Moscow, December 25, 1991

The Soviet president wonders where the CNN and Russian television cameras are. He assumes he will be making his stepping-down speech at the desk where he works as president. “Where are they going to be filming?” he inquires. As director of the television coverage, Yegor Yakovlev tells him that everything has been set up in the sham office, Room Number 4. “Why not in my office?” asks Gorbachev. Yakovlev explains that there are so many technicians, photographers, and journalists involved, not to mention equipment, that they would have had to take over the real office for two hours to prepare for the broadcast. It is too late to change anything. CNN has set up its broadcasting operation down the corridor. They must go there.¹

“CNN broadcasts to 153 countries,” remarks Yakovlev, emphasizing the importance of the network’s worldwide coverage of the resignation.

“And the eleven countries of the CIS as well,” notes Gorbachev. “Well, let’s not take the risk of changing the location.”

He rises abruptly, puts the farewell address and the resignation decrees into his soft leather document case, and leaves the office for the last time as president of the Soviet Union.

The mock office is already brightly lit with arc lights as Gorbachev and his aides enter. Setting up and connecting the cameras and cables and communications equipment has just been completed. A last-minute change of location would have caused consternation among the television crews.

Milling around the confined space and spilling out into the corridor are twenty-seven CNN staffers, plus a score of Russian technicians and some official photographers. Filmmaker Igor Belyaev is supervising Russian cameras for his own documentary.

The room has been arranged to resemble the real thing as closely as possible. The floor is covered with a green floral carpet similar to that in his office. Beside the desk is a bank of four telephones, though they have never been connected. Behind the chair, on the left from the camera’s perspective, the Soviet flag droops from a ten-foot pole in front of a gold-framed painting of the Kremlin. The wall to the right is draped with scalloped white curtains. Overhead hangs a large chandelier identical to the one in the president’s office. However, instead of a high-backed leather chair there is a velvet shield-back chair, so that Gorbachev’s profile is clearly outlined for the cameras against the soft oyster green of the damask silk background.

Among the still photographers looking for a good position is Liu Heung Shing, a staff member of the Associated Press bureau in Moscow.² Hong Kong—born, Liu was driving around Moscow looking for picture opportunities when Tom Johnson called him on his portable telephone and told him to get round to the Kremlin as quickly as he could. Johnson, besides being president of CNN, is also a director of AP. No foreign news agencies have been able to get a pass into the Kremlin to see history made, but Johnson has added the names of Liu and AP reporter Alan Cooperman to his crew so he can smuggle them in.

At first Liu doesn’t have a clear idea of what is happening. “When I entered the ornate chandeliered room, I knew something big was going on. However, I saw there was no presence of any Russian journalists or TASS photographers. Neither were there any other Western journalists. Tom greeted me and said to please hang around as Mikhail Gorbachev would talk to CNN after the televised speech. I soon found out it was going to be his resignation speech.”

Liu squats in front of the tripod supporting a large first-generation Soviet TV camera and prepares to take the definitive picture of Gorbachev giving up power.

Making his way through the mêlée, Gorbachev shakes hands with Tom Johnson and takes his seat behind the walnut desk. The room clears quickly, apart from a handful of CNN and Russian personnel. Chernyaev, Grachev, Palazchenko, and both Yakovlevs, Alexander and Yegor, hang around out of camera shot.

Gorbachev opens the green folder containing his speech and two decrees. One is his resignation as president of the Soviet Union and the other the transfer of command and control of the armed forces to Boris Yeltsin. An aide comes and places a cup and saucer on the desktop to his right containing milky coffee. Gorbachev straightens his papers and says in a quiet voice, his head down as if talking to himself, “If you have to go, you have to go. It’s that time.”

With two minutes left Gorbachev holds a whispered consultation with Chernyaev and Grachev. He asks again should he sign the texts now or after the resignation. They decide after is better.

A solidly built Russian assistant in red blouse and purple knee-length cardigan points to the camera and asks Gorbachev, “Is that OK for you, are you comfortable with that?” “All clear, understood,” replies Gorbachev.