Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was an important event that had to be said to be the "8.19" incident. I have also mentioned this incident repeatedly in my previous writings about the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It has been 30 years since this incident, and there have been comments on the "8.19" incident from scholars to the public, some praising and some criticizing. But why did the "8.19" incident occur, and why did it accelerate the collapse of the Soviet Union?
1. Background of the event
Before the "8.19" incident, the contradictions and struggles in the Soviet Union had already taken on a sharpened, just as the then Prime Minister of the Soviet Union Pavlov said in his speech at the plenary session of the Soviet Union G: "
The political and economic sharpening of the Soviet Union is already very dangerous, the Soviet Union is on the verge of danger, and any wrong step will bring disaster.
He solemnly pointed out:
State institutions have collapsed, executive powers have weakened, law and public order have been reduced to a minimum, and various forces have rebelled against the Constitution ...
"At that time, there were also bloody incidents between ethnic groups in various regions of the Soviet Union, and the problem of crime in the Soviet Union was also increasing, even on a large scale. The Prime Minister of the Soviet Union summed up the current situation in the Soviet Union at that time, which was indeed the current situation of Soviet society before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the eyes of the outside world, the reforms of Gorbachev and others did not win the support of the vast majority of people, and in the core leadership of the Soviet Union, there were many politicians who were dissatisfied with Gorbachev's reforms and foresaw the consequences of the dangers caused by Gorbachev's reforms. Like the KGB leader Kryuchkov repeatedly advised Gorbachev to pay attention to the infiltration of Western countries, Gorbachev did not care. Kryuchkov also told Gorbachev about Gorbachev's important aide, Yakovlev, who had smuggled into the United States, and suggested that Yakovlev be investigated, but Gorbachev prevented him from investigating.
Faced with Gorbachev's obsession and the dangers facing the Soviet Union, Kryuchkov, Vice President Yanayev, Defense Minister Yazov and others realized that if Gorbachev was not stopped, the Soviet Union would be doomed.
It can be seen that at that time, the Soviet Union was already facing extreme danger, and some sober politicians could not sit still and wanted to save the Soviet Union.
Second, the cause of occurrence
Some Soviet leaders, led by Yanayev, began to secretly plan the "8.19 incident". They wanted to learn from past practices, get Gorbachev to retire, and then prevent the Soviet Union from sliding further to the brink of disintegration.
The Events of August 19 in the Soviet Union were an attempt to take emergency measures to resolve the crisis facing the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the "8.19" incident was considered in the academic community to be an event to ensure the Soviet system. However, from the historical data, the emergency committee established at that time did not think of other methods. Including Prime Minister Pavlov, KGB Chairman Kryuchkov, Vice President Yanayev and others did not want to create a sensational event. But a proposal to expand government power at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in June was rejected by President Gorbachev.
Gorbachev had a plan with the leaders of the nine member states to sign a new alliance treaty on August 20. Originally, the Soviet Union had already held a referendum on whether to retain the Soviet Union, and the people mostly supported the retention of the Soviet Union, but Gorbachev had a Congress of the Soviet Union and prepared to change it to the "Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics", which was not an unusual name, but in fact a union of states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Each member state has the right to independently determine its system and the system of national governance, the right to solve its own internal problems, the establishment of diplomatic, consular, trade and other ties with foreign countries, and even the signing of international treaties and participation in international trade, which is no different from independent countries.
It was precisely because Gorbachev wanted to dismantle the Soviet Union that the "8.19" incident broke out. From this point of view, the "8.19" incident actually occurred as a showdown between two forces. The "8.19" incident was also an important dividing line for the Soviet Union, that is, the Soviet Union accelerated its disintegration, and the domestic situation became more and more complicated.
Unfortunately, the "8.19" incident failed, and if it succeeded, perhaps the Soviet Union still had some hope.
Third, lead to consequences
After the "8.19" incident, the "democrats" in the Soviet Union at that time were actually political forces composed of some people who were bought off by the West, and they used the failure of the "8.19" incident to strengthen the Soviet Union and develop in the direction of disintegration.
As a result of the failure of the event, the central power of the SOVIET Union began to transition into the hands of the "democrats".
Originally, power was previously in the hands of the regime headed by Gorbachev, but at this time, Gosch was in the middle of the line. Neither subject to Su G, but Gossy is still a member of Su G,
After the failure of 8.19, the democrats seized a lot of power, and Gorbachev was hollowed out, and later fell to the democrats.
After the failure of the "8.19" incident, the meeting of the new alliance that was scheduled to be held on August 20 was disrupted, and although the new alliance was actually the collapse of the Soviet Union, at least the name "Soviet Union" was retained, that is, the federal form was still there. As long as 9 countries signed a treaty, it was possible to win more countries to stay in the alliance, but after the "8.19" incident, everything disappeared, directly allowing the Soviet Union to join and become independent.
After the "8.19" incident, the Soviet G also accelerated its demise, when a strange phenomenon occurred in the Soviet G, the Russian Communist Party actually became independent from the Soviet G, and Shevardnadze and Yakovlev and others also launched a democratic reform movement, and also pulled a part from the Soviet G. At this time, Su G had not many people. So after the incident failed, Su G was banned. On August 24, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the leader of the Soviet Union G and signed a decree prohibiting the Soviet G from operating in the army, the KGB and other Soviet law enforcement powers. On November 6, 1991, Yeltsin ordered a ban on Su G's activities in Russia and confiscated property.
The "humane and democratic socialism" advocated by Gorbachev was also bankrupt, and it was not popular for Gorbachev to implement this policy before the incident, because this kind of statement was not right for the lips of the horse, and the premise of Gorbachev's implementation of this policy was "democracy", and what "humanity" was to make the Soviet Union not engage in any dictatorship, but to want Western-style democracy, which was actually the same as the capitalist road. After the "8.19" incident, the democrats directly took the "road of democratization" and bent Gorbachev's cloaked things.
To speed up the privatization process, the Soviet Union had raised the issue of privatization before the incident, but because the debate was fierce at that time, it could not be implemented at all. At that time, the Soviet Union also had two plans, one was the Soviet Prime Minister's anti-crisis plan, which was not implemented, and the Russian Federation and the United States made the "Harvard Plan", that is, "five hundred days of shock therapy". After the failure of the incident, he went directly into the privatized society.
A total inversion to the West. Before the "8.19" incident, Yeltsin became the president of the Russian Federation and received support from the West, and Gorbachev also interacted with the West a lot, and the purpose of the two was to get Western assistance. However, after the incident, the West was afraid that the Soviet Union would once again follow the old path, so after the failure of the incident, the Goyes became more dependent on the West. Because the West has linked aid to Western-style reforms in the Soviet Union.
Accelerate the end of the Cold War. The "8.19" incident actually existed in name only, at this time the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the reunification of germany, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and the Cold War pattern formed after World War II no longer existed. The pattern of hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union in the world has also ended.
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