30th Anniversary of the August Putsch

[Tidewater]

Thirty years ago tomorrow the Communist Party of the Soviet Union attempted a putsch against Gorbachev and his attempted reforms of the USSR.
The August Putsch
The putsch failed when the Red Army refused to shoot civilians and went over to the protestors' side.
Of the three ring-leaders, two were arrested, and one shot himself.
The USSR officially came to an end on Christmas Day 1991 and the nightmare that was the USSR was over.

 

[Tidewater]

One of the most important effects of the putsch was that every Soviet republic exercised its right of secession. Secession was in the Soviet constitution, but under Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, etc. anyone who even mentioned the possibility of leaving the Soviet Union was executed or exiled to Siberia and their families threatened.
Under Gorbachev, and especially after the Putsch, the Baltic States availed themselves of the revision, as did Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. The Soviet Union was like a bad dinner party, once one participant left, the flood gates were open. The putsch did that.

 

[Tidewater]

Russia's public opinion polling agency VTsIOM, polled Russians about the putsch.
84% had heard about the putsch, but 15% said that the polling question was the first time they had ever heard about the attempted coup.

 

[Its On A Slab]

Tidewater, I think I mentioned that my wife is from one of the former Soviet republics(Armenian from Azerbaijan). And she was relocated to Lincoln, NE in the early 90s due to the war and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A huge expat/refugee community, many who wax glowingly of the old ways in the Soviet Union.

I am always surprised to hear this talk. Given that nearly all of them are successful here beyond their wildest dreams in the old system. They own nice houses, drive nice cars, have grocery stores full of food when they shop, freedom of travel, speech, religion, etc.

Yet her Mom is always in tears every year when she watches Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on Russian TV.

Nearly all of them revere Uncle Joe Stalin. Don't seem to mind the pogroms, murders of his "rivals", purges, exiles to Siberia.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Tidewater, I think I mentioned that my wife is from one of the former Soviet republics(Armenian from Azerbaijan). And she was relocated to Lincoln, NE in the early 90s due to the war and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A huge expat/refugee community, many who wax glowingly of the old ways in the Soviet Union.

I am always surprised to hear this talk. Given that nearly all of them are successful here beyond their wildest dreams in the old system. They own nice houses, drive nice cars, have grocery stores full of food when they shop, freedom of travel, speech, religion, etc.

Yet her Mom is always in tears every year when she watches Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on Russian TV.

Nearly all of them revere Uncle Joe Stalin. Don't seem to mind the pogroms, murders of his "rivals", purges, exiles to Siberia.

They didn't know about those when they were going on and wouldn't believe it now...

 

[Tidewater]

Tidewater, I think I mentioned that my wife is from one of the former Soviet republics(Armenian from Azerbaijan). And she was relocated to Lincoln, NE in the early 90s due to the war and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A huge expat/refugee community, many who wax glowingly of the old ways in the Soviet Union.

I am always surprised to hear this talk. Given that nearly all of them are successful here beyond their wildest dreams in the old system. They own nice houses, drive nice cars, have grocery stores full of food when they shop, freedom of travel, speech, religion, etc.

Yet her Mom is always in tears every year when she watches Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on Russian TV.

Nearly all of them revere Uncle Joe Stalin. Don't seem to mind the pogroms, murders of his "rivals", purges, exiles to Siberia.

Yeah, I guess if we could resurrect the dead victims of Stalin, they might have a debate, but that's just it, the victims have been shut up forever. For those who survived it, the Stalin era featured a massive victory over Naziism, global respect, fear and intimidation of the West, and a sense of national purpose.
Sure he put millions in the gulags, suppressed everybody in the USSR, but the party propaganda emphasized the good and hid the bad, so it's not surprising that survivors view the Soviet past with rose-colored glasses.
Inside Russia today, there is an NGO called "Memorial," dedicated to remembering the victims of Soviet oppression. Not surprisingly, the Kremlin works to suppress Memorial's work. Putin is not a communist, but one could argue that Stalin was not an orthodox Communist either, so Putin likes the stability and power Stalin built and welded.

 

[Tidewater]

They didn't know about those when they were going on and wouldn't believe it now...

Sadly true.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Thirty years ago tomorrow the Communist Party of the Soviet Union attempted a putsch against Gorbachev and his attempted reforms of the USSR.
The August Putsch
The putsch failed when the Red Army refused to shoot civilians and went over to the protestors' side.
Of the three ring-leaders, two were arrested, and one shot himself.
The USSR officially came to an end on Christmas Day 1991 and the nightmare that was the USSR was over.

Just curious....what ended up happening to the two that were arrested?

 

[Tidewater]

Just curious....what ended up happening to the two that were arrested?

Gennady Yanayev (VP and erstwhile president of the USSR) was convicted and imprioned but released shortly thereafter and pardoned
MnDef Dmitry Yazov was tried but acquitted.
Minister of Interior Boris Pugo remained dead.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Boy, do I remember this.

I know, unfair in my case. Ha ha.

Never could take in all the details.

What I recall is that first day, my ex and I (we'd been married for 3 months) were out job hunting for her as a dental hygienist and doing that old fill out an application with a pen thing that seems so 1860s anymore. We turned on the radio and heard the report and were engrossed for much of the rest of the day. We'd known for years the possibility that the USSR might remain Communist in the face of everyone else leaving it, but this drove home the point.

I do recall we expected Gorbachev to not make it, though. We figured they'd Ceausescu him and his wife.

 

[Tidewater]

I do recall we expected Gorbachev to not make it, though. We figured they'd Ceausescu him and his wife.

Proving once again that "ex-dictator" is probably the worst job on this planet.
The putsch leaders were not trying to deliver the deathblow to the USSR, but boy did they seal the deal. Every Soviet republic started running for the exit. Gettin' while the gettin' was good.

 

[Its On A Slab]

Proving once again that "ex-dictator" is probably the worst job on this planet.
The putsch leaders were not trying to deliver the deathblow to the USSR, but boy did they seal the deal. Every Soviet republic started running for the exit. Gettin' while the gettin' was good.

The old republics figured this wasn't your 1968 Soviet Union. The tanks wouldn't be rolling in from the Warsaw Pact.

That being said, all the old ethnic hatreds came to the surface. Not surprisingly in Azerbaijan, where Muslim Azeris have always hated the Christian Armenian minority. Even the non-Soviet Yugoslavia dissolved into Serbia vs Croatia, Serbia vs Bosnia-Herzogovina and Kosovo.

I think the Iron Fist's one redeeming quality was in keeping people from murdering each other over centuries-old sectarian/ethnic differences.

My wife was 12 when this madness started in Azerbaijan. The things she has endured, and the things she has yet to tell me. I never complain about anything that happened to me. I can't even imagine.