On August 22, 1991, Akhromeyev wrote a suicide note without a recipient, saying the most painful thing in his life. In the letter he said that I had fought for the Soviet Union to the last moment of my life. I can't live anymore. Someone must be responsible for its division. But a Russian leader once said that anyone with a conscience should regret the collapse of the Soviet Union; but whoever pushes Russia back to the former Soviet Union is losing his mind. From this point of view, the disintegration of the Soviet Union is not necessarily a bad thing, so what kind of person is this Akhromeyev, and why does he feel the disintegration of the Soviet Union so much? And how did a Soviet Union, which accounts for one-sixth of the world, come to the point of disintegration?
Akhromeyev was a Marshal of the Soviet Union and chief of the General Staff. Don't look at his first impression is that he is thin and small, and he was already a gray-haired man of nearly 70 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union; but he is a man who has dedicated his life to the Soviet Union.
Akhromeyev was born in 1923, when the Soviet Union was just beginning, and power was gradually transferred from Lenin to Stalin. Tsarist Russia, which had been torn apart in the revolutionary struggle, now formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the form of an independent republic. With the Congress of Soviet Unions as the highest organ of state power, to put it bluntly, the eldest brother headed by the Russian Republic leads the younger brothers who were originally separated from the same country, and the younger brothers are nominally the state, but in fact they are similar to the provinces of other countries. This was almost the same when the Russian Federation was strong, of course, without problems. But this left a hidden danger for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However, the whole territory of the Soviet Union was immersed in an atmosphere of great joy, the feudal imperialism was overthrown, the people finally gained status, and the world's first socialist state was established. Don't be afraid when the economy collapses, the people will have hope and motivation, and we can just do it well. However, when the national economy did not improve significantly, the international situation began to become grim, and World War II was about to break out. In order to avoid becoming a target for German troops, the Soviet Union preemptively signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, and at the beginning of World War II, it divided Poland with Germany and forcibly incorporated Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the Soviet Union. However, when the Soviet Union reached out to Finland, it was defeated miserably, and eventually cut off the land and leased the territory.
At this time, the coming-of-age Akhromeyev, full of ambition, could not wait to join the army, one was to retake the land that had been squandered from Finland, but to prevent Germany from eventually tearing up the contract. Sure enough, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, when they attacked other European countries. At one point, Moscow was almost breached, and Leningrad was also besieged. At this time, the cold weather helped the Soviet Union a lot, the Russian army began to counterattack in December of the same year, Ahromeyev was still an ordinary soldier, the experience of that time he will never forget, he remembered that he did not enter any room for 18 months, even if the temperature outside was minus 50 ° C, he had to freeze, starve and go to the battlefield every day. Fresh lives are either frozen, starved to death, or killed in battle. Akhromeyev said that 8 out of 10 of his comrades froze to death, and he eventually persevered.
The longest siege in the history of human warfare was finally won by the Soviet Union. Akhromeyev was promoted to company commander during the defensive campaign, and he also applied to join the Bolsheviks. He frankly said that he joined the party now, not to transfer to a more idle and safe rear, but to make the soldiers trust themselves more.
After World War II, Akhromeyev never left the army, but rose steadily and efficiently, quickly reaching the positions of regimental chief of staff, regimental commander and mayor. By 1967, after graduating from the General Staff Military Academy, he served as chief of staff of the army group and eventually as commander-in-chief. According to statistics, his rank was basically promoted once every 5 years, and by 1975, he was already a general and served in the High Command. In 1979, he was appointed First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army and promoted to General. Marshal Ogarkov praised him for his determination, determination, courage in his work, and bravery in his work. In the same year, Akhromeyev drew up a plan for Afghanistan, which successfully gave the Soviet Union access to the Indian Ocean. The Soviet Union at this time was powerful, and although the national economy was as strong as ever, as a typical heavy industrial country, the military strength was enough to shut up any country at that time.
Based on Akhromeyev's contributions, in 1982 he was awarded the title of Hero of the SOVIET Union, and the following year he became first deputy minister of defense of the USSR, promoted to field marshal. Throughout his life, he always put the Soviet Union and work first, and he unswervingly defended the purpose of armed and strong to defend the country. It can be said that he dedicated his life to the Soviet Union.
But from the very beginning of its establishment, the Soviet Union had hidden dangers. The lack of light industry and the excessive preference for heavy industry led to a perpetual state of hunger and cold in the living of the Soviets, while some revolutionaries were now corrupt, enjoying the pleasures of privilege and authoritarian centralization, undermining the Soviet socialist system. Thus, the government and socialism gradually diminish in the minds of the people until they are completely disappointed. They began to doubt the legitimacy of socialism, and at the instigation of Western forces, they easily launched an anti-privilege movement.
Akhromeyev has gone through four terms of leadership, and his only principle is to preserve the Soviet system and national unity. But the country's problems have not been solved, and the reforms of the new leaders have not been solved, and no real problems have been found, but they have abandoned the core of the socialist system and turned to Western capitalism to learn from the separation of powers. This raises an even more unease from the top down: Is the socialist state we have built wrong? Can only capitalism ultimately save the people?
The marshal, who is already in his 60s, is worried about this, and the total denial of socialism is the last thing he wants to see. He satirized to the point: what millions of German troops did not do back then, the Soviet people today have done.
On August 19, 1991, he supported Vice President Yanayev and Prime Minister Pavlov, Defense Minister Yazov, the head of the KGB, the Minister of Internal Affairs, etc., put Gorbachev under house arrest and set up a state of emergency committee to try to turn the tide at the last minute. However, the President of the Russian Federation, Yeltsin, resolutely disobeyed the orders of this committee, and he called for a popular strike and demonstration, so the emergency activity lasted only two days, and on the 21st, Gorbachev regained his freedom.
On the 22nd, Akhromeyev, who was completely desperate, chose to hang himself in his office. He sat in a chair with two strands of hemp rope around his neck, one end of which was fixed to the handle of the window and then secured with tape. In the end, he did not want to take off his Soviet uniform, he wore a marshal's uniform and personally ended his life.
He wrote a total of five suicide notes that night, the first of which was for his family, but the content was still about the country. He confessed to his family that he had put his soldiers and citizens before his family, and that to this day he still chooses to prioritize the fulfillment of his first duty. He warned his family to be strong and brave after he left, and not to show jokes to the enemy.
The second suicide note was sent to his old comrades-in-arms, asking them to bury themselves and help take care of their families.
The third letter is to ask the person who saw the suicide note to help return the 50 rubles owed to the collective canteen.
The fourth letter has no recipient and is more like the monologue of an old man who has struggled all his life for the country. Now the general trend of the Soviet Union, his own old and powerless, so that he can not fight, can not live.
The fifth letter is written after the first failed suicide, and he helplessly laughs at his uselessness and can even fail suicide.
On the same day, Minister of the Interior Pugo and his wife Valentina, director of the General Office of the CPSU Central Committee, Yalezina. Pugo still seems to be reflecting on himself in his suicide note, saying that I trust others too much. Valentina begged the children not to blame their parents and to take good care of their grandfather. As well as countless old heroes who have long retired, such as sharpshooter Vasily and ace pilot Kori Dub, have chosen to commit suicide. Who is willing to shed their blood and sacrifice for it, and the country that has high hopes will eventually fall apart? The persistence and beliefs of these people throughout their lives were destroyed along with power struggles and conspiracies.
The living were too busy watching, too busy looking for a way out, and no one cared whether the distinguished Soviet marshal had a burial worthy of his status, whether the state and the government had expressed their condolences. Ahromeyev was bid farewell to only a few of his fellow military comrades- and none of the current senior officials, the honor guard and the military band were scrawled, the old heroes accused the honor guard of being perfunctory, and the young men said that we had not received any instructions to send off the former chief of the General Staff.
In the end, the funeral of the First Marshal of the Soviet Union was completed after only 40 minutes. Most indignantly, his grave was destroyed that night, and the medals and marshal's uniforms that had been specially accompanied by the funeral were stolen.
On the other hand, although Gorbachev regained his freedom, the returning president, after dissolving the Emergency Committee, found that the situation had collapsed, and he could neither continue reform nor return the Soviet Union to a stable past, so on December 25 of the same year, the frustrated president announced his resignation and recommended that the CPSU Central Committee dissolve itself.
On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union was declared ceased to exist. In fact, since March 1990, the countries led by Lithuania have declared independence, it is like turning on the switch of collapse, and soon, the allied countries have declared independence one after another, and the Soviet Union has long been in name only. Since then, Yeltsin, at the instigation of the United States, has happily changed the political and economic system of the Russian Federation, and most of the arms factories and weapons stocks have been distributed to Ukraine. Then he discovered that unlike the grand picture drawn by the United States, Russia's strength suddenly changed from being able to fight a Cold War with the United States to being weak. Perhaps to this day, Russia is still making up for the loopholes of that year.
Akhromeyev is worthy of being a marshal of the Soviet Union, but I am afraid that his death, in addition to not being able to face the collapse of faith, also has the unwillingness and resentment of not being able to save the situation.