Moscow, December 25, 1991

10 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 55.

11 Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, 298.

12 Gaidar, Collapse of an Empire, 219.

13 Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive, 513.

14 Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, 360; Matlock, Autopsy on an Empire, 563-564; Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardreadze, 299-306; Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 411-413; and Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 510-513, for details of Bush’s visit to Moscow.

15 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 806-807.

16 Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, 369.

17 Kalugin with Montaigne, The First Directorate, 347-348.

Chapter 16: December 25: Late Afternoon

1 Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 559-561.

2 Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, 365-366.

3 Ibid., 358.

4 Interviews with Charlie Caudill, Frida Ghitis, Steve Hurst, Tom Johnson, Stuart Loory, and Claire Shipman, autumn 2009.

5 Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia, 21.

6 Kuznetsov, Kamera dlya Prezidenta, 12.

Chapter 17: Perfidiousness, Lawlessness, Infamy

1 I have drawn on several accounts to describe the coup attempt of August 1991, principally Aron, Boris Yeltsin ; Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the Word, Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev; Colton, Yeltsin ; Dobbs, Down with Big Brother; Dunlop, The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Union; Gorbachev, Memoirs; Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb; Steele, Eternal Russia; Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia; Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin ; and Shaposhnikov, Vybor.

2 Dobbs, Down with Big Brother, 374-375.

3 Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, 408.

4 Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 434.

5 Putin with Gevorkyan, Timakova, and Kolesnikov, First Person, 93.

6 Gorbachev, Memoirs, in which he includes Raisa’s diary of the coup, 817-824.

7 Dobbs, Down with Big Brother, 391.

8 Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 532.

9 Muratov, “Mikhail Gorbachev.”

10 Bechloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 444-445.

11 Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb, 495.

12 Khasbulatov, The Struggle for Russia, 170-184.

13 Shevardnadze, “The Tragedy of Gorbachev.”

14 Mickiewicz, Changing Channels, 105.

Chapter 18: December 25: Dusk

1 Grachev, Final Days, 188.

2 Making the History of 1989, item 692.

3 Timofeyev, Russia’s Secret Rulers, 37.

4 Sakharov, Moscow and Beyond, 133.

5 Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb, 193, quoting Soviet legal writer Arkady Vaksberg.

6 Boldin, Ten Years That Shook the World, 129.

7 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 18, 1991.

8 Interviews with Caudill, Hurst, Johnson, and Shipman, autumn 2009.

9 Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, 365.

Chapter 19: Things Fall Apart

1 Shakhnazarov, Tsena Svobody, 284.

2 Grachev, Final Days, 80-82.

3 Solovyov and Klepikova, Boris Yeltsin, 273-274.

4 Grachev, Final Days, 51-55.

5 Palazchenko, My Six Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, 339; Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 447.

6 Pankin, The Last Hundred Days, 236.

7 Pry, War Scare, 110.

8 Shaposhnikov, Vybor, diary entry for December 24, 1991.

9 Interview with Grachev, autumn 2009.

10 Gorbachev and Mlynář, Conversations with Gorbachev, 129.

11 Grachev, Final Days, 112.

12 Ibid., 122-123.

13 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 3, 1991.

Chapter 20: December 25: Early Evening

1 Baker with DeFrank, The Politics of Diplomacy, 530.

2 Interviews with Muscovites, February 2010.

3 Interview with Gaidar, Moscow, October 2009; also Gaidar, Days of Defeat and Victory, 129.

4 Wedel, Collision & Collusion, 127-128.

5 Interview with Gaidar, Moscow, October 2009.

6 Kotz and Weir, Revolution from Above, 169.

7 Handelman, Comrade Criminal, 13.