Eyewitness testimony: who carried out the coup in August 1991

Yuri Voronin

The desire to return to the August events arose in me in connection with new, sometimes very contradictory, and sometimes false publications in the press about the events of those years. This made me assess them not only as an eyewitness, but also as their participant - the chairman of the Commission of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on budget, plans, taxes and prices, doctor of economic sciences of the Soviet period, who was one of the six members of the RSFSR delegation headed by Boris Yeltsin approved by the Supreme Council, which on behalf of the Russian Federation were to put their signatures under the Union Treaty. [one]

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On August 3, 1991, I was in the Zelenodolsk constituency of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, from which I was elected People's Deputy of the RSFSR. Together with the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Tataria F. Mukhametshin, we went to the Trans-Volga state farms. Suddenly, at lunchtime, they bring a government telegram signed by Boris Yeltsin, in which it was proposed to urgently arrive in Moscow for the final completion of work on the Union Treaty.

The urgency of the call to Moscow created a disturbing feeling. I knew that the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided to start signing the Union Treaty in September 1991. But the leaders of the Union Republics postponed the signing date for August 20, 1991. Boris Yeltsin, in particular, insisted on the early signing of the Treaty. At the same time, the Novo-Ogarev decision emphasized that the Union Treaty would not be considered by the country's highest authority - at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. It was generally legal nonsense.

The dynamics of the preparation and consideration of draft documents in Novo-Ogarevo shows well how the Soviet Union is losing this struggle to the so-called democrats, as well as to the union and autonomous republics. It became more and more clear that the central government, represented by M. Gorbachev, was giving up its federal positions and embarking on the path leading to confederation. From the draft Treaty to the draft, from variant to variant, one can see how "horns and legs" remained from the former USSR.

In my home apartment in Kazan, a government package was waiting for me with the text of a new version of the Union Treaty, which was already called the "Treaty on the Union of Sovereign States." After reading it carefully, I saw that the document was seriously corrected in comparison with the last draft.

The new draft stipulated that the republics received the status of sovereigns, and the renewed Union was endowed with the right to exercise state power only "within the powers that are voluntarily vested in it by the parties to the Treaty." It was planned to open this cell version for signing on August 20. That is why B. Yeltsin decided to urgently convene the members of the delegation from the Russian Federation. I flew to Moscow.

The analysis of the new document, carried out by the experts working with me, showed that it was simply impossible to sign it due to a number of conceptual provisions.

The new draft clearly showed an attempt to abolish the Constitution of the USSR and the Constitution of the RSFSR. It was no longer a Union Treaty, but a legal cover for the creation of a shaky, loose confederation - the Union of Sovereign States (UIT).

In the new version of the Treaty, everything that could speak of a socialist society was removed; the term "socialist" was replaced by "democratic". The goal of the new type of state was declared to be "the formation of civil society" - you know as you know. The realization of these "goals" would actually mean a quiet coup d'etat, carried out against the will of the people, expressed in the referendum on March 17, 1991.

Let me remind you that a question adopted at the Fourth Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR was submitted to an all-Union referendum held for the first time in Soviet history: “Do you consider it necessary to preserve the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedom of a person of any nationality? "

The results of the union referendum are impressive. The lists of citizens eligible to participate in the referendum of the USSR included 185 647 355 people; 148 574 606 people, or 80%, took part in the voting. Of these, the answer was “yes” - 113,512,812 people, or 76.4%; “No” - 32,303,977 people, or 21.7%; recognized as invalid - 2 757 817 ballots, or 1.9%.

That is, the majority of the peoples of the USSR voted for the preservation of the USSR.

From an economic point of view, the amended Treaty fixed a one-channel budgeting system and a one-channel tax collection system: all taxes must go to the republics, and they themselves will decide how much funds to allocate to the Union government and on what powers of the Center they should be spent. This meant that the priority in the distribution of the funds received was given to the republics. Remains - to the Center. Moreover, the new project stipulated that all organizations and enterprises of union significance were transferred to the republic on whose territory they are located. A special distribution regime was introduced. This, naturally, was extremely negatively perceived by the republics. In other words, the entire organizational system of the Soviet Union exploded.

In the amended Agreement, instead of the Central Bank of the USSR, it was supposed to approve which bank agreement. And at that time I was also the Chairman of the Commission for the Development of a New System of Banking Legislation. Therefore, in a conversation with Gerashchenko, who headed the bank of the USSR, he directly told me: "This is the death of any state, if there is no single bank, single finances." The new Union Treaty actually meant that the Union had no property or finance left.

Thus, firstly, the implementation of the new version of the Union Treaty, in its essence, would in no way ensure the country's withdrawal from the socio-economic crisis, but, on the contrary, would aggravate it even more. Secondly, and this is the most important thing, the signing of a "new union treaty" would become a legal formalization of the liquidation of the USSR.

Therefore, as a doctor of economic sciences, statesman, a member of the Russian delegation, I could not sign such a document and was preparing to express my special opinion on it to the members of the Commission of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR on the development of proposals for the draft Union Treaty, whose meeting was scheduled for August 19, 1900 ...

But history ordered it differently.

On the morning of August 19, at my dacha in Arkhangelskoye, I got up, as usual, at 7 o'clock in the morning. An urgent message was broadcast on television that in connection with the illness of the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev, on the basis of Article 127-7 of the Constitution of the USSR, Vice-President G. Yanayev was entrusted with the duties of the president. The State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) has been formed in the country.

“Based on the results of the national referendum on the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, guided by the vital interests of the peoples of our Motherland, all Soviet people, we declare,” Vera Shebeko, an announcer of the “Vremya” program, read from the TV screen the announcer of the Vremya program, “... meeting the demands of the broad strata of the population on the need to take the most decisive measures to prevent society from sliding to a nationwide catastrophe, to ensure law and order, to introduce a state of emergency in certain areas of the USSR for a period of six months from 4:00 Moscow time on August 19, 1991 ... ".

Let me remind you and emphasize that legally the state of emergency did not arise out of nowhere. The state of emergency law was passed back in 1990. And the creation of the State Emergency Committee largely reflected the mood of the broad masses of the peoples of the USSR. Therefore, it was not surprising that the decision to form the State Emergency Committee was immediately supported by the majority of the leaders of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The GKChP was also supported by Western leaders. On the morning of August 19, 1991, they openly declared: "This is the legitimate government, since there is the legitimate vice-president of the USSR, the legitimate prime minister, the legitimate minister of defense." So, at least, our radio and television broadcast.

Before revealing the substantive essence of the introduction of a state of emergency and the formation of the Emergency Committee, I will make several conceptual political and economic generalizations.

The main essence of the August 1991 events cannot be reduced to any one incarnation. Was this a speech by patriotic statesmen who were saving the Soviet Union, the social and political system enshrined in the Constitution of the USSR? The answer can be one - yes, it was! This is a really important component, but not yet the whole truth.

Another point of view: "August-91" is a form of manifestation of the struggle of the Union Center in the person of the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev and the subjects of the Union in the person of the President of the RSFSR B. Yeltsin with the tacit consent of the leaders of other union and autonomous republics for the time being. And this is also true.

Finally, there was also the point of view that the August events were the actions of the "fifth column" that embraced the highest bodies of party and state power and opposed the CPSU and the existing system, aimed at the collapse of the USSR. In order to finally finish off the USSR, the leaders of the "fifth column" "helped" to organize the State Emergency Committee, and then to ruin it. Did the GKChP members know about the "fifth" column in the country's political leadership? As V. Kryuchkov later confirmed to me, they knew. But they did not have the will to take harsh measures against these recruited renegades and corruptionists. As a result, after the failure of the State Emergency Committee, power was seized by US henchmen - "Chicago boys", "boys in pink pants", direct apologists of capitalism, whose policy turned into a large-scale catastrophe for our country.

And yet, for me, a Doctor of Economics, the events of August 1991 have deeper roots, a more complex political, economic and ideological background.

First, proceeding from the Marxist understanding of the dialectics of the development of socio-economic formations, the 70-year development of Soviet society has shown the failure of attempts to "jump" over the objectively conditioned stages of the evolution of building a socialist society, the accelerated socialization of the means of production, the elimination of private property, running ahead in the implementation of inflated principles of the future society without taking into account the level of its material and spiritual maturity, deforming the socialist system, and, at the same time, postponing urgent problems for an indefinite future. On the eve of the State Emergency Committee, the Soviet state was brought almost to the point of complete insolvency in the economic, including financial spheres, by the illiterate political leadership, the narrowing of social expenditures of the state budget, which throughout the existence of the Soviet system was the most important advantage of socialism, attracting the minds and actions of the world progressive community and workers.

Already by the beginning of the 80s, unfortunately, in the Soviet Union there was no "real socialism" or "socialism with a human face", and there was socialism very flawed, not taking into account the dynamics of the global development of socio-economic formations, the acceleration of scientific and technological progress. Remember the article by Y. Andropov in the Kommunist magazine about the need to develop the theory of socialism and its generalization: “We do not know the society in which we live”. It was the lack of scientific development of the theory of socialism, the lag of socialist society behind the needs of socialist construction, which was largely replaced by spontaneous development, and was one of the main reasons for the degradation of Soviet society.

Incidentally, these major political and economic shortcomings of the Soviet Union were taken into account by China, theoretically substantiating and practically starting to build socialism with Chinese characteristics, in fact, on the model of Lenin's NEP. The results of such development, as they say, are on the face: even in the year of the coronavirus pandemic - 2020 - when all countries sharply reduced GDP, China ended the year with an increase of 3.5 percent, and in 2021 these rates even exceed 10 percent.

Secondly, were the events of "August-91" a conspiracy pursuing restoration goals, a desire to put an end to the USSR and Soviet power, as the writer V. Voinovich was transparently hinting at. To a certain extent, of course, there were, which ultimately happened after the September-October events of 1993.

In this regard, it will not be superfluous to recall that the main task of world capital, starting with the Great October Socialist Revolution, was precisely to eliminate the socialist system of Soviet Russia, and then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Unable to solve the global task of eliminating the USSR by force strikes, and then by economic methods, by being drawn into the Cold War, the arms race, undermining the economic potential of the Soviet Union and the world socialist system as a whole, the world behind the scenes from some moment determined ideological forms with its main blow. Capitalism began to clearly outplay the Soviet Union at the expense of the main Soviet weapon - the skillful propaganda of capitalist values, its own way of life. Due to the practically unlimited flow of monetary infusions from abroad within the USSR, to the countries of the socialist camp, an extensive agent network was created in advance, a "fifth column" was formed, shape-shifters were bribed and recruited from the top of the ruling party and the state apparatus, representatives of the intelligentsia, overwhelmed by a passion for personal enrichment, infected with the bacilli of careerism and envy.

But the main blow was nevertheless directed, in accordance with the wills of A. Dulles, against Leninism as a theory, as a real practice. Antileniniana filled the press, and at the head were people who recently zealously worshiped VI Lenin, such as Al.N Yakovlev, Y. Afanasyev, D. Volkogonov, E. Burbulis, M. Poltoranin and others. personality, took in "new" Russia, starting from the end of the 80s, a truly massive character, has become a national disaster.

Therefore, when today many politicians, especially "democrats of the first wave" such as G. Burbulis, S. Shakhrai, or former assistants of B. Yeltsin - Yu. Baturin, A. Ilyin, V. Kostikov, G. Satarov and others, defending Boris Nikolaevich, justifying their role in the collapse of the Great Power, and most importantly, dissociating themselves from this, "justifying" the collapse of the Soviet Union on objective conditions — this is an obvious lie.

"August 1991", as it were, focused in itself all those mistakes, miscalculations, obvious misunderstandings that had accumulated in the country and which were more than manifested in the fifth anniversary of Gorbachev's perestroika, summing up the grim outcome of Gorbachev's reformism. But all this could be corrected with skillful theoretical and practical guidance, as was done in China.

In these difficult crisis socio-economic conditions, the country's leadership really began to discuss various options for a new Union Treaty on the "renewal of the USSR" (renewal, not collapse !!).

The basis for the formation of the Union Treaty was the results of the all-Union referendum on March 17, 1991, when 76.4% clearly spoke in favor of preserving the USSR.

But at the same time, the results of the referendum "forced" the West to make serious adjustments to the concept of the collapse of the USSR, to more rigidly pursue its foreign policy from the standpoint of hegemonism.

At the end of July 1991, the 41st President of the United States, George W. Bush, arrived in Moscow on a special visit (when he was the 11th Director of the CIA !!). A Soviet-American treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms was signed, which, in the opinion of many experts, actually ensured the geostrategic security of the United States and the transition of the global military-political situation to the regime of a "unipolar world."

The non-democrats have also developed more actively. From television screens, printed newspapers and magazines of the politics of the "new" wave - Y. Afanasyev, E. Bonner, G. Burbulis, V. Novodvorskaya, A. Sobchak, G. Starovoitova, O. Poptsov and others - "enlightened" the society, painting rosy pictures of what the country will be like after the collapse of the "evil empire", the formation of a free legal Union of the "new" type and its entry into the civilized West.

The television announcement on the creation of the State Emergency Committee on August 19 forced almost all the people's deputies of the RSFSR to urgently arrive early in the morning at the House of Soviets. Even before the meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, members of the Presidium asked B.M. Isaev, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, to call G. Yanayev and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A. Lukyanov in order to clarify the situation firsthand.

G. Yanaev informed that M. Gorbachev is really sick and is in Foros. The creation of the State Emergency Committee, he stressed, is an attempt to save the Soviet state from collapse, to preserve the existing constitutional order, social and state system. G. Yanaev also said that M. Gorbachev is aware of the creation of the Emergency Committee. On August 18, a delegation (O. Baklanov, O. Shenin, V. Boldin, V. Varennikov) flew to him, informing him about the creation of a Committee, which aims to prevent the deepening of the socio-economic crisis in the country.

The imposition of a state of emergency on August 19, based on the political and socio-economic situation in the country, was logical and reasonable. However, this had to be done by President M. Gorbachev himself and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. However, the "mouse fuss" of the leaders of the Union and the Union republics did not lead to a sound decision. We in the White House knew about the preparation of the emergency long before August 19. And when this happened on August 19, instead of a real resolution of the socio-economic crisis, a tragicomic farce began to play out that it was supposedly a "coup, conspiracy, coup d'etat, anti-constitutional seizure of power", which, unfortunately, benefited from not the Soviet Union, but B. Yeltsin and the demolition workers of the USSR.

I will cite documentary facts. The former head of the archival service of Russia, "first wave democrat" R. Pikhoi, relying on archival materials, writes: "Preparations for the possibility of declaring a state of emergency were carried out in March 1991, on the eve of the III Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR." And further: “... in April, the Security Council again returned to the development of documents on the state of emergency. The work was carried out, as they say, for the future. Gorbachev himself often spoke of the need for " emergency measures ." We, People's Deputies of the RSFSR, knew about this.

Another fact. I will cite excerpts from the transcript of the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR on August 3, 1991. During this meeting, much was said about emergency measures as a means of overcoming the crisis that gripped the country. The financial system had collapsed by the beginning of 1991. Domestic debt was approaching 940 billion rubles, that is, during the "perestroika" period it increased more than 6 times.

Here's how ended his speech at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev: "Thus the need for extreme measures, so extraordinary ... It is a fact that in emergency situations, all the states have acted and will act if these are extraordinary circumstances dictate e measures." And in conclusion he said: "I will go on vacation tomorrow, with your consent, so as not to interfere with your work."

In other words, M. Gorbachev, leaving for "vacation" in Foros, knew perfectly well what would happen in August 1991, knew about the possible introduction of a state of emergency in the country, since he himself actually provoked it, provoked those historical events that plunged the country into the abyss of devastation and collapse.

Another confirmation. On August 18, the members of the delegation met with M. Gorbachev in Crimea. M. Gorbachev refused the proposal to sign a decree on the introduction of a state of emergency and fly to Moscow , citing poor health. And after all, it was necessary to fly if the signing of the Union Treaty was appointed by him on August 20! Julil.

At the end of the conversation, M. Gorbachev, having specified whether the emergency measures would be extended to the Yeltsin leadership, and, having heard a positive answer, waved his hand and said: "Fool with you, do as you want!" And he even gave some advice on how best to introduce an emergency. Saying goodbye, Mikhail Sergeevich, as if in passing, said to the members of the delegation: “Damn it with you, go ahead, but keep in mind that I don't want to lose my democratic image. Let Yanaev lead. " And shook hands with everyone.

From the side of M. Gorbachev it was just a clever move. He, like a cunning fox, posing as a "Foros prisoner", was waiting for someone to take.

Mikhail Sergeevich did not take into account only one thing, that B. Yeltsin and the separatist leaders of the other republics would be internally ready for the sake of completeness of their power to go to a tactical alliance and destroy the USSR, so that he, Mikhail Gorbachev, would remain president without a country. He also did not catch the betrayal of the West, which in the end made a bet on B. Yeltsin, draining the sly Gorby.

Later, more accurately, but already from a legal point of view, the disgraceful situation of M. Gorbachev was described by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. Here is how it is said in the verdict, which was passed in the case of General V. Varennikov: “After analyzing the evidence, the court came to the conclusion that, despite Gorbachev's statements about the anti-constitutionality and adventurism of the proposals of the arrivals (Baklanov, Boldin, Varennikov and Shenin - Yu. V. ), his failure to take measures to arrest, his proposal to convene the Congress of People's Deputies or a session of the Supreme Soviet to discuss the issue of declaring a state of emergency, handshakes at parting gave ... attempts to save the country from collapse by introducing a state of emergency".

From the above, I draw the first important conclusion - the true initiator of the August 1991 events, or rather the August betrayal, was Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev himself, who, under the incitement of those around him from the “fifth column”, and also considering himself “wiser” than everyone else, decided to to use, on the one hand, their comrades-in-arms - promoted, and on the other, the ambitions of Boris Yeltsin. But he miscalculated, paying for it with the collapse of the USSR and the contempt of the people.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and people's deputies who were in the building of the House of Soviets gathered in the hall of the Presidium.

R. Khasbulatov distributed and read out to the members of the Presidium the text of an appeal to the people, written by his hand. The appeal recognized the illegality of the formation of the so-called GKChP, his actions were qualified as a "right-wing, reactionary, anti-constitutional coup" and all his decisions were declared illegal.

A heated discussion broke out. The first to speak was the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR B. Isaev. He stressed that “unpredictable events are unfolding in society .... The union treaty that has been prepared is unconstitutional. This treaty ... blows up society ... There will be no Union under such a treaty. "

The Chairman of the House of the Council of the Republic V. Isakov insisted that the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the RSFSR, as well as the Congresses of People's Deputies of the USSR and the RSFSR, should be convened immediately.

B. Isaev, V. Isakov and I voted against the appeal in the form suggested by R. Khasbulatov; all other members of the Presidium - R. Abdulatipov, E. Basin, S. Kovalev, A. Korovnikov, S. Krasavchenko, V. Lukin, V. Mityukov, G. Zhukov, V. Shorin - voted in favor.

It was decided that the people's deputies of Russia, employees of the apparatus, and members of the Government from August 19 did not leave the building of the White House, did not go home and stay overnight in the building.

During the meeting of the Presidium, Boris Yeltsin arrived at the White House. He contacted the leaders of the Union republics to find out their positions and provided support to Russia.

The first, with whom B. Yeltsin spoke, was the President of Uzbekistan I. Karimov. He flatly refused to support the line of B. Yeltsin. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, all Central Asian republics supported the State Emergency Committee. Only the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Moldova came out openly against the GKChP. The leader of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia was especially enthusiastic about the actions of the Emergency Committee. Armenia, Kazakhstan and, as B. Yeltsin mumbled, Ukraine took a wait-and-see attitude.

The party and state leadership of the union republics and most regions of the country, almost all in the morning of August 19, supported the State Emergency Committee. However, the complete inaction of the leadership of the State Emergency Committee led to the fact that in a day they all began to go over to the side of Boris Yeltsin.

And what about the leaders of the Emergency Committee? I believed then, and even more so now, after the passage of time, that the main essence of the State Emergency Committee was a desperate attempt to save the Soviet Union from collapse, to fulfill the decisions of the IV Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and the will of the people, enshrined in the results of the All-Union referendum on March 17, 1991.

However, the actions of the State Emergency Committee were so unprepared and uncoordinated that it was impossible to count on success, everything failed.

This is how Boris Yeltsin himself assessed the events: “The absurdities in their behavior (of the members of the State Emergency Committee - Yu.V.) began to catch the eye rather quickly. The capture group from the "Alpha" unit, sent here at night (to Arkhangelskoye - Yu.V.), remained sitting in the forest without a specific task. The deputies of Gdlyan and Urazhtsev were arrested, and the main Russian leaders woke up in their dachas, managed to figure out what had happened and began to organize resistance ... ... A real military junta will not behave like that. "

In the August events of 1991, a particularly insidious role was played by the generals of the highest command level: Lieutenant General P. Grachev, generals A. Lebed, D. Volkogorov, K. Kobets, who broke the military oath, rushed about, leading a double game, waiting - who will take passing secret information to B. Yeltsin through his protege Y. Skokov, and ultimately went over to the side of B. Yeltsin. And what legal stigma is given to an officer who has violated the military oath, everyone probably knows.

The 19 millionth party of Communists, the CPSU, also "failed" in the August days. In this regard, I recalled the reasoning of the Russian philosopher A. Zinoviev: “The weakest point in the Soviet system is that which the Soviet people themselves consider the most reliable, namely in the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee, the Politburo, in the person of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee ... ... The CPSU will lead to the collapse of the entire system of statehood, and the collapse of the latter - to the collapse of the entire country. " And so it happened. Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee E. Stroyev, A. Dzasokhov, Yu. Manaenkov, V. Ivashko, A. Girenko, P. Luchinsky hid in their "underground". The leaders of the 10 millionth Communist Party of the RSFSR also hid in the "bushes": V. Kuptsov, G. Zyuganov, V. Kashin. Even then, it became clear to the communists that the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR were defeated, betrayed by their top leaders. How disgusting and shameful it was to watch footage on television when the country's top leadership and ministers threw away their party cards.

Could the Russian people, which in the August days were told by the non-democrats that “after the collapse of the“ evil empire ”, the formation of a free legal Union of a“ new ”type and its entry into the civilized West," in some five years, the great Power would turn into a third-rate country , will slide into the Greatest Russian Depression, and in thirty years more than 80 million people, or more than 50% of the population, will live below the poverty line, according to the oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

By the evening of August 21, a stalemate ensued.

Instead of decisive actions to save the country, V. Kryuchkov, D. Yazov, Tizyakov, A. Lukyanov and V. Ivashko decide to fly to M. Gorbachev in Crimea and convince him that he must take part in the events on which fate depends countries. They forgot only one thing, that all their actions were clearly monitored by the Yeltsin team, information to which came from the circle of members of the State Emergency Committee and the KGB. Therefore, after the plane of the representatives of the State Emergency Committee on another plane, Yeltsin's "saviors" flew to Crimea: Vice-President A. Rutskoy, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR I. Silaev with the command to "save Gorbachev."

M. Gorbachev received only A. Lukyanov and V. Ivashko, and then his "savior" - A. Rutsky. We flew to Moscow quickly.

At the government airport Vnukovo-2, shining triumphants descended along the front staircase in the light of television Jupiters, among whom M. Gorbachev, obviously confused, unusually dressed for the dacha, walked along with Raisa Maksimovna and his household.

Returning to Moscow, Mikhail Gorbachev, as President of the USSR, was obliged (!!!) to declare all Yeltsin decrees on the re-subordination of all structures of the Union state power illegitimate and to regain all state powers - this was his constitutional duty. M. Gorbachev was apparently frightened, did not do this, thereby becoming an accomplice of the coup d'etat.

In contrast to the leadership of the State Emergency Committee, their opponents, the "democrats" headed by B. Yeltsin, acted more decisively, sometimes even arrogantly and cynically. The fact that the "democrats" were preparing (and were preparing) for the events that took place in August 1991, I, as an eyewitness, have no doubts. The ideas of a "soft coup", "a blow to the communists" with the aim of ending them, "capitalist restoration" seemed to be floating in the House of Soviets. Boris Yeltsin immediately took advantage of the August days, the formation of the State Emergency Committee and its failure, leading an open struggle against the USSR and the CPSU.

It was then, making the second most important conclusion , in August 1991, that a genuine coup d'etat was carried out, which became a continuation of the collapse of not only the USSR, but also the fall of Russia, the beginning of its hobbing. Not members of the State Emergency Committee, in fact, committed a coup d'etat, but B. Yeltsin together with M. Gorbachev.

The triumph of the "victory over the State Emergency Committee" was the message on August 23, 1991 on radio and television about the arrest of its members: and. O. President of the USSR G.I. Yanayev, Prime Minister of the USSR V.S. Pavlov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU O.S. Shenin, Minister of Defense of the USSR D.T. Yazov, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Defense of the USSR O.D.Baklanov, Chairman of the KGB USSR V.A. Kryuchkov, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, member of the USSR Defense Council, Hero of the Soviet Union V.I. Varennikov, Head of the Presidential Administration of the USSR V.I. Boldin, Chairman of the Peasant Union of the USSR V.A. Starodubtsev, President of the Association of State Enterprises and Industrial Facilities, Construction, Transport and Communications of the USSR L.I. Tizyakov - those who were not afraid to defend their Great Motherland - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and paid for it the prison cell of Matrosskaya Tishina.

The moment has come for B. Yeltsin and his camarilla to finally deal with the CPSU and humiliate the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev.

I will cite excerpts from the transcript of the meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on August 23, 1991, at which the President of the USSR and the "Foros prisoner" M. Gorbachev met with the deputies of the Russian parliament. The hall was full as never before. The meeting was chaired by the President of the RSFSR B. Yeltsin.

B. Yeltsin reported on the measures he had taken, as he put it, to counter the conspiracy. In particular, he said that as the president of the RSFSR he issued decrees that he takes subordination of all military units and formations stationed in the territory of the RSFSR. I wonder what constitution says that the president of the RSFSR has the right to dispose of the army of the USSR? Is this not a conspiracy of "democrats"?

The floor is given to M. Gorbachev. Mikhail Sergeevich spoke, as always, floridly. It was difficult to understand his position. Here are excerpts from this talk.

“I am always convinced, I was convinced when they demanded of me to hand over the powers of the President to the Vice President or to declare my resignation in order to save the Fatherland that this adventure would not pass and the adventurers would be defeated and they would face a fate like criminals who are pushing the country , people in the hardest time, time of trials and search for new forms, to disaster ...

And an element of this blackmail in relation to the country was the message that the President of Russia had already been arrested. What? Russian President Yeltsin has already been arrested or will be arrested - as I understood it - on the way, returning from a trip, and so on. In other words, the calculation was as follows: strike, isolate the President of the country if he does not agree to cooperate with these reactionary forces, and isolate the President of the Russian Federation. "

All the presidents were confused by the frightened M. Gorbachev, hoping for B. Yeltsin and the mercy of the "democrats".

M. Gorbachev was asked the following questions: "Shouldn't socialism be expelled from the Russian land?" In response, in his own style, was heard the florid pitiful babble of the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev, who had joined the "democrats" and grateful to them for his salvation.

It's a shame, but Mikhail Gorbachev agrees to the decrees of the Russian president, in which practically all the functions of the union president, union ministries, and the Central Bank of the USSR are transferred to the jurisdiction of Russia. “I once again confirm,” says M. Gorbachev, “that the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, the President and the government in this extreme situation only acted the way they acted, and what they accepted was dictated by the situation, and everything has legal force. and must be confirmed even retroactively by the President. "

All these humiliating scenes were broadcast on all television channels so that the people could clearly see who is who. The last chairman of the USSR State Radio and Television, Leonid Kravchenko, later said: “ I saw with pain and shame the utter confusion of Mikhail Sergeevich. The leader of the country passed everything he could pass in a week. Yeltsin was even surprised at such a shameful surrender. "

The President of the USSR M. Gorbachev was unaware that for the sake of allegedly preserving his own prestige, he was violating the Constitution of the USSR, and in fact, he was committing a coup d'état himself, loosening the ground for the final destruction of the Soviet Union, signing himself as the President of the USSR a political death sentence. I involuntarily recall the phrase uttered by JV Stalin in connection with information about the suicide of Hitler, who led Great Germany to complete collapse: "Got badly, you scoundrel ...".

After the August events of 1991, the "dual power" of the union center, headed by M. Gorbachev, and the republican center, headed by B. Yeltsin, ended with the assertion of the autocracy of Russian structures.

On August 23, at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin, with his characteristic malicious grin, signs a decree on the suspension of the activities of the Communist Party on the territory of the RSFSR. M. Gorbachev is silent. Now it was already clearly possible to assert that the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR were defeated, betrayed by their top leaders. The defeat of the party is complete. The historic turn and, at the same time, a true coup d'etat with the aim of restoring capitalism in Russia has taken another major step, has been accomplished. The example of Boris Yeltsin was followed by the presidents of a number of union republics of the then still formally existing USSR.

It was later, over the years, that many people's deputies, and even ordinary Russians, understood, realized that after the defeat of the CPSU and the defamation of communist ideology, Russia was bewildered, deprived of many valuable political and moral guidelines. Russia was turned into an unhappy country, beggar and lackey. For thirty years Russia has been trying to get out of the Great Depression into which it slipped in the 90s. They have already begun to trade not only wholesale and retail, but also "take-away".

And then, in August 1991, the euphoria of complete victory reigned. The death sentence passed by the CPSU was applauded by many people's deputies of the RSFSR: Yu. Sidorenko, I. Vinogradova, N. Nelasov, V. Domnina, V. Chernov, M. Sorokin, who then, having received from the "first democratic generation" in full, sincerely repented and honestly fulfilled their civic duty in September-October 1993. Al. N. Yakovlev, A. Rutskoy, Y. Vlasov, who were present at the meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Some will be sobering up later, when the anti-popular course of their idol manifests itself in all its “versatility”.

The euphoria of "victory" gripped all structures of state power. The military collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, under pressure from the administration of the President of the Russian Federation Yeltsin, brought charges against the heads of the State Emergency Committee under Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR - a conspiracy to seize power.

The indictment in the GKChP case will be recorded; “Having failed to achieve changes in state policy in a parliamentary, legal way, trying to disrupt the signing of a new Union Treaty, introduce a state of emergency in the country, keep the allied structures intact, Chairman of the KGB of the USSR VA Kryuchkov, Minister of Defense of the USSR Yazov DT, Prime Minister USSR Minister Pavlov V.S., Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council Baklanov O.D., Head of the Presidential Administration of the USSR V.I.Boldin, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee O.S. Shenin embarked on the path of organizing a conspiracy to seize power. "

Even not for a lawyer, the tension of the wording is clear. What kind of seizure of power could there be if the leaders of the State Emergency Committee had power and they acted, as it was written in the Address to the People, in the name of saving the USSR?

The court did not find any corpus delicti, which the new authorities incriminated against the Gekachepists - violations of the USSR Constitution and other sins. The final point was put by the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which on February 26, 1993 adopted a resolution on amnesty for the participants of the Emergency Committee.

The adoption of the decree on amnesty testifies that if a coup d'etat really took place in Russia on August 19, 1991, then the members of the State Emergency Committee could not count on an amnesty that did not apply to execution articles, which included Article 64 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. "Treason to the Motherland" and even with a qualifying staff - a conspiracy to seize power.

General of the Army, Hero of the Soviet Union, participant of the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow in 1945 Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov, who stood firm, believing that there was no "coup d'etat with the aim of seizing power" in August 1991, did not fundamentally agree with the amnesty. nor members of the State Emergency Committee did not commit.

After the acquittal on August 11, 1994, V.I. Varennikov, the authorities found themselves in a stupid position. She herself exposed the myth of the heroic struggle of the "democrats" in August 1991 against the evil "conservatives" - "putschists", against a military coup, etc. After a lapse of time and, taking into account the results of the "case" of V.I. Varennikov, an ordinary Russian can only draw one conclusion: the "GKachepists" saw what would happen to the country and into what abyss the pseudo-democrats were dragging it.

"August 1991" became for our country something like a starting point, a milestone from which the last stage of the destruction of the USSR began. Then there was an approbation of "new" forms and methods of struggle, which will later be used against their people in even more sophisticated, including bloody, forms (the events of September-October 1993). "August 91" - the beginning of the triumph of the haters of everything Russian and Russian who have seized power, who have led to nothingness "new democratic Russia", about which millions of people really dreamed.

And finally, try to answer such a “simple” question yourself: if in August 1991, “the people defeated the worthless communist government”, if both in Moscow and in the country there was “the overwhelming majority of people fighting for freedom and independence, intellectuals, liberals and democrats who cared about the happiness of the people ", about which the active opponents of the State Emergency Committee have constantly advocated and are advocating, why has all this now turned out to be such an abomination for the overwhelming people of Russia? If the non-democrats promised after 1991 a socio-economic breakthrough, a prosperous Russia without communists, without military men, without parasites in the USSR and the camp of socialism, then why is there no paradise, but there is a terrible hell for the majority of the people, why is Russia still lagging at the tail of world civilization ?

Shocking results on the question of whether the GKChP of August 1991 was a coup or an attempt to avoid the disintegration of the country were obtained in August 2010 in the program "Judgment of Time", broadcast on Channel Five of Russian television, conducted by an ardent "democrat" N. Svanidze.

Contrary to the efforts of N. Svanidze, 93% of the surveyed TV viewers answered - it was a desire to preserve the USSR! This was truly a shock for the host of this program, whose face was so distorted that he could not squeeze words out of himself for a minute. Along with this, this result also clearly testified that the people are gradually gaining their sight. I have no doubt that the time of enlightenment for the people is not far off!

In 2005, in his message to the Federal Assembly, President of the Russian Federation V. Putin described the collapse of the USSR as the largest geopolitical catastrophe of the last century, stressing that “... the army turned out to be in a state, and millions of people found themselves below the poverty line ”. Absolutely correct assessment.

Finally, the most important conclusion that follows from the analysis of "August 1991". The current stagnation situation in Russia, the deepening socio-economic crisis, especially in the last ten years and during the years of the coronavirus pandemic, coincides with the critical situation at the end of the 1980s.

The model of socio-economic development, which is being implemented in Russia according to the recipes of the "Washington Consensus" and international financial institutions, whose priorities are in the primacy of financial institutions, a decrease in the regulatory role of the state in the economy, and the fight against inflation only by monetary aggregates, has reached a dead end and can lead to, as it was in 1991 - the deliberate destruction of the USSR, to the collapse of the Russian Federation.

To get out of the current impasse, it is required, before it is too late, to implement a new scientifically verified model of socio-economic development based on the accelerated and rigid formation of a mobilization economy, as was done in mobilization training and mobilization for organizing defense in the Russian Federation. [2]

The model of the mobilization economy has been prepared and may well be implemented as the most important basis for bringing the economy out of the impasse.

[1] For more details on the August events of 1991, see: Yu.M. Voronin. Rocked Russia: Political and Economic Portrait of Yeltsinism. M ,. Republic, 2014; M ,, PROZAIK, 2014.

[2] See: On mobilization preparation and mobilization in the Russian Federation. Federal Law of February 26, 1997 No. 31-FZ. As amended on July 16, 1998, August 5, 2000, December 30, 2001, March 21, December 24, 2002, December 23, 2003, August 22, December 29, 2004, December 31 2005, 2 February, 25 October 2006, 9 March 2010, 30 December 2012, 5 April 2013, 28 December 2016, 22 February 2017