The Genesis of the August Coup, 1989–91

Abstract

The first steps in the passage from cultural and ideological polemics to political organisation were prompted by the rise of the democratic movement in 1989. Early attempts to rally anti-reform opinion in a Russian nationalist movement failed. By late 1988, it was clear that the reformist intelligentsia enjoyed far more popular support than the nationalists. Readership of the main liberal journals and papers had grown dramatically, while the circulation of nationalist organs had stagnated or declined.¹ The first independent civic organisations were almost all democratic in orientation and the most popular and authoritative of them, Memorial, was committed to anti-Stalinist and liberaldemocratic ideals. The liberals’ popularity was confirmed in March 1989, when for the first time in Soviet history, partially democratic elections were held to a new legislature, the Congress of People’s Deputies. Many famous members of the democratic intelligentsia were elected to the new parliament, despite the fierce opposition of the Party hardliners. Moscow sent a particularly large number of reform-minded intellectuals to the Congress, as did the Academy of Sciences. Despite the bias of the authorities against the democrats, the nationalist intelligentsia was relatively thin on the ground, while the Party apparat and its high officials suffered a humiliating and unexpected defeat: the electorate, instead of voting obediently for the Party chiefs, plucked up the courage to reject some of them.² This was the nationalists’ and conservatives’ first serious reversal of fortune. Their opposition to reform was reinforced by the growing threats to the integrity of the Soviet Union, the loss of Eastern Europe, the erosion of central authority and the rapid spread of Western influence and political and economic ideas after 1989.