the summer of 1989 was settled only by giving in
to all the miners’ demands, though the promises
made could not all be kept.
Gorbachev believed there was only one
answer: to push on with his political and institu-
tional reforms. He thought he could counteract
the increasing dangers of a breakdown by gath-
ering more and more power to himself. He had
no intention of becoming an autocrat, except in
the sense of seeing democratic reforms through
to their successful conclusion. At the same time
he was afraid to introduce radical economic reme-
dies which would raise prices and create millions
of unemployed. The people’s anger might then
sweep away perestroikaand glasnostand his own
humane programme.
At the second session of the Congress of
People’s Deputies in December 1989 democratic
elections took another step forward with the abo-
lition of seats reserved for the Communist Party
and communist-dominated ‘social organisations’.
During the spring session of 1990, the govern-
ment of the Soviet Union was reshaped once
more, giving even greater powers to Gorbachev.
He was elected president of the Soviet Union on
15 March 1990. The president’s executive func-
tions were supported by two councils, a presiden-
tial council of his personal advisers and ministers
and a federative council of representatives from
the fifteen republics; the two councils would often
meet together. These new structures completely
marginalised the old party centres of power, the
Politburo (renamed Praesidium) and the Central
Committee. Even the ‘leading role’ of the
Communist Party, enshrined in Article 6 of the
constitution, came under such heavy attack that it
had to be abandoned, and the Soviet Union
seemed on the threshold of permitting multi-party
elections. Yet for Gorbachev the preservation of
the Communist Party, as the one cohesive element
binding the Union together, remained a crucial
objective. If this could no longer be achieved by
constitutional law, as he had hoped it could be,
then a reformed party would have to win the
approval of the people in a contest with others.
Gorbachev remained by conviction a communist,
albeit a new type of ‘humane communist’. But the
tide of history was against him.
The first of the real crisis years was 1990.
Paradoxically the more constitutional power
Gorbachev acquired, the weaker in reality he
became. Under the immense strains that the great
drama was imposing on him, Gorbachev was tir-
ing; at times he seemed to lose heart and offered to
resign. But there was no one among the conserva-
tive majority in the party ready to replace him, and
the radicals like Yeltsin were anathema to that
majority. The nationalist problems also kept
mounting. Gorbachev turned to strong-arm tactics
to regain control and to preserve the Union. In
January a massacre of Armenians by Azeri in Baku
led to a showdown, with Red Army units ‘retaking’
Baku on Gorbachev’s orders. The president then
visited Lithuania, where he met general hostility.
The democratising movement he had set in
motion during the spring of 1990 now led to elec-
tions for new parliaments in each of the republics,
elections which enormously strengthened the
nationalists. The Popular Front in Lithuania swept
the board and on 11 March 1990 the Lithuanian
Parliament declared the country’s independence,
appointing Vytantas Landsbergis president. The
declaration was declared invalid in Moscow, and
Soviet tanks and paratroopers appeared in the
streets of Vilnius in a vain attempt to overawe the
population. Gorbachev next instituted an eco-
nomic blockade, then made conciliatory gestures.
But Estonia and Latvia followed Lithuania’s lead
during the course of the year. By the end of 1990
negotiations between the Baltic representa-
tives and Gorbachev had reached stalemate. The
Western powers hesitated to support the Baltic
moves for independence because they still relied on
Gorbachev in international affairs and wished to do
nothing to weaken him. But on the economic side
the West did little to strengthen him, having no
confidence that the economic reforms were going
far enough.
The largest of the Soviet Union’s republics was
the Russian Federation, which contained about
half the Soviet Union’s population and three-
quarters of its territory. The elections in the cities
had returned radical deputies, though the country-
side was still traditional. Moscow’s new mayor
was the radical Gavriil Popov, and St Petersburg’s
(the rechristened Leningrad) mayor was another