union, the coulda woulda shoulda and the what might have happened that's a subject best left to historians and scholars.
Perhaps you and I missed our true calling in life but I think that we can both agree that the centuries of bloodshed in Europe will continue long after you and I are gone.
But while obviously the Soviet Union dominated them the Warsaw Pact countries were separate countries, buffer states between East and West. I was talking about the various Soviet republics that are now independent nations. As far as Crimea is concerned it was majority ethnic Russian and only part of Ukraine for decades, a gift from Khrushchev. Historically it was Russia. Syria is under the sphere of influence of Russia currently because Obama didn't enforce his "red line."
