Same as the President of France or Queen of England. This is a little-remembered event in a
highly chaotic period, but on August 19, 1991, Gorbachev's cronies,
terrified of him beginning to allow the Soviet empire to break up, dragged him a whole time-zone away put him under unlawful house arrest (i.e., falsely "imprisoned" him) while upon vacationing on {factual error caught by Desidero at bottom
below; Yeltstin was already vacationing in Crimea from August 4 when
put under house arrest; he was not taken to his dacha but imprisoned in
his dacha -- thanks to Desidero} the peninsula of Crimea to
stage an overthrow. This is remembered as a failed coup, but even
though Soviet troops wouldn't support it, the plotters partly got
their way for the moment: when he returned to Moscow three days
later, his rival Boris Yeltsin continually mocked Gorbachev to his face on television -- that his own guys had done this so why should anybody else trust his
leadership? Yeltsin rubbed it in for days and days, and
basically took over.
At the time, USSR had consisted of what
are now 15 countries, although scrappy Georgia had announced
sessession in April, and as to the Baltic republics who had always hated
USSR, 2 of the 3 of those had nominally seceded in 1990 - Moscow
wanted to at worst hold the line there - those four annoying
"countries" and they hadn't even yet lost Estonia, and maybe could get
it all back anyway. That's sure what those kidnappers wanted!
After all, they had a pretty big army,
and the bedrock core of USSR had always been the 3 Slavic republics
of gigantic Russia, plus Ukraine (historically, "Little Russia")
plus Belarus ("White Russia") - those were the most cherished places they
could never lose. But can you imagine being in
Moscow itself or out in any of those regions listening to news that
your President was kidnapped?! Not
a confidence builder!
Even in Soviet Ukraine, for example, they wondered what the hell to do.
President kidnapped while empire crumbling - hmmmmmmmnnn.
In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, there stood a gigantic arch
representing the eternal friendship between the Russian and Ukrainian
peoples. You don't need metallic symbols like that, if the friendship
is truly so unshakeable, of course. And Ukraine's leadership looked
up at that imposing arch and got themselves an idea, just as
Gorbachev was struggling to somehow regain his footing. They
declared indepedence from USSR four days after the kidnapping, on
August 24, 1991, and Gorbachev had to resign as Party leader the next
day, quite a blow in USSR culture. The sly Ukrainians got away with
it in all the commotion, too, and that makes tomorrow Independence
Day in Ukraine. (This is all on Wiki and lotsa other places, of course.)
So Ukraine was the first Slavic "country" to declare independence, inflicting an unbearable loss, and a whole parade of new ex-Soviet
countries followed suit over 3 months. Russia itself threw in the
towel by late December. Bye-bye, big empire! Of course, the Russian
Federation itself is still a huge empire with innumerable minorities across 11 time zones,
so even though it lost 14 whole countries, it's not a total break
with the past by any means. But it is a huge one, and right now Ukraine
is celebrating its role with a three-day weekend! Still, many Russians,
Urkainians, and Belarussians still regard themselves as one people by the
way (and many Ukrainians don't know what the three-day weekend is exactly for), so it is not a settled issue culturally (though Ukrainian
nationalists don't want any part whatsoever of togetherness). Anyhow, Happy Independence Day, Ukrainians!
And Gorbachev? He was regarded as a rock star in USA at the time one might
recall, but as a bumbling buffoon across ex-USSR, then as now. Tensions persist, of course, such as it almost coming to blows when cocksure, imbecilic Bush tried to bloviate how NATO was a good move for Ukraine a year and half ago before an infuriated Putin, who spat, "Well, you understand, George,
Ukraine isn't even a state!" Don't believe the cheery East European B.S. about that account being "debunked" either (in a story completely missed by airheaded U.S. MSM who narcoleptically published WH talking points); it's audible on video and you can see Putin's fury.
