Saturday, May 12, 2007
President Boris Yeltzin and the collapse of the USSR
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The death of the former president of Russia, Boris Yeltzin, reminded me that living in East Midtown, near the UN, is much like being in the center of the universe; world events can become very personal. Thus, during the failing years of the Evil Empire I had a nearly blow by blow account of events in Moscow, from a neighbor connected to the Ford Foundation (maybe a cover), who was constantly traveling to the USSR. General secretary Mikhael Gorbatchev’s glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) of the CPSU and the entire USSR, and Yeltzin, with his unreliability and drinking bouts were our constant subjects. It was amazing that this mercurial leader, thrown out of our leadership circles in 1987 for criticizing the slow progress of reform, within two years managed to return and be elected president of the Russian SSR.
Yeltsin was not popular here, and when a few copies of his 1990 biography, outlining his reform ideals, turned up for sale at a Friends’ Fair, the annual May event on East 16th Street, autographed in a unlettered Roman hand, there were few buyers. But the feeling changed, after his August 18, 1991 legendary ride atop a tank into the lines of Soviet troops summonsed by the Politburo rebels trying to unseat the then head of state Gorbatchev and restore Communist control. It was an act of personal bravery, not unlike that of the Chinese protesters walking out front to stop the tanks in Tienaman Square in May of 1989, except that president Yeltzin succeeded, and USSR went out of business in 1991.
But then he screwed up the economy, sold out state industries to the oligarchs, crime became rampant and he dismissed the House of Deputies in 1993, after using arms to suppress a revolt of the people made poor by the government’s economic policies, effected with our economists’ help. The names of Yegor Gaidar and Harvard’s Jeoffrey Sachs come to mind, along with deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais, in conjunction with their economic "shock therapy" of cutting government expenses, privatization of state industries, stopping price controls and subsidies, all leading to a 2,500% inflation and destruction of the retirees’ pensions. Nevertheless, reelected in 1996, Yeltsin continued muddling (the rebellious Chechens against which he took arms were beating the Russian army) until, near the expiry of his term in 1999, he resigned, with an apology to the Russian people, and turned the government over to his handpicked successor Putin. The latter used the Chechens to build Russian nationalist support for himself, lucked out with the oil and gas price rises as saviors of the economy, and now is working on rebuilding respect for Russia as a world power, at our expense.
What made these dedicated Communists turn away from their Marxist faith? One looks back to first secretary Nikita Khrushchev, who rose after Stalin's death in 1952, and had his epiphany in an Iowa corn field,; Yeltsin had his in a Houston supermarket. Gorbatchov's inspiration may have been the Deng Xiaoping model of turning China around via economic capitalism (1978, spurred by president Nixon' s visit in 1972), escalated by the horrors of the Chernobyl power plant explosion in April 1986. The high costs of the Cold War and a need for peace played a role. Deep down, Khrushchev and Yeltsin were soured on Communism - the former by witnessing the deaths of five million of his fellow Ukrainians in the 1932/33 collectivization campaign, and the latter by his father's incarceration and service of a term in a gulag prison. Khrushchev revealed the evils of Stalinism in 1952 and broke open the way to reform, but was superseded by the stolid doctrinaire Communist Leonid Brezhnev (1964-82) who gave his name to a period of history – Brezhnev stagnation, highlighted by the unsuccessful invasion of Afghanistan (1979-88). His successors, sickly Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, lasted a total of 25 months, opening the way for the young reformer Gorbachov.
Both the Yeltsin's resignation and apology were most unusual acts for a politician. Nixon's resignation in 1974 may have been a model. Is there a parallel today? No, although the Bush administration is failing, there is no thought of abandoning policy, on the contrary, a spokesman of the neocon architects of the Iraq war, Perle, while admitting that turning the rule over to Iraqis would have saved the country and our reputation, is seeking to blame their own appointed Presidential Envoy and supremo, Paul Bremer, for the delay. No acknowledgement that the Iraqi army was dismissed and, along with civilian Bathists, frozen out from the getgo. I remember asking the famous ex-Marxist historian, Gene Genovese, about whether the former Iraqi government people should participate in restoring and ruling, and his answer was: "Would Adenauer have been able to restore Germany if only under 16- year olds and people past retirement age were available?" This simple bit of wisdom, applied in McArthur's Japan as well as in Germany, was an anathema for these builders of the Next American Century.
The death of the former president of Russia, Boris Yeltzin, reminded me that living in East Midtown, near the UN, is much like being in the center of the universe; world events can become very personal. Thus, during the failing years of the Evil Empire I had a nearly blow by blow account of events in Moscow, from a neighbor connected to the Ford Foundation (maybe a cover), who was constantly traveling to the USSR. General secretary Mikhael Gorbatchev’s glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) of the CPSU and the entire USSR, and Yeltzin, with his unreliability and drinking bouts were our constant subjects. It was amazing that this mercurial leader, thrown out of our leadership circles in 1987 for criticizing the slow progress of reform, within two years managed to return and be elected president of the Russian SSR.
Yeltsin was not popular here, and when a few copies of his 1990 biography, outlining his reform ideals, turned up for sale at a Friends’ Fair, the annual May event on East 16th Street, autographed in a unlettered Roman hand, there were few buyers. But the feeling changed, after his August 18, 1991 legendary ride atop a tank into the lines of Soviet troops summonsed by the Politburo rebels trying to unseat the then head of state Gorbatchev and restore Communist control. It was an act of personal bravery, not unlike that of the Chinese protesters walking out front to stop the tanks in Tienaman Square in May of 1989, except that president Yeltzin succeeded, and USSR went out of business in 1991.
But then he screwed up the economy, sold out state industries to the oligarchs, crime became rampant and he dismissed the House of Deputies in 1993, after using arms to suppress a revolt of the people made poor by the government’s economic policies, effected with our economists’ help. The names of Yegor Gaidar and Harvard’s Jeoffrey Sachs come to mind, along with deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais, in conjunction with their economic "shock therapy" of cutting government expenses, privatization of state industries, stopping price controls and subsidies, all leading to a 2,500% inflation and destruction of the retirees’ pensions. Nevertheless, reelected in 1996, Yeltsin continued muddling (the rebellious Chechens against which he took arms were beating the Russian army) until, near the expiry of his term in 1999, he resigned, with an apology to the Russian people, and turned the government over to his handpicked successor Putin. The latter used the Chechens to build Russian nationalist support for himself, lucked out with the oil and gas price rises as saviors of the economy, and now is working on rebuilding respect for Russia as a world power, at our expense.
What made these dedicated Communists turn away from their Marxist faith? One looks back to first secretary Nikita Khrushchev, who rose after Stalin's death in 1952, and had his epiphany in an Iowa corn field,; Yeltsin had his in a Houston supermarket. Gorbatchov's inspiration may have been the Deng Xiaoping model of turning China around via economic capitalism (1978, spurred by president Nixon' s visit in 1972), escalated by the horrors of the Chernobyl power plant explosion in April 1986. The high costs of the Cold War and a need for peace played a role. Deep down, Khrushchev and Yeltsin were soured on Communism - the former by witnessing the deaths of five million of his fellow Ukrainians in the 1932/33 collectivization campaign, and the latter by his father's incarceration and service of a term in a gulag prison. Khrushchev revealed the evils of Stalinism in 1952 and broke open the way to reform, but was superseded by the stolid doctrinaire Communist Leonid Brezhnev (1964-82) who gave his name to a period of history – Brezhnev stagnation, highlighted by the unsuccessful invasion of Afghanistan (1979-88). His successors, sickly Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, lasted a total of 25 months, opening the way for the young reformer Gorbachov.
Both the Yeltsin's resignation and apology were most unusual acts for a politician. Nixon's resignation in 1974 may have been a model. Is there a parallel today? No, although the Bush administration is failing, there is no thought of abandoning policy, on the contrary, a spokesman of the neocon architects of the Iraq war, Perle, while admitting that turning the rule over to Iraqis would have saved the country and our reputation, is seeking to blame their own appointed Presidential Envoy and supremo, Paul Bremer, for the delay. No acknowledgement that the Iraqi army was dismissed and, along with civilian Bathists, frozen out from the getgo. I remember asking the famous ex-Marxist historian, Gene Genovese, about whether the former Iraqi government people should participate in restoring and ruling, and his answer was: "Would Adenauer have been able to restore Germany if only under 16- year olds and people past retirement age were available?" This simple bit of wisdom, applied in McArthur's Japan as well as in Germany, was an anathema for these builders of the Next American Century.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 10:00 AM 
