Word: gorbachev
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Meanwhile followers of Yeltsin announced that they would hold a rally in central Moscow on March 28. In a meeting at Gorbachev's office, Pugo conjured up the specter of "neo-Bolsheviks storming the Kremlin." The rally was a direct challenge to Gorbachev's personal authority, said Pugo. Gorbachev agreed to prohibit all rallies and to back up the ban with a show of force by bringing troops and tanks into the capital...
Yakovlev tried several times to dissuade Gorbachev from this course. Rather than intimidating the democratic opposition, he warned, a showdown would confirm the widespread suspicion that Gorbachev had, in his desperation, thrown in his lot with the reactionaries. And even if disaster was avoided, a decision to pit the military muscle of the center against peaceful demonstrators would backfire against Gorbachev, strengthening Yeltsin's popular base...
This time, unlike during the Baltic crisis in January, Gorbachev took personal control of the forces amassed in the side streets around Red Square. He kept them in check, and the huge, orderly demonstration came off without serious incident...
Yakovlev commented immediately afterward that even though he was relieved Gorbachev had made sure the troops held their fire, the attempted intimidation of Yeltsin's followers was Gorbachev's gravest mistake to date. Gorbachev may have jeopardized not only his chance to make common cause with Yeltsin, said Yakovlev, but perhaps "his place in history" as well...
...Gorbachev too was shaken by how narrowly disaster had been averted. For the second time, he had taken the advice of Pugo, Kryuchkov and the hard-liners -- and for the second time he had seen that their methods would have led only to blood in the streets...