Preface
After the August 19 incident in 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was overthrown, while Yeltsin seized control of a superpower like the Soviet Union, and directly possessed in his hands a power that could destroy the world.
However, Yeltsin did not choose to become the president of such a superpower, but together with the tripartite leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, he signed the "Belovezh Agreement", which meant the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Belovezh Agreement
Why, then, did Yeltsin, who was in power in power, make a move to bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union? Doesn't he want to be the leader of a superpower?
Yeltsin, who was in charge
On August 19, 1991, some officials within the CPSU hoped to save the Soviet Union from crisis through a coup d'état, but instead of saving the Soviet Union, their actions accelerated its collapse.
After the August 19 incident was quelled, Yeltsin, who had been in the limelight in the coup d'état, became the de facto controller of the Soviet Union, controlling Russia, the largest member state of the Soviet Union, and had a large number of troops to support him.
Not only that, but in the process of taking power at that time, the Russian people at that time gave Yeltsin a lot of support, and when Yeltsin gave a speech on the street, many people stood below to listen to his speech.
It was precisely because Yeltsin controlled the main situation in the Soviet Union at that time that Yeltsin was able to openly declare the illegality of the CPSU in Russia at the meeting held after the "August 19" incident, and openly "humiliated" Gorbachev at the meeting.
It can be said that Yeltsin was already in a state of great power at this time, and as long as he wanted, then he could become the new president of the Soviet Union, commanding such a superpower with a population of hundreds of millions, and millions of troops, and the ability to destroy the world.
However, we all know very well what the future will be like, that is, not long after Yeltsin came to power, the once-powerful Soviet Union collapsed, and Yeltsin only became the president of Russia.
Why, then, did Yeltsin give up such a great opportunity?
"Freezing three feet is not a day's cold"
In the late 80s of the last century, the Soviet Union was actually facing very serious economic problems, and as a superpower that could be compared with the United States, the Soviet Union could not even guarantee the basic livelihood of its own people.
This made the Soviet people very disappointed with the Soviet government at that time, especially after Gorbachev came to power, as the Soviet Union liberalized the control of information, a large amount of Western propaganda began to pour into the Soviet Union, which caused great problems in the ideological field of the Soviet Union.
In the Soviet Union at that time, a large number of public knowledge, including Solzhenitsyn, appeared, and these well-known works and related remarks made the Soviet people's trust in the government of the CPSU continue to decrease.
Solzhenitsyn
At the same time, some authoritative media within the Soviet authorities also criticized the Soviet authorities at that time, and their remarks were very "aggressive." Compared with them, the Western media, which carried out anti-Soviet propaganda all year round, were more like the official media of the Soviet Union.
When Yeltsin came to power, the Soviet authorities had a very low status in the hearts of the common people at that time.
The main reason why Yeltsin was able to gain a large amount of support among the Soviet people was that Yeltsin himself held high the banner of the so-called "liberal", which was not a derogatory term at the time, and therefore he received great support from the people.
However, for Yeltsin, "the support for his "liberal" views meant that if he wanted to become president of the Soviet Union, he would inevitably face a lot of opposition, which was very bad for Yeltsin.
In addition to this, if Yeltsin wants to become the president of a superpower, he will also need to face a lot of external pressure.
Although there had been a certain détente in US-Soviet relations at that time, this détente was actually based on Gorbachev's "foolishness" that caused the Soviet Union to abandon most of its interests.
If Yeltsin wanted to become president of the Soviet Union at that time, he would have faced tremendous pressure from the West when he took office.
For Yeltsin, who lacked sufficient internal support, the pressure was unbearable, and Yeltsin would not have chosen to become president of the Soviet Union, even if it was necessary for his own interests.
Moreover, for Yeltsin and the interest groups behind him, the collapse of the USSR will not only bring them nothing, but, on the contrary, they will gain more after the collapse of the USSR.
This can be seen from the large number of oligarchs that later appeared in Russia.
In the end, Yeltsin, who was in power, chose to sign the document in Belovezh with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, which represented the end of the Soviet Union.
However, could the collapse of the Soviet Union really bring any benefits to the common people at that time?
The tragedy of the collapse of the USSR
The Soviet Union is the biggest adversary that Western countries have ever faced, so in the literature of Western countries, the Soviet Union is often portrayed as a very bad villain, coupled with the prevalence of Western film and television works today.
Smear in the Western game
Many people today undoubtedly associate the Soviet Union with bad labels such as corruption, autocracy, and disregard for the lives of the people, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ordinary people faced much more misery than in the Soviet era.
First of all, there is the problem of corruption, and it is often used to argue that the bureaucracy of the Soviet era was very bad, as exposed by the privileged classes of the Soviet era.
However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian oligarchs who wantonly carved up the Soviet Union, as well as the Russian bureaucrats who often took bribes, made ordinary people understand what real corruption is!
Even in the Russian army at that time, there was a lot of corruption, and many soldiers sold large quantities of guns and ammunition at very cheap prices in order to get more money.
And these guns and ammunition, which appeared in large quantities on the black market, caused a very great destabilizing factor to Russian social order at that time when the Russian economy was in a bad situation.
Some of these weapons and equipment were even acquired by the separatist forces in Russia at that time, which directly led to the two Chechen wars, which had a very bad impact on Russia's domestic situation and international image.
Moreover, politically, although politicians such as Yeltsin often advertised themselves as so-called "liberals" during the Soviet era, caring about the interests of ordinary people.
But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, these people were obsessed with how to divide up the vast legacy of the Soviet era, such as Yeltsin, who strenuously opposed the coup d'état during the August 19 incident.
He once gave a very low evaluation to the organizers of the "19 August" incident, but even the organizers of the "19 August" incident did not choose to give the order to "open fire" in the end.
However, in 1993, in order to gain more power, Yeltsin directly ordered tanks to shell the Russian parliament building after announcing the dissolution of the parliament to no avail.
This move can be described as making Russia's domestic problems public, which brought great damage to Russia's image at that time.
As for the life of the Russian people in the days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was much worse than in the worst days of the Soviet era, and many people's hard-earned savings for many years were wasted almost overnight.
Large numbers of ordinary people had to sell their possessions to get a pitiful amount of food, and the suicide rate in Russia was several times higher than in the Soviet era.
It can be said that the collapse of the Soviet Union brought to most ordinary people in Russia one tragedy after another.
epilogue
The question of why the Soviet Union collapsed is very controversial even today.
But no matter what the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union were, the lives of ordinary Soviet people not only did not change because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but fell into the "abyss"!