and Gorbachev, and suicide attempt
and Gorbachev, television interviews between
and Gorbachev, and town hall meeting
and Gorbachev, and transfer of power
and Gorbacheva, death of
health of
and Honecker
impeachment of, call for
international goodwill of
and KGB, disbanding of
lecture tour of
marriage of
and nationalism
and new union treaty
New Year’s message of
and news media interviews
and newspapers
and nuclear button
and nuclear suitcase
and nuclear weapons
and parliament, dissolution of
and party privilege
and perestroika
and personal security
and personnel and state property, transfer of
physical appearance of
and Politburo, resignation from
and popular base, growth of
as president (first term)
as president (second term)
and presidential campaign
and presidential perks
and presidential powers referendum
presidential reelection campaign of
resentment toward
residences of
resignation of
and river incident
at Russian White House
and Sakharov, death of
and “secret speech,”
and shock therapy(see also Economic reform)
and sovereignty, declaration of
and Soviet republics
and state assets, appropriation of
and storming of bureaucracy
suicide attempt by
takeover by
and television, control of
and three-state union
and transfer of power
and transfer of power, aftermath of
and Twenty-seventh Party Congress
and Ukraine
and Belovezh agreement
and United States
and United States, visit to
and Western leaders
and White House, storming of
at White House in Washington
Yeltsina, Naina
and August coup
marriage of
and Yeltsin, suicide attempt of
Zaikov, Lev
Zaslavsky, Ilya
Zhirinovsky, Vladimir
Zucconi, Vittorio
BOOKS BY CONOR O’CLERY
May You Live in Interesting Times
The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune
Panic at the Bank: How John Rusnak Lost AlB $700 Million (coauthored with Siobhan Creaton)
Daring Diplomacy: Clinton’s Secret Search for Peace in Ireland
America: A Place Called Hope?
Melting Snow: An Irishman in Moscow
Phrases Make History Here
About the Author
Conor O’Clery lived and worked in Russia during the final years of the Soviet Union as Moscow correspondent for the Irish Times. He won journalist of the year in Ireland for his reporting from the Soviet Union, and again in 2002 for his firsthand accounts of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. In thirty years with the Irish Times he also served as correspondent in London, Beijing, New York, and Washington. He is GlobalPost’s Ireland correspondent and is the author of several books, including The Billionaire Who Wasn’t, a biography of the American philanthropist Chuck Feeney, named a 2007 best book of the year by the Economist and BusinessWeek.
About the Publisher
PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.
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• • •
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Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by Conor O’Clery
Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a Member of the Perseus Books Group
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Excerpt from “Goodbye Our Red Flag” from Don’t Die Before You’re Dead by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Copyright © 1995 by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Permission requested.
O’Clery Conor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-610-39012-5
1. Moscow (Russia)—History—20th century. 2. Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich, 1931—3. Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich, 1931-2007. 4. Soviet Union—History—1985—1991. 5. Soviet Union—Politics and government—1985—1991. 6. Moscow (Russia)—Politics and government—20th century. 7. Moscow (Russia)—Social conditions—20th century. 8. Moscow (Russia)—Biography. I. Title.
DK601.2.025 2011
947.085’4—dc23
2011020511
NOTES
1
1 Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Sbevardreadze, 361.
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2
2 Woolf, Nuclear Weapons in the Former Soviet Union.
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3
3 Baker with DeFrank, The Politics of Diplomacy, 583.
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4
4 Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 555.
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5
5 Grachev, Final Days, 87.
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1 Weather details are from www.tutiempo.net.
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2 The description of Red Square is from contemporary newspaper accounts.
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8
3 I visited the Church of St. Louis before this date and spoke to Sofia Peonkova.
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9
4 Neuffer, “In Moscow a Christmas Leap of Faith.”
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/> 10
5 Gaidar, Days of defeat and Victory, 111.
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11
1 Murray, A Democracy of Despots, 136.
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12
2 Gorbachev’s dacha and the couple’s lifestyle are described in Gorbacheva, I Hope; Gorbachev, Memoirs; Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev; Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin ; and Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World.
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13
3 Gorbacheva, I Hope, 174.
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14
4 Shakhnazarov, Tsena Svobody, 493.
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15
5 Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia, 3.
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16
6 Details of Yeltsin’s home life are found in Aron, Boris Yeltsins; Colton, Yeltsins; Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin; Solovyov and Klepikova, Boris Yeltsin; Sukhanov, Tri Goda s Yeltsinym; Yeltsin, Against the Grain ; and Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia.
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17
7 Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin, 170-171.
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18
8 Solovyov and Klepikova, Boris Yeltsin, 91.
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19
9 Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia, 32.
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10 Colton, Yeltsin, 296.
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11 Zenkovich, Malchishki v Rozovykh Shtanishkakh, 388.
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22
12 Sukhanov, Tri Goda s Yeltsinym, 233.
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23
1 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 279.
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24
2 Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin, 78-79.
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3 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 235.
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26
4 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 66.
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27
5 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 235.
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28
1 Interviews with Koppel, September 2009, and Kaplan, November 2009, cited here and elsewhere in the chapter.
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2 ABC Television, unedited footage, December 25, 1991.
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30
3 Gorbachev and Mlynář, Conversations with Gorbachev, 92.
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31
4 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 15, 1991.
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32
5 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 225.
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33
6 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 20, 1991.
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34
1 Shulgan, The Soviet Ambassador, 265-267.
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2 Dobrynin, In Confidence, 621-622.
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3 Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin, 72-73.
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4 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 68.
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5 Colton, Yeltsin, 131.
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39
6 Matlock, Autopsy on are Empire, 112.
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40
1 Solovyov and Klepikova, 276.
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41
2 Interview with Yegor Gaidar, Moscow, October 2009.
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3 Irish Times, December 27, 1991.
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43
1 Colton, Yeltsin, 125.
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2 Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, 167.
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3 Aron, Boris Yeltsin, 191.
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4 Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, 130.
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47
5 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 234.
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48
6 Ibid., 131.
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49
7 Yeltsin’s sacking and treatment by Gorbachev is detailed in Colton, Yeltsin, 138-150; Yeltsin, Against the Grain, 144-155; Aron, Boris Yeltsin, 202-220; and Boldin, 235-236.
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50
8 Colton, Yeltsin, 153.
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9 Yeltsin, Agairest the Grain, 155.
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10 Colton, Yeltsin, 150.
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11 Aron, Yeltsin, 221.
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12 Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin, 86.
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55
1 The account of the congress’s proceedings is from Rossiskaya Gazeta, December 26, 1991.
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56
2 Alexander Kichikhin quoted in Sovetskaya Rossiya, December 26, 1991.
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57
1 Yeltsin, Against the Grain, 156-158.
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58
2 Sukhanov, Tri Goda s Yeltsinym, 302.
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59
3 Ibid., 302-304.
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60
4 Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communist, 515.
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61
5 Interview with Vitaly Korotich, June 1988.
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62
6 Yeltsin, Against the Grain, 142.
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63
7 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 365.
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64
8 Yeltsin, Against the Grain, 162.
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65
9 Ibid., 203.
Moscow, December 25, 1991 Page 41