Yeltsin полностью

116 This could not have been the only condition for Yeltsin, since he had accepted treaty drafts that would not have been signed by all the republics. He seemed to assume that Russia’s cornucopia of resources, to be sold to nonsignatories at world market prices, would induce them to cooperate. Stewart (“SIC TRANSIT,” 322) calls this “the cash and carry solution.”

117 These categories were introduced by Roman Szporluk in “Dilemmas of Russian Nationalism,” Problems of Communism 38 (July–August 1989), 16–23. John Dunlop (Rise of Russia, 266–67) says Yeltsin acted like a “velvet imperialist” in the fall of 1991, but I do not find this a helpful label. Yeltsin’s vision was centered on the core Russian state, although he hoped it would retain influence in the former Soviet republics.

118 Chernyayev, 1991 god, 259–60.

119 Boris Yel’tsin, Prezidentskii marafon (Presidential marathon) (Moscow: AST, 2000), 31.

120 This phrase comes from Beissinger, Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State.

CHAPTER NINE

1 CIA, Director of Central Intelligence, “The Deepening Crisis in the USSR: Prospects for the Next Year,” NIE 11-18-90 (November 1990), 15–18; declassified version obtained at http://www.foia.cia.gov.browse_docs.asp?

2 Ibid., 17–18. The 1990 NIE assumed, as almost all forecasts did, that the Soviet state in some form would have to survive for light at the end of the tunnel to be feasible. It did warn that economic difficulties “would make unilateral steps by the republics to assert their economic independence more likely.” But, of course, by the end of 1991 events had far outrun this possibility.

3 Vyacheslav Terekhov, interview with the author (June 5, 2001).

4 “Yeltsin Criticizes ‘Half-Hearted’ Reforms,” FBIS-SOV-90-049 (March 13, 1990), 74.

5 Boris Yel’tsin, Zapiski prezidenta (Notes of a president) (Moscow: Ogonëk, 1994), 163. In his June 1991 visit to Washington, Yeltsin told President Bush there was no way a military or police coup against Gorbachev would succeed or be attempted. George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Knopf, 1998), 505.

6 Yel’tsin, Zapiski, 33.

7 Pavel Voshchanov, interview with the author (June 15, 2000). Voshchanov was present at the celebration.

8 Yel’tsin, Zapiski, 34.

9 Oleg Poptsov, Khronika vremën “Tsarya Borisa” (Chronicle of the times of “Tsar Boris”) (Moscow: Sovershenno sekretno, 1995), 75.

10 Yu, M. Baturin et al., Epokha Yel’tsina: ocherki politicheskoi istorii (The Yeltsin epoch: essays in political history) (Moscow: VAGRIUS, 2001), 148. I will cite this source often in the coming chapters. The coauthors are four former presidential assistants (Yurii Baturin, Mikhail Krasnov, Aleksandr Livshits, and Georgii Satarov), four former speech writers (Aleksandr Il’in, Vladimir Kadatskii, Konstantin Nikiforov, and Lyudmila Pikhoya), and a former press secretary (Vyacheslav Kostikov). I also interviewed six of the coauthors (Baturin, Kostikov, Krasnov, Livshits, Pikhoya, and Satarov).

11 The renaming occurred when the Russian Supreme Soviet was debating ratification of an agreement among CIS members concerning the nuclear arsenal. A deputy noted that Yeltsin had signed as president of “the Russian Federation,” and not of the RSFSR. Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov moved that the name be changed (with “Russia” as an alternative), and the motion passed unanimously.

12 “Minnoye pole vlasti” (The minefield of power), Izvestiya, October 28, 1991.

13 Valentina Lantseva, interview with the author (July 9, 2001).

14 Aleksandr Tsipko, “Drama rossiiskogo vybora” (The drama of Russia’s choice), Izvestiya, October 1, 1991.

15 Details in Marc Zlotnik, “Yeltsin and Gorbachev: The Politics of Confrontation,” Journal of Cold War Studies 5 (Winter 2003), 159–60. Gorbachev has bitterly reported that the day Yeltsin took over in the Kremlin, December 27, was three days ahead of the agreed-upon date, and that he held uncomely festivities there that morning with Gennadii Burbulis and Ruslan Khasbulatov. Mikhail Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy (Life and reforms), 2 vols. (Moscow: Novosti, 1995), 2:622.

16 Years later, in January 2000, Vitalii Tret’yakov, as editor of the elite newspaper Nezavisimaya gazeta, put out a piece about Yeltsin called “Sverdlovsk Upstart.” He had been working on a book on Yeltsin’s career which was never published (some draft chapters were serialized in 2006 and have been cited in this book). Gorbachev rang him up with congratulations on the title. Tret’yakov, interview with the author (June 7, 2000).

17 Robert S. Strauss, interview with the author (January 9, 2006).