FINAL WARNING: The Communist Agenda
were tried and imprisoned. In the past, such men would have just been
shot, which gives credibility to the theory that the coup was a hoax.
They were later released from prison.Shortly after the coup, the President of Soviet Georgia accused
Gorbachev of masterminding the coup. Eduard Shevardnadze,
Gorbachev’s former foreign minister, even said that he may have been
behind it. Private polls indicated that 62% of the Soviet people believed
the coup to be staged. So what did the coup accomplish? In light of
the sagging economy, the coup was to give Gorbachev the appearance
of grabbing control back from the old-guard Communists, which would
boost his popularity with the Soviet people, and make the West think
that there was a potential for widespread democratic reforms in Russia.On August 24th, Gorbachev resigned as the leader of the Communist
Party, and recommended that its central committee be discontinued.
On August 29th, the Soviet parliament voted to suspend all activities of
the Communist Party. Political insiders believe that the Communist
Party has not discontinued, but has undergone a massive
restructuring to streamline it, which will be reborn with a new image
and a new name, but with the same old goals. The Communist Party in
Italy became known as the Democratic Party; in Poland, it became
known as the Social Democratic Party; and in Romania, it was called
the New Salvation Front.On September 2nd, Gorbachev announced that his country was “on
the brink of catastrophe,” and that all authority was to be transferred
to himself, the Presidents of the ten independent republics, and an
appointed legislative council, which would be the basis for a new
Soviet Union. However, Gorbachev would not be the one to lead it. The
coup was not able to rally the support that he needed, and on
December 25th, 1991, he resigned, and said: “I hereby discontinue my
activities at the post of president of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics. We’re now living in a New World!” The next day, the Soviet
Union officially broke up, ending the domination of the Communist
Party.Yeltsin became President of a Russian Federation known as the Union
of Soviet Sovereign Republics. His first actions were to eliminate state
subsidies on most goods and services, which caused prices to rise;