Word: coups
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...passive failure of the Soviet Union's new parliamentary democracy during the coup has bolstered the case for rule by presidential decree. Unlike Gorbachev, Yeltsin has shown no hesitation in forcing the pace of democratic change by ukase. But his order to muzzle the Communist Party press was an early warning signal of how fundamental rights might be endangered in the process. Gorbachev remains the only leader of sufficient stature to put a check on the excesses of the new Russian revolution -- and of Yeltsin -- if only because of the constitutional office he holds...
Yeltsin may talk about doing away with the central authorities, but he still wants some kind of union. Yet the failed coup has inspired a mass exodus of republics, fearful of the restoration of a new Russian empire under Czar Boris. Although Gorbachev's statement that "the Soviet President and the Russian parliament need each other" drew jeers from Russian Deputies, that claim may yet be vindicated. Gorbachev can certainly play a crucial role now as an independent mediator, power broker and guarantor of a new Union...
...coup has taken some of the luster off the Kremlin's Nobel Peace laureate in the eyes of the outside world, but Gorbachev still remains the one Soviet politician with whom international leaders feel comfortable doing business. In diplomacy the Yeltsin factor looms large. His heroic stand against the conspirators won him applause abroad, but foreign diplomats are less enthusiastic about what they have seen of the Russian president since the putsch was crushed. Gorbachev's prestige abroad will prove to be important capital in the bank, especially now that his homeland is entering a new era of absorption with...
Some have insinuated that Marshal Akhromeyev was involved in the coup attempt. I have no way of knowing, but my instincts tell me he wasn't. He often spoke to me of his amazement that Americans believed that Soviet generals decided the course of his country's history, which he vigorously denied. At the same time he believed deeply in the need for a strong Soviet military...
...committee. "But now I don't know what will happen. Everything is changing too quickly." In towns like Pushkino (pop. 90,000), many Russians view the tumult sweeping Moscow with more anxiety and skepticism than do their big-city compatriots. While they welcomed the failure of the hard-line coup and admire Russian President Boris Yeltsin for his courage, they wonder if the destruction of Soviet communism will bring them anything more than uncertainty and hardship. An old man walking down the street waved his hand in the air with dismissive contempt. "I don't know anything...