View source for Anniversary of the August Putsch of 1991

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Yesterday was the anniversary of the August coup of 1991 - I look at these photographs and think about the fact that there is somehow a lot of talk about the Russians being a frightened and weak-willed people, unable to defend their own rights. Here you are: 31 years ago, the same Muscovites, the parents of the current ones, took to the streets. Moreover, in the conditions of a declared state of emergency, when tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets, and not just police cars with flashing lights. Let me remind you that the meaning of the GKChP putsch at that time was Soviet revanchism. They sought to prevent the signing of a new union treaty (SSG), which turned the USSR into a full-fledged federation (they saw this as "the collapse of the country"). It is quite possible to assume that if revanchism had not been stopped then, it would have grown stronger, established full control over the power apparatus and would have continued to hold the republics in a stranglehold.

Simply put, if Muscovites had not taken to the streets in August 1991, then no independent states from the former republics might have happened at all. Precisely those whose some residents now talk about Russian slaves who are unable to defend their freedom. This, of course, does not mean that the republics received freedom exclusively from the master's shoulder and did not fight for it themselves: there were enough mass demonstrations there in the late 80s and early 90s, but they were suppressed. And the revenge-seekers, in case of their success, could indicatively wrap a local protest around the tracks of tanks. You can also say that the inevitable "historical logic" or something like that was pushing the USSR to disintegrate. However, tanks, unlike historical logic, are a tangible thing and quite capable of postponing the "course of history" for dozens of years.

This is all to the point that the inhabitants of the former republics should be grateful to us (no one owes anything). And besides, all the talk about the "slave mentality" and other unknown matters is meaningless. Muscovites were able to take to the streets 31 years ago because they had leaders (from among the highest Soviet elite), there were some organizations that grew up during Perestroika, and so on. If there are leaders and organizations capable of consolidating activity, then people come out, even despite the tanks on the streets. If there are no leaders and organizations, then people sit at home, disunited and demoralized. In today's Russia, there are no fewer people who could jump on the skin of armored vehicles (not to mention paddy wagons). But there are neither leaders (especially within the elites themselves), nor organizations. Here the current regime, which is much more primitive than the Soviet one, has drawn the necessary conclusions and taken the necessary precautions.

[[Mihail Pojarsky]] 20/08/2022
[[ru: Годовщина Августовского путча 1991-го]]