Moscow, December 25, 1991

Apart from a brief period at the end of 1991, surveys show that a majority of Russians consistently regret the breakup of the Soviet Union. A nostalgia for the Soviet era develops, partly prompted by great power nationalism and partly by the notion that there were good things about the old Soviet system, such as universal education and peace among the nationalities, and that if there were hardships, they were shared by everyone.

Despite his active opposition to the August putsch when he took to the streets to confront the putschists in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin claims that the events of 1991 tore his life apart. Today he judges Vladimir Kryuchkov, the hard-liner who organized the coup attempt and who tried to get the KGB Alpha Group to open fire on the defenders of the Russian White House in August 1991, to be a true believer in communism “for whom I have the greatest respect.”²¹ In an address to the Russian Federal Assembly on April 25, 2005, Putin says, “Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century.” As reasons for saying this, he cites the tens of millions of Russians who find themselves outside Russian territory, the depreciation of individual savings, the destruction of old ideals, the disbanding of institutions, the mass poverty that became the norm, and the emergence of the oligarchs. Putin concludes, “Who could have imagined that it would simply collapse? No one saw that coming—even in their worst nightmares.”

President Putin restores some of the symbols of the lost empire in an effort to revive national pride, pacify the restive empire loyalists, and bring stability back to the political system. He allows the Russian army again to fly the red flag, though without the hammer and sickle. He brings back, with new words, the Soviet national anthem that inspired Russians in the struggle against Nazi Germany, replacing the anthem by Mikhail Glinka favored by Yeltsin. He decrees that Independence Day (June 12, the anniversary of the Russian Supreme Soviet’s declaration of sovereignty in 1990) be renamed Russia Day, as the notion of independence places too much emphasis on the breakup of the Kremlin’s former empire. The former KGB officer also rehabilitates Felix Dzerzhinsky, whose statue was toppled outside the Lubyanka after the coup. On his orders a bust of the founder of the secret police is placed on a pedestal inside the old KGB headquarters in 2005. Putin becomes prime minister in 2008 when his second term as president expires, and he is succeeded by his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev.

In their interaction, Gorbachev and Yeltsin broke the Communist Party’s monopoly of power, introduced Russia’s first democratic elections, provided a free press, set free the Warsaw Pact states of Eastern Europe, gave independence to once powerless Soviet republics, and ended the Cold War. That is their legacy.

Russians today, if they can afford it, are free to live as they please, shop in modern stores, dine in elegant cafés and restaurants, emigrate and travel abroad, send their children to elite foreign schools, and freely criticize the regime in print, if not on television. At the same time the move towards Western-style democracy has stalled in the aftermath of the fall of communism, the electronic media reflects Kremlin views, courts are subservient to power, protest rallies are broken up, personal enrichment rather than ideology is the driving force in politics, the electorate is powerless to produce results the leadership doesn’t like, and the KGB has returned to the forefront of Russian life as the FSB.

For Mikhail Gorbachev, who turned eighty on March 2, 2011, the nightmare for Russia is far from over. He protests that Russian leaders are steadily rolling back the democratic achievements of his time and that the first and only free, competitive, and honest elections ever held in Russia were those that he initiated before the end of 1991. He observes that there are still many people in society who fear democracy and prefer authoritarian stability. “We’re only halfway down the road from a totalitarian regime to democracy and freedom,” he says. “And the battle continues.”²²

The office in the Senate Building in the Kremlin that Gorbachev was so reluctant to leave and that Yeltsin seized in such triumph is no more. It was ripped out in a major reconstruction that took place from 1994 to 1998. The renovated Senate Building is today the ceremonial residence of the Russian president.