The Fall of Communism 1207In Russia, the charismatic, hard-drinking, impulsive Boris Yeltsin
(1931-2007) had risen to positions of authority in the Communist Party as
an efficient and honest administrator. Claiming that Gorbachev was not
truly committed to reform, he challenged the latter’s authority and the
legitimacy of the Soviet state. As chair of the Supreme Soviet, the state’s
highest legislative body, he announced that henceforth Russia would be a
sovereign, independent state. Yeltsin had no illusions about the survival of
communism and had grave doubts that the Soviet Union itself would sur
vive. He was willing to ally with the other republics against Gorbachev.
When reactionary Communists attempted to unseat Yeltsin as chairman in
the Russian Parliament, several hundred thousand Moscovites turned out
to express their support for him.
Gorbachev now seemed to move away from reform, possibly encouraging
right-wing officials within the Communist Party, army, and KGB, who
believed their positions were threatened by a reduction in hostility with
the United States. The hard-line group had begun putting pressure on
Gorbachev in September 1990, and the army began mysterious maneuvers
around Moscow.
In January 1991, Gorbachev may have approved an attempt to overthrow
the democratically elected government of Lithuania, which began with an
attack on a television installation in the capital of Vilnius. The clumsy plot,
which involved army and KGB agents pretending they were a Lithuanian
dissident group, failed miserably. A month later, in a referendum deemed by
the Soviet government to be illegal, 90 percent of those voting in Lithuania
expressed their support for independence, as did 77 percent of those voting
in both Estonia and Latvia—the difference explained by the fact that more
Russians lived in Estonia and Latvia.
In a nationally televised speech in February 1991, Yeltsin called for Gor
bachev to resign. Gorbachev,
in turn, ordered troops to sur
round the Kremlin in a show
of force. However, Yeltsin had
begun to undermine the army
and security forces, where he
had followers. Gorbachev’s
turn toward conservatives cost
him supporters.
Gorbachev’s conservative
retrenchment proved short
lived. In April, he abandoned
his commitment to preserving
the Soviet Union at all costs
and accepted the idea of Atop a tan|< jn front Qf the Russian Parliament
autonomy for the republics. In building, Boris Yeltsin urges the Russian peo
June 1991, Yeltsin was elected pie to resist the coup d’etat of August 1991.