Moscow, December 25, 1991

Many international observers had failed to see that for over a year there had been a steady drift to the Yeltsin camp of young, educated, ambitious men and women who believed in democratic ideals. Never having more than a narrow base of active support in the big cities, they were attracted to Yeltsin because he was popular with the narod (the people), he had clout with the military, and he could bring them along to their goal.

Despite this, a few days after the coup Bush’s national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, was still describing Yeltsin as a demagogue, opportunist, and grandstander. When this leaked to the Washington Post, the new U.S. ambassador, Robert Strauss, sent a message to Washington that such Yeltsin bashing was stupid, as it only gave Yeltsin another pretext for disliking Gorbachev, the darling of the West.¹⁰

Kryuchkov, Yazov, and other coup leaders were arrested. The KGB chief wrote a letter to Gorbachev saying he was sorry and in general “very ashamed” of his role. A weeping Yazov was seen pulling on a cigarette and muttering, “I’m a damned old fool,” just before he was detained. His decision to bring tanks into Moscow turned out to be a strategic mistake. It forced the military to take sides, and they preferred Yeltsin, a popularly elected president of Russia, to Yanayev, an inebriated, nonelected vice president of the Soviet Union. He begged the Gorbachevs’ forgiveness. Pavlov also implored the president to forgive him.

Pugo and his wife committed suicide by gunshot. Field Marshal Sergey Akhromeyev, who rushed to Moscow to join the coup but played no part, was found hanging in an office in the Kremlin, one floor below Gorbachev’s cabinet. The sixty-eight-year-old war veteran left a letter for the president, written between two attempts at killing himself, saying, “I cannot live when my fatherland is dying.”

The Communist Party’s chief treasurer, Nikolay Kruchina, responsible for party assets reputed to be worth $9 billion, plummeted to his death from his seventh-floor apartment. It was also called a suicide. His predecessor Georgy Pavlov died the same way six weeks later. They took many of the secrets of the fate of the party’s enormous wealth with them.

On his first full day back, President Gorbachev stumbled again. He decided not to show up at a large demonstration on Thursday morning outside the White House to which he had been invited to celebrate the defeat of the coup. Shevardnadze despaired at yet another blunder. Chernyaev reminded Gorbachev several times that he was expected outside the White House, but the freed hostage “spurned the joyful, popular celebration.” The result was that when Gorbachev’s name was mentioned at the demonstration, there were boos and calls of “Resign!”

Gorbachev decided instead to hold a press conference in the foreign ministry press center, where eight hundred national and foreign journalists and officials gave him a standing ovation. This was more to his liking. Astonishingly he defended the Communist Party as still capable of renewal, despite the complicity of its top cadres in the attempted coup. To Chernyaev this was yet another appalling misjudgment that “swept away the wave of sympathy and human compassion that you saw among ordinary people, on the street, on the first days after the putsch.” Interpreting for Gorbachev, Pavel Palazchenko thought to himself, “This will cost him dearly.” He commented to an English-speaking colleague, “The party’s over.” Afterwards Alexander Yakovlev told Gorbachev bluntly, “The party’s dead. Why can’t you see that? Talking about its renewal is senseless. It’s like offering first aid to a corpse.”¹¹

On Friday, August 23, Gorbachev sought to make amends for failing to acknowledge the role of the White House deputies in defending democracy. At 11 a.m. he called the speaker of the Russian Supreme Soviet, Ruslan Khasbulatov, to say he wished to speak to the Russian parliament. He could be there by twelve.

The large auditorium and the balconies filled up instantly. Gorbachev was applauded when he came to the podium, but as he attempted to defend members of the government who had supported the junta, there were roars of indignation. ¹² Yeltsin, six inches taller in height, loomed up beside him and with a flourish produced a transcript of a meeting of Gorbachev’s cabinet attended by about sixty senior and junior ministers and chaired by Prime Minister Pavlov on the first day of the coup.