Gorbachev's catastrophe. The question is why Gorbachev and his team were allowed by their actions to first destabilize the USSR and then destroy it. Why the "perestroika" was not stopped. Khrushchev was stopped, not allowed to destroy the Union, but “the best German” was not. Although Mikhail Sergeevich will be weaker than Nikita Sergeevich.
Complete decomposition of the Soviet elite
The point is the complete disintegration of the late Soviet elite. By this time, a significant part of the Soviet elite had degraded so much that they simply did not realize the consequences of "perestroika". And when the collapse began, it was already too late. On the other hand, it is obvious that some of the elite were already deliberately betting on the collapse and privatization of the wreckage of the Soviet Union. She wanted to become a part of the global elite, "masters of life", to seize people's property, wealth, main sources of income and "live beautifully." Do not hide, do not disguise themselves as communists. Beautiful cars, yachts, airplanes, women, gold and precious stones. Elite housing in leading countries and capitals of the world.
This was an open betrayal of the state and the people. The Soviet elite, which after the departure of Stalin was not regularly renewed, was not "cleansed", with the gradual oblivion of the foundations for the conscious cultivation of the national elite by the Gorbachev period, degenerated. Some became passive and simply looked at the destruction of the superpower. Another part actively participated in pulling the Union to national corners. She became "enemies of the people", "the fifth column", which the West gladly supported. He handed out many compliments, orders, awards and other things. As a result, the top of the USSR sold the country for "a barrel of jam and a whole basket of cookies."
That part of the Soviet elite that could resist the destruction of the state, under Andropov and Gorbachev, was "cleaned out". First of all, the purge affected the security forces responsible for the security of the state. In particular, in 1987, the flight of the German amateur pilot Matthias Rust was used, who flew in a light-engine plane from Hamburg through Reykjavik and Helsinki to Moscow. Soviet air defense forces led Rust's Cessna to Moscow and did not stop the flight, because after the incident with the South Korean airliner in 1983, they were ordered not to shoot down civilian planes. In the Soviet media, this incident was presented as a failure of the air defense system and the country's defense in general. Gorbachev's team used the situation to clean up almost the entire leadership of the USSR Armed Forces, including the commanders of military districts. In particular, Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov and Air Defense Commander Alexander Koldunov were dismissed. They were political opponents of Gorbachev's course. The new "siloviki" were selected from among the supporters of "perestroika".
Thus, supporters of the "Andropov plan" ("Andropov's plan" as part of the strategy to destroy Russian civilization; Part 2) during the Gorbachev period decided that it was impossible to save the country. Therefore, the main efforts must be directed not at preserving and saving the Union, but at preserving oneself, at pumping the most important resources into its own network (such as "party gold"). For this, the plundering of their own country was allowed. This is how the marauder elite was born. From that moment on, the salvation of the USSR-Russia in the form of pro-Western modernization (modeled on Peter the Great) ceased to be the goal of the Andropovites. The collapse and sawing off of the Soviet civilization, controlled from above, began, the dismantling of the main institutions and the privatization of the main assets. The crisis of the USSR and the subsequent catastrophe (operation "ends in water") hid this process and its scale from the people. They allowed the collapse of the red empire to be carried out imperceptibly, prevented the possible organized resistance of the people from whom the future was stolen. They made it possible to withdraw huge finances and capital from the state and the national economy.
National separatism
Nationalism became a powerful "battering ram" with the help of which they began to bring down the Soviet Union. Already under Khrushchev, Stalin's well-thought-out national policy was destroyed. The cultivation of national elites and intelligentsia began, in whose ranks Russophobia took root and anti-Sovietism ripened. The national republics were financed and developed to the detriment of the Russian provinces and the Russian people. At the same time, national myths were formed, where the Russians were the culprit of all the troubles (Russia-USSR).
In particular, the Ukrainian myth about the separate Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian language continued to develop and strengthen (Ukrainian chimera against Light Russia; The goal of the Ukraine project). Although there were no “Ukrainians” before the 1917 revolution, there was a southwestern part of the Russian super-ethnic group (Rus). There was a dialect-dialect of a single Russian language. There was a historical region of Little Russia-Russia (Little Russia) as the "outskirts-Ukraine" of a single Russian civilization. An artificial Ukrainian people and language was created in the USSR. The Ukrainian "elite" was formed, which, in fact, was the heir to the ideas of the Mazepians, Petliura and Bandera.
Gorbachev's team started the wave of nationalism in the USSR with a provocation. In December 1986, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee dismissed the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Dinmukhamed Kunaev (he held this post in 1960-1962 and 1964-1986), who became a real Kazakh khan and formed a powerful regional nationalist elite. In his place was appointed Gennady Kolbin, who had never worked in Kazakhstan, a Russian by nationality, the first secretary of the Ulyanovsk regional party committee. It seemed that the step was correct. But in the conditions of "perestroika" and the destabilization of the entire system, this was a real provocation. The local elite responded with the "December Uprising" (Zheltoksan). Riots and pogroms began with the demand to appoint the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan "indigenous". To suppress the riot, it was necessary to form 50 thousand. grouping of troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. As a result, the unrest was suppressed with little blood. However, these events became a signal for other national elites. In Kazakhstan itself, in 1989, Kolbin was replaced by Nazarbayev. They immediately forgot about "Kazakh nationalism".
This event was the first in a chain of its kind. The December uprising did not receive the due political, legal and national assessment. Its root causes were not identified - the violation of Stalin's policy of people's socialism. National republics, starting with Khrushchev, developed at the expense of Central Russia. Ethnic republics and autonomies received preferences and benefits by curbing the development of the Russian people. The result was unpleasant imbalances in the development of the national borderlands and Russian regions. The national elites and intellectuals became arrogant and decided that they could prosper without the Russians. Although, as history has shown, nationalism has led the current Baltic states, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to extinction and a broken trough. The situation is similar in Central Asia: archaization; social injustice; the growth of radical sentiments, including nationalism and Islamism; degradation of industrial, social infrastructure, science, education and health care.
Power betrayal
Events in Kazakhstan were seen in the ethnic outskirts as Moscow's weakness. A nationalist wave is rising. Already in the summer of 1987, Yerevan raised the issue of transferring the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, which belonged to Azerbaijan, to the Armenian SSR. In response, pogroms of Armenians began on Azerbaijani territory. There was already a lot of blood. Gorbachev was confused.
It should be noted that at that time Moscow still had enough strength and resources to suppress any nationalist rebellion and revolt in the ethnic republics. If there was political will and a program to eradicate the mistakes of national policy from Lenin to Gorbachev, it was possible to restore order in the country with relatively little blood, cleanse the national separatists, and preserve the unity of the Soviet empire. The example of China, which faced a similar problem in Tibet, and then with unrest in the capital (the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989), is quite indicative.
However, part of the Soviet elite deliberately led the case to the destruction of the USSR. And the cowardly chatterbox Gorbachev was afraid to shed little blood and restore order in the country in order to stop the process of destruction. This further triggered blood flows (including the extinction of indigenous peoples in much of the former USSR).
Gorbachev was terrified of the use of force and restrained the "siloviks" in establishing order. At the same time, the secretary general denied responsibility to the last, when the power structures themselves put things in order in the territory under their jurisdiction. In fact, by this he "handed over" and finally demoralized the organs of order and security. Gorbachev is losing the threads of control, the ability to soberly assess the situation. At critical moments, he jumps into the bushes - runs off on trips abroad, where he is enthusiastically met and loved, or leaves for rest. He believes that "the process has begun," that is, the course towards democratization and publicity is correct. Gorbachev practically does not listen to sober assessments still coming from party and state structures and institutions. He goes on about the destroyers - A. N. Yakovlev and E. A. Shevardnadze, "Gorbachev's Politburo", aimed at destroying Soviet civilization.
This led to an increase in nationalist sentiments, massacres and conflicts. Azerbaijanis fled from Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenians from Azerbaijan. Bloody interethnic conflicts flared up in all national outskirts. Transnistria, the Fergana Valley, Abkhazia, Georgia, the Baltic States, etc. The Soviet state cracked at the seams. In ethno-republics, national fronts and parties are being created everywhere by interested forces, and they are demanding a secession from the USSR. The West enthusiastically welcomes these events, supports the “young democrats” in every possible way, prohibits Moscow from using force, and threatens with sanctions.
Thus, Gorbachev's team committed a terrible crime against the peoples of the USSR-Russia. Under Gorbachev, the "Pandora's box" was opened, the terrible spirit of national separatism was released, which destroyed the great power and split the Soviet people. This nationalism shed rivers of blood, brought and will still bring a lot of suffering and loss to the peoples of the former USSR. Gorbachev destroyed the Soviet statehood and became an "enemy of the people."
