Word: gorbachev
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...later, Gorbachev told the parliament that "thousands of telegrams" had arrived at the Kremlin, along with appeals from the Committee of National Salvation, demanding presidential rule be imposed in Lithuania to halt the restoration of "a bourgeois state." He even waved a document, allegedly found by the KGB in a Lithuanian government building, which he said was a list of Communists and anti-independence leaders marked for detention...
...spite of all this self-justification, Gorbachev denied that he gave the order to shoot. "I learned about what happened when they woke me up the next morning," he said. Interior Minister Boris Pugo and Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov shirked responsibility as well. The decision was made, said Yazov, by the army commander in Vilnius, whose assignment was to protect "all members of society...
Other voices were raised in outrage, but the most challenging belonged to Gorbachev's nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, leader of the huge Russian republic. He called events in the Baltics "the beginning of a mighty offensive against democracy." To prevent such steps in his republic, said Yeltsin, "it is becoming clear that we will not be able to protect our sovereignty without a Russian army...
...parliament a day later, an angry, flushed Gorbachev denounced Yeltsin's suggestion as "a gross violation of the constitution of the U.S.S.R." and "a deliberate act of provocation." He demanded that Yeltsin withdraw his comments. But Yeltsin was unrepentant and proved he could play the old Leninist party games as well. He claimed he was receiving "thousands of telegrams" from across Russia asking him to cancel his recent agreement to contribute almost 30% of the national budget...
...Whether Gorbachev actually gave the order to use force in Lithuania, or can plausibly deny a direct role, is irrelevant. He was responsible. It is his policy to refuse demands for sovereignty and independence that have arisen in non-Russian regions and Russia itself. It has been his practice, when he feels it necessary, to use military force to crush them. Besides, if Gorbachev was not responsible, does that mean he has lost control to the conservatives in the army and the KGB and is being forced to front for their demands for order? U.S. analysts doubt that. "Gorbachev...