Moscow, December 25, 1991

8 Aron, Russia’s Revolution, 191.

Chapter 21: The Center Cannot Hold

1 Cited in Brzezinski and Sullivan, eds., Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, 43.

2 Liberty Life Radio, Belarusian Service, December 8, 2006.

3 Loginov, pp. 462-463.

4 Sovetskaya Byelorussia, 45 People at the Table, by Lyudmila Maslyukova, December 8, 2001.

5 Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin, 160-164.

6 Shakhrai’s comment is from www.vesti.ru, December 12, 2001.

7 Interview with Grachev, autumn 2009.

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

9 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 848-849.

10 Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 554-555.

11 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 849.

12 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 10.

13 Medvedev, Sovetsky Soyuz, 567-568.

14 International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies, Breakthrough to Freedom, 169, 273; Hough, Democratization and Revolution in the USSR, 482.

15 Gorbachev, Dekabr-91, 67.

16 Grachev, Final Days, 146.

17 Baker with DeFrank, The Politics of Diplomacy, 563.

18 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 12, 1991.

19 Steele, Eternal Russia, 232.

20 Braithwaite, Across the Moscow River, 268.

21 Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 455.

22 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 14, 1991.

23 Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 455-456; Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, 353-354.

24 Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 557.

25 Interview with Garrison, July 2010.

26 Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb, 499.

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

28 Ibid., diary entry for December 22, 1991.

29 Yakovlev, Sumerki, diary entry for December 22, 1991.

Chapter 22: December 25: Evening

1 Interview with Grachev, October 2009; Grachev, Final Days, 188-189.

2 Interview with Liu, January 2010.

3 Interview with Caudill, September 2009.

4 Interview with Johnson, September 2009.

Chapter 23: The Deal in the Walnut Room

1 Yakovlev, Sumerki, diary entry for December 23, 1991. Yakovlev provides a detailed account of the meeting. Also Shulgan, The Soviet Ambassador, 294-298.

2 Interview with Grachev, October 2009.

3 Interview with Koppel, October 2009.

4 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 866.

5 Shakhnazarov, Tsena Svobody, 294.

6 Yeltsin, The Struggle for Russia, 311-316.

7 Dobbs, Down with Big Brother, 310-314.

8 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 621.

9 Cienciala, Lebedeva, and Materski, Katyn, 254-255.

10 Ibid., 346.

11 Timofeyev, Russia’s Secret Rulers, 26.

12 Sandle, Gorbachev, 273.

13 Solovyov and Klepikova, Boris Yeltsin, 281.

14 Coleman, The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire, 354.

15 Yakovlev, Sumerki, diary entry for December 23.

Chapter 24: December 25: Late Evening

1 Gorbachev, Memoirs, xxxiii—xxxvii.

2 Chernyaev, 1991, diary entry for December 27, 1991.

3 Yakovlev, Sumerki, diary entry for December 23, 1991.

4 Interview with Somov, September 2009.

5 Interviews with Caudill and Johnson, September 2009.

6 Interviews with Shipman and Hurst, August 2009.

7 Interview with Liu, January 2010.

8 Kampfner, “The KGB Interrogated My Turkey.”

9 Interview with Gaidar, October 2009.

10 Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 564.

11 Ibid., 563.

12 Powell, My American Journey, 546.

Chapter 25: December 25: Night

1 ARD German television, cited in FBIS Daily Resort, December 30, 1991, reported Yeltsin’s second thoughts on allowing broadcast.

2 Shaposhnikov, Vybor, diary entry for December 25, 1991.

3 Gorbachev, Memoirs, 865—866.

4 Interview with Schmemann, April 2010.

5 Clarity, “No One Said Hurrah as History Was Made”; Clines, “End of the Soviet Union”; Dobbs, “Gorbachev Resignation Ends Soviet Era.”

6 Interviews with Caudill, Johnson, Loory, Hurst, and Grachev, autumn 2009.

7 Beschloss and Talbott, At the Highest Levels, 459.

8 Rosenthal, “Bush Reluctantly Concludes Gorbachev Tried to Cling to Power Too Long.”

9 New China News Agency report, December 25, 1991.

10 Interview with Shushkevich, January 2010.

Chapter 26: December 25: Late Night

1 Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, 399.

2 Colton, Yeltsin, 391.

3 Shulgan, The Soviet Ambassador, 14-15.