Why did the former Soviet Union split?

On December 21, 1991, in the last ten days of this year, a major event happened in the world that many people did not expect. It was founded by Lenin and has existed in this world for nearly seventy years. The Soviet Union collapsed. The powerful Soviet empire, which once dominated the world, was like a tall building block that suddenly collapsed with just a click. At first glance, this seems to be such an incredible thing. It has not gone through a war, and it is so powerful. How could it disintegrate all of a sudden?

Let’s take a look at the final scene of the Soviet Union’s disintegration ceremony:

“Gorbachev spent a full 12 minutes reading his “Letter to Soviet Compatriots.” By the end, his eyes were wet, his voice was hoarse, and his heart felt like it was being torn violently by countless hands, and he could hardly read anymore. At 19:20, according to the prearranged procedure, Gorbachev was going to decide the end of the world. The "Nuclear Button", a black briefcase containing the code to launch 27,000 nuclear warheads of the former Soviet Union, was handed over to the interim commander-in-chief of the CIS Armed Forces Shaposhnikov, who then transferred it to Russian President Yeltsin. . Still in front of the live TV camera, Gorbachev subconsciously touched his suit pocket, but unfortunately, he forgot to bring a pen. Tom Johnson, general manager of CNN Television Broadcasting Company in the United States, was confused for a moment. The gentleman came to Gorbachev's rescue in time. With quick eyes and quick hands, he immediately took out a ballpoint pen from his pocket and quickly handed it to the president who was about to become a civilian in a few seconds. Gorbachev said. Say “Thank you! ", and immediately used this ballpoint pen to quickly sign his name on the decree relinquishing his position as commander-in-chief and handing over control of nuclear weapons to Yeltsin."

"Just before Gorbachev The moment the nuclear button was handed over, everyone gathered in front of the TV felt as if they heard a loud noise, and they all knew that this was the red Empire State Building that had stood for 69 years. It suddenly collapsed completely and was divided from then on. There are 15 fragments.” The above is a Chinese scholar’s ??detailed description of the scene at that time.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union was a bit unexpected for every country in the world at that time. Especially for China and the United States, two major world powers, they were at a loss for a while. No one knows how the countries of the former Soviet Union will develop after the split. What impact will it have on the world structure?

Ten years have passed. What is the situation in Russia, the successor to the former Soviet Union? Russia inherited 70% of the former Soviet Union's land area, 70% of its economic base, 60% of its population, and a little more than 70% of its national resources. In 1991, the GDP of the former Soviet Union was approximately more than 3 trillion US dollars, equivalent to a little more than 60% of that of the United States, ranking second in the world. At that time, the Soviet Union was a formidable country with strong national power, advanced science and technology, confident people, and its own interests all over the world. What does Russia, the successor to the Soviet Union, look like now? According to statistics, in 2001, ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's GDP was approximately US$300 billion, one-tenth that of the Soviet Union in 1991. The total foreign trade import and export volume is approximately US$80 billion, which is only one-fifth of China's. Gold and foreign exchange reserves are US$20 billion, which is only one-tenth of China’s. What is this concept? This means that Russia has changed from a powerful country to an economically insignificant second- and third-rate country in the world. On the world political stage, Russia's voice is diminishing just like its economic weight; militarily, Russia has almost lost its decisive influence, and is even struggling to deal with the internal Chechen armed rebellion. The long delay has left many The country and military strategists are laughing at the joke. This ending is for the former Soviet President Gorbachev, who lost his beloved wife not long ago and is now miserably running the "Gorbachev Foundation" named after himself, and the current Russian president. For former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who is enjoying his old age under the care of President Vladimir Putin, is this their original intention? Definitely not.

But how could they bring a good and powerful Soviet Union to the point of disintegration in just six years? It took another person eight years to bring Russia, which inherited 70% of the assets of the former Soviet Union, to such a dilapidated state? Is there no lesson for all politicians in China and the world, and for those who care about the fate of the Communist Party of China and the future of China?

1. The bookish Gorbachev

What kind of person is Gorbachev? How did he climb step by step from a small place on the southern border of the former Soviet Union to the position of supreme leader of the Soviet Union? The following is Gorbachev's personal resume: Gorbachev was born in the Stavropol Krai on the southern border of the Soviet Union in 1931, and is of Russian ethnicity. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1952 and graduated from the Law Department of the Moscow State University of the Soviet Union and the Stavropol Agricultural College. In 1955, he served as first secretary of the Stavropol Municipal League Committee, director of a certain department of the Communist Youth League Border District Committee, second secretary, and first secretary. From 1962, he served as Stavropol District Farm Farm The party leader of the Production Administration Bureau. In September 1966, he was elected as the first secretary of the Stavropol City Party Committee. From 1968, he was appointed as the first secretary of the Stavropol Territory Committee. From 1971, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. Representative of Soviet Union at the 22nd, 24th, 25th and 26th National Congresses. In 1978, he was elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1979, he was elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In October 1980, he was elected as a member of the Political Bureau. In March 1985, he was elected as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Judging from Gorbachev's political career, it can be said to have been smooth sailing. Except for staying as the first secretary of the Party Committee of the Border Region for a little longer, almost every two or three years is a new starting point. Gorbachev had read a lot of books, and he had a law degree from the most prestigious prestigious university in the Soviet Union and a technical degree from the Agricultural College. However, looking at his entire political experience before taking office as General Secretary of the Soviet Union, it can be said that he encountered basically no hardships and hardships, and he also had almost no significant political achievements throughout his working history. At best, he is just a person who is usually dissatisfied with current affairs. Although Ge Shi has nothing to show off in terms of political achievements, he, like anyone else who lashes out at his own country and the Soviet Union, has no understanding of politics but is addicted to power, has no respect for the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union. This enviable position can be said to have been longed for. Bolkin, Gorbachev's secretary when he was General Secretary, described it in his book "The Rise and Fall of Gorbachev": As soon as Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, he "immediately couldn't wait to He moved into the office called No. 6 on the fifth floor of the main building of the Party Central Office without any delay. Just as the Russian tsar was obsessed with the throne, power and crown in the past, this new office has always attracted him, almost. The servicemen had tidied everything up overnight, replaced the long carpet on the stairs, and polished the floor. There was still some work to be done in the reception room, but Gorbachev could not wait any longer. "From Bolkin's description, we can see that he is a young man who has suddenly gained a high degree of trust from his superiors and been handed over a project. As a very important job that reflects trust, he can't wait to complete this job to show his talents. As soon as Gorbachev took office, he promoted a large number of people he believed to have reform ideas. Among them were Yeltsin, who later became his political enemy, and Ligachev, who was later ignored by him. "Shevardnadze, known as Yakovlev, the Central Secretary in charge of the party's ideological and propaganda work, led the Soviet people's thinking to disaster.

What best embodies Gorbachev’s personality is his book called "Reform and New Thinking", which is jokingly called "the smelliest theory" of the twentieth century. Originally, the word "reform" has many ways of expressing it in Russian: but Gossip used a word like "reconstruction, transformation". The definition of this word in the Russian dictionary is "tear down and rebuild". According to this, some people say that from the beginning, Gorsky was intent on tearing down the Soviet Union and rebuilding it. He wanted to build an ideal country of his own.

There must be some resentment in this statement now, but Gossip really wanted to use a big country like the Soviet Union and use the interests of the people of the Soviet Union to conduct a reform experiment for himself, and he wanted to start from the country's most sensitive and deadly Take action on the political system. Gorbachev, like most people in the Soviet Union, also saw the shortcomings of the country, but he was also like an immature young man, afraid that others would not know, and couldn't wait to put his thoughts in this book It is clearly expressed in the title. In order to express his openness of thought, as the leader of a big country like the Soviet Union, he actually handed over this book to an American publisher for publication. In other words, in a world where the Cold War was raging, as the leader of a big country, he unreservedly presented his governance design and strategic thinking to the world from the very beginning. How childish this behavior was! While promoting reform, he also vigorously advocated the so-called "democratization" and "openness" in an attempt to attract the masses to participate in this reform. I don’t know which philosopher said this: “The leader who can best conceal his strategic thinking is the smartest leader.” This is true for ordinary leaders, let alone the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee? In fact, in the eyes of world-class strategists, Gorbachev's so-called new thinking is simply an essay for an internal academy publication; in the eyes of world-class politicians, it is nothing more than a thesis written by a fledgling graduate student.

Gorbachev, who came from the grassroots level, also saw the economic difficulties of the Soviet Union and the people's dissatisfaction with the rigid system. In 1986, at the 27th National Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he presided over the formulation of the "Basic Policies for Economic and Social Development of the Soviet Union from 1986 to 1990 and 2000"; in 1987, he formulated the "Basic Principles on Fundamental Reform of Economic Management". ” and “Enterprise Law”. His basic idea is to delegate power to enterprises so that they can achieve "three self-sufficiency and one completeness", that is, complete independent operation. This idea seems okay for Gorbachev, who has a degree from Moscow University, but it is not a brilliant idea as a national leader. At that time, this reform method had been implemented in China for several years. Some local and business leaders and economists in China saw the limitations of such reform, loudly called for further economic system reform, and were piloting further reforms. Under the framework of no reform of the large-scale economic system, by the end of 1988, the overall economic situation of the Soviet Union had not improved, and became more imbalanced. From 1986 to 1988, the average annual growth rate of the Soviet national income was only 2.8%, which was lower than the so-called "stagnation". era" 1981 to 1985. After the economic reform suffered setbacks, Goliath unilaterally attributed the failure of the economic reform to the current political system. The Nineteenth Congress of the Soviet Union held in June 1988 marked the shift of the focus of reform from the economic field to the political field. Gorbachev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but he used the mentality of ordinary Soviet civilians and the language of very immature intellectuals to call the original political system of the Soviet Union a "bureaucratic autocracy." and “totalitarian systems.” He lashed out at the Soviet political system on various public occasions, seriously damaging the political image of the Soviet Union and the Soviet state in the minds of the people. The extremists and separatist forces within the party greatly appreciated Gorbachev's speech. His reform of the political system and the promotion of democratization and openness caused extreme chaos in Soviet society. Some democrats who joined the Soviet Union began to compete with the Soviet Union for power. In 1989, the Communist Parties of the three Baltic countries openly split from the Soviet Union. The power of the Republic of China fell into the hands of democrats and separatists. The entire Soviet society was in serious turmoil. The economic situation worsened. In 1989, the Soviet Union's national income growth rate dropped to 2.4%, and the supply of daily necessities became even tighter. The army also began to experience instability, and the Soviet reform process began to spiral out of control.

After resolutely smashing the Soviet Union’s old ideology and political system, Gorbachev, who was too bookish, could not give the Soviet Union a new ideology that united people’s hearts and could not bring about national reforms. Prescribe realistic prescriptions for establishing a new system. He let go of ideological reconstruction to various religions and extremist trends, and pinned the solution of the new system on political reforms that hung on a thread.

Yeltsin, whom he single-handedly promoted and then brought down, and who was once called the "bravest" reformer, used the open election method that Gorges strongly advocated to win the most powerful position in the Soviet Union under Gossip's eyes. Importantly, it is also the largest federation and the supreme leadership of the Russian Federation. Reforms and the country's loss of control did not sober up Gossi, and the many books he read did not bring any wisdom to the country's leader at this difficult time. In desperation, he naively thought of the practicality of the title "President." He believes that the position of "general secretary" is not suitable for leading a country. Only the president is the title that a legitimate national leader should have. He attempted to use the position of "President" to regain control of the entire Soviet Union. So in 1990, he "stumbled" to climb to the position of "President of the Soviet Union". To his surprise but within the new thinking logic he constructed, in June 1990, in accordance with the Soviet ethnic policy and constitution, several major Soviet Union countries issued declarations of sovereignty. The disintegration of the Soviet Union has begun to take shape.

If coercive measures were taken across the Soviet Union at this time, perhaps the Soviet Union would still have a glimmer of hope. (History often has no what-ifs, which is depressing). Sadly, at this time, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union still had time to go to the beach for vacation. He was enjoying the infinite happiness in the life of a leader of a world power. On August 19, 1991, other leaders of the Soviet Union headed by Vice President Yanayev who stayed in Moscow took decisive measures. A "state of emergency" was implemented to control Gorbachev who was vacationing on the shores of the Black Sea. But what those who tried to finally save the Soviet Union from collapse did not expect was that after several years of Gorbachev's "reforms" and fierce attacks on the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union, the Soviet army had completely lost its ability to control the Soviet Union. The trust of the party and the country and the morale of the military are in chaos. The military actually believes that there is no need to do anything to save the existing country. The coup seemed not to go smoothly from the beginning. Yeltsin, one of the two most important figures to be controlled in the coup, actually left Moscow early and went to the distant Almaty for a "visit". The "state of emergency" failed after only three days.

What is even more ridiculous is that Gorbachev, who was full of pseudo-scholarship and was still in the position of the supreme leader of the Soviet Union after experiencing a crisis, actually continued to do this after being rescued from his vacation by the brave Yeltsin. They continue to naively want to get some scraps from the job of Yeltsin, who has already controlled the fate of the Russian nation. He was still discussing the so-called "alliance" issue with Yeltsin and other leaders of the newly established "sovereign countries" in the former Soviet Union. For the sake of his "alliance", he announced the order to dissolve the Soviet Union at Yeltsin's request. Then it announced the suspension of Soviet Communist Party activities throughout the Soviet Union, and ordered the Soviet inspection agencies to review the Soviet Communist leadership. Furthermore, he and Yeltsin agreed that they could "act on behalf of each other" in emergency situations. All Gorbachev did had only one purpose, which was to keep his worthless so-called "central government" from being abolished, and to keep his worthless position as President of the Soviet Union from being abolished. Cancel. His thinking became even more confusing at this time, and he even said that the reason why he almost lost power in the August 19 incident was because of the Soviet Union's betrayal of him. Little does he know that what little symbolic power he has is about to be completely revoked by his "partners." It can be seen from this that Goshi is a very naive person in politics, how dull his political sensitivity is, and how drunk he is with power. It is really a tragedy for the Soviet people that such a scholar with no sense and no judgment comes to power. Later, the extremely dramatic scene at the beginning of this article occurred.

2. Yeltsin, who had the coexistence of two qualities: a reckless man and a scholar

Yeltsin: Born in 1931 in the countryside of Dalitsk District, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, Russia clan. Graduated from the Architecture Department of the Ural Polytechnic Institute in 1955. After graduating from university, he was assigned to work at the Ural Heavy Industry Pipeline Construction Company. In 1959, he was appointed chief engineer. In 1961, he was appointed Director of Construction of Sverdlovsk City. Since 1968, Yeltsin has served as Minister of State Construction and Secretary of the State Party Committee. In 1976, the 44-year-old Yeltsin was directly appointed by the Central Committee of the Soviet Union to become the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee and a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union. He was one of the youngest local leaders in the Soviet Union at that time.

Yeltsin's personality is similar to Gorbachev in many aspects. First of all, he seems to have a strong sense of responsibility for the country's future and development. He doesn't seem to be the kind of person who would be content with a small amount of money and seek safety and security. As an engineering and technical expert, he held local party leadership positions for many years. Of course, he also saw various problems and difficulties existing in the Soviet Union in various aspects such as economy, politics, and diplomacy. Like Gorbachev, Yeltsin was also a man with a strong desire for performance and scholarly habits. But unlike Gorbachev, Yeltsin was as impatient and daring as many technocrats. In order to achieve his own goals, he even dared to risk everything on major issues of right and wrong, and dared to directly deny everything the Soviet Union had done. Including denying the founder of Su *** and his ideas. This dual character of scholar and reckless man also caused him to make repeated mistakes in decision-making, employment and governance policies in the process of governing the Russian country. It can be said that Yeltsin was a figure born in the soil of Gorbachev. If there was no Gorbachev, maybe Yeltsin would be in the remote place of Sverdzhovsk region east of the Ural Mountains with peace of mind. His first secretary. And before he came to Moscow, he had been in that position for nine years. The reason why the previous general secretaries of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee did not promote Yeltsin unexpectedly like Gorbachev did was probably because they believed that Yeltsin was just a technocrat or at most a state party secretary. However, history happened to make him meet Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, who had a similar personality to him. He also had illusions in the complex world situation and fanatical pursuit of something that even the West itself was unclear about. freedom, democracy, and human rights, but lacks correct judgment and grasp of domestic and international situations.

In 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just taken office as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, inspected Tyumen, the important place of the Soviet oil industry under Yeltsin's jurisdiction, Yeltsin regarded it as a place where he was very good at technology. Of course, the bureaucrats accompanied Yeltsin throughout the inspection, which left a deep impression on Gorbachev. Gorbachev felt that in the reform process he was about to begin, there was a great need for people like Yeltsin who dared to deny the Soviet Communist Party's line and had extraordinary character and thinking. So in April 1985, just one month after Gorbachev took office as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, Yeltsin was transferred to Moscow to serve as Minister of Construction of the Soviet Union. He stayed in this position for less than five months. In December 1985, he was promoted to secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, alternate member of the Political Bureau, and first secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee. Became a dazzling new star in Soviet politics.

After serving as the First Secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, Yeltsin tried his best to implement Gorbachev's strategic deployment and vigorously promoted the reform line in Moscow, especially in advocating social democracy and opposing bureaucracy and political corruption. It took a lot of effort. According to statistics, in the first few months after Yeltsin took office, he replaced 23 of the 33 district party secretaries in Moscow due to various crimes. Yeltsin not only carried out unprecedented reforms in politics, but also performed well in life. An image that reflects the sentiments of the people. He often goes deep into the grassroots and conducts private visits incognito to check the city's food supply situation and understand people's dissatisfaction with corruption. Not only did he order the cancellation of the special stores for senior officials that had existed in the Soviet Union for many years, he also asked his wife to queue up to buy things like ordinary citizens. These are all true. For a time, Yeltsin became famous in Moscow. From these phenomena, we can see that Yeltsin had very similar ideological concepts and working styles to Gorbachev.

In order to speed up the reform process, Yeltsin, who was the first secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, used Moscow’s news and public opinion tools to oppose special privileges, bureaucracy and corruption, and proposed that "there are no restricted areas for criticism, and there are no boundaries for openness." slogan, he even publicly accused some people in the party of opposing reforms in front of foreigners. Open the conflicts within the party to the outside world without any scruples. What Yeltsin did, like Gorbachev, won the applause of the naive crowd in the Soviet Union, and the anti-Soviet forces in the West began to be surprised and then applauded in agreement. It was Gorbachev and Yeltsin, one in the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and the other in the Moscow Municipal Committee. Their bold and unconventional reform actions caused great chaos in the Soviet political circles. The existing political body of the Soviet Union suffered a heavy blow. The people's thoughts were confused and their beliefs were lost. Various thoughts and ideologies spread rapidly in the Soviet Union. In particular, various religions spread wildly and completely out of control.

Yeltsin's behavior was naturally strongly condemned within the Central Committee of the Soviet Union and the Moscow Municipal Committee. Even General Secretary Gorbachev of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union was a little surprised, because Yeltsin's extreme remarks and actions went beyond captured his imagination. He felt that in this wave of reforms initiated by him, Yeltsin had the potential to dominate. So the conflict between Gorbachev and Yeltsin finally broke out.

The cause of the matter is this: In June 1987, when the Politburo of the Soviet Union was discussing Gorbachev’s speech to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution, other Politburo members expressed this Gorbachev may have put some effort into the manuscripts, and all the manuscripts that he was very satisfied with expressed agreement in principle, and some only made some comments on individual details. But at this time, Yeltsin, who was in a good state of mind, criticized the speech and proposed more than 20 revision suggestions, including a basic evaluation of the Soviet Union's past 70 years of history and the party's current reform policy measures and other principled issues. . In Yeltsin's eyes, this manuscript should be overthrown and the Soviet political system should be reconstructed based on American politics. Through this incident, the image of a passionate young man who was very immature in politics emerged in Yeltsin. Gorbachev finally lost his composure. Prior to this, someone had suggested to Gossip that Yeltsin was a dangerous careerist, and because of his excessive behavior in many aspects of his work, he was also unpopular within the Central Committee and the Moscow Municipal Committee. So at the end of 1987, Yeltsin was dismissed from his position as first secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee and alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, and became an insignificant vice chairman of the State Construction Committee. Although Yeltsin's resignation indicated that his official career had come to an end within the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, his two years of work experience in Moscow established a good impression in the minds of Moscow citizens and even the entire Soviet people, especially Radicals within the party, extreme ideological groups and some radicals in society all believe that he is a reformer, a bolder and better reformer than Gorbachev. This also paved the way for his future comeback.

Interestingly, Gorbachev was not opposed to Yeltsin’s thoughts and practices on reform. What he hated was Yeltsin’s overly arrogant character and his overwhelming momentum. Because the reasons for removing Yeltsin did not mention anything wrong with his understanding of the nature of reforms, nor did he think there was anything wrong with his political views. Gorbachev only disagreed with Yeltsin about the progress and progress of reforms. There were differences in the leadership of the Moscow Municipal Committee in the reform. Yeltsin believed that the reform should be faster and bolder, and that the Moscow Municipal Committee should have greater independence in the leadership of the reform. This seems to make people feel that the two first secretaries have differences over the ownership of the fruits of reform. On the surface, the reform has just begun, and whether it will succeed is still unknown. The two men turned against each other over the ownership of future reform results. This is just a conflict of personalities. But mature politicians all know that this is not essential. Americans’ intuition in this regard is sharper and clearer than that of any other country. Many politicians in the United States feel that the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the decline of Russia are inevitable for these people who are arrogant on the surface, but in fact have increasingly aggravated infantile diseases but are moving to the highest political arena.

After the heavy blow of being dismissed, Yeltsin's thinking may have quietly undergone some changes. Whether the reform is successful, whether democracy is important, whether to mention human rights issues, etc., are no longer in his mind. It is within the scope of thinking. In 1990, during the democratic election process strongly advocated by Gorbachev himself, Yeltsin participated in the election of Russia's first People's Congress and was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia as he wished. Soon he was elected as the first president of Russia. This is another very interesting thing: During the great national sovereignty split directed by Gorbachev, Yeltsin, who had become his political enemy, unexpectedly seized the largest and most important alliance in the Soviet Union. ***Leadership of the Republic of Russia. Yeltsin had completely escaped Gorbachev's control and could control Gorbachev's behavior in many aspects.

When Yeltsin seized the leadership of Russia, the concept of "Communist Party member" became a burden on him, so Yeltsin resolutely withdrew from the Soviet Union, resulting in the internal and external problems of the Soviet Union. A world-shaking impact.

However, there were no signs of improvement in all aspects of the country's situation. In the Soviet Union at that time, ethnic conflicts among the 15 confederate republics were increasingly intensifying, the social and economic order was on the verge of collapse, prices were skyrocketing, and daily necessities were in short supply. All the participating countries have issued declarations of sovereignty, and the Soviet army is at a loss for this series of changes. Regarding this situation, the central government led by Gorbachev has basically lost control, and all speeches and appeals have no effect at all. The emergence of this result greatly exceeded the expectations of Gorbachev, who was full of knowledge and too bookish.

After the "8.19" incident, the Soviet Union actually existed in name only. Yeltsin felt that the time had come. After careful but stupid planning, he signed the "Belovezh Agreement" with Ukrainian President Kravchuk and Belarusian Supreme Soviet Chairman Shushkevich, declaring the Soviet Union to cease to exist. , forcing Soviet President Gorbachev to announce his resignation helplessly, Yeltsin naturally entered Gorbachev's office and became the new master of the Kremlin. Yeltsin finally obtained his own huge benefits from this chaotic reform farce, but he was like a farmer who lit a haystack to keep warm. He got the heat and glory without thinking that it would also ignite the grass behind. Duozi and the entire mansion.

Judging from Yeltsin’s more than five years of experience from entering Moscow from Sverdzhovsk Oblast at the end of 1985 to taking office in the Kremlin in 1991, Yeltsin initially differed from scholars in his thoughts on reform. There is almost no difference between Gorbachev, except that he is more challenging and adventurous than Gorbachev. Some of the things he did when he was the first secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee are almost the best of Gorbachev's ideas. practice. It's just that Yeltsin did it more boldly and more directly. It was precisely because of the stupid scholar Gorbachev that the Soviet Union was in chaos in the first place, and at the same time the reckless scholar Yeltsin seized the leadership of Russia in the chaos, which directly caused the collapse and division of the Soviet Union. . Throughout this process, it seemed as if there was an invisible hand controlling this farce from beginning to end. The two main actors in the play, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, performed the whole process of this farce so seriously and brilliantly. This seems so perfect, so interconnected, almost without any link this farce could not have such a perfect ending. But from the perspective of national interests, this "perfection" is really a tragedy for the Soviet Union and the entire Soviet people.

After entering the Kremlin, in January 1992, the smug Yeltsin’s bookishness and childishness were once again strongly exposed. He was determined to build Russia into a highly democratic and highly prosperous country like the United States as soon as possible. When he implemented his panacea "shock therapy" across the country, he assured the people: "Bite your teeth and endure the painful and difficult transition. In the not too long time to come, Russia must form a federal system based on parliamentary democracy politically; establish a highly developed free market system economically; and maintain its status as a nuclear power in the world militarily.” With these beautiful illusions, he plunged into the embrace of the West and boldly appointed a group of young people with Western consciousness. However, young "economists" such as Gaidar and Chubais who blindly worship the West copied the "shock therapy" method to heal the Russian economy from the West, but pushed the country that was already riddled with holes. Towards greater chaos, the country's economy has declined rapidly, and the people have rapidly become impoverished. Moreover, the economic assistance originally promised by Western countries has not been fulfilled. At the same time, the Russian Parliament Chairman Khasbulatov, who was once Ye's best friend, and Vice President Rutskoi also fell out with Yeltsin over the uneven distribution of power. At this point, the reform process of this great country sandwiched between the East and the West has completely gone off the track envisioned by the reform initiators, and has become another farce of power struggles between vested interests. As the saying goes: Misfortune never comes alone. What followed was an endless squabble between the president and parliament that turned bloody. Then the once invincible Russian army suffered a tragic defeat in the small Chechen counter-insurgency war. Then Yeltsin, who won the trust of the Russian people with his image as a democrat and reformer, did whatever it took to keep his position as president and destroyed his image. Then there was Yeltsin's five changes as prime minister in two years, setting a new Guinness World Record.

On the last day of 1999, in desperation, Yeltsin simply took his courageous character to the extreme and surprised the world. He suddenly announced his resignation as president and announced that he would replace him as Prime Minister less than three months ago. The former Soviet secret police, 45-year-old Putin, serves as acting president.

Putin: Born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1952, of Russian ethnicity. After graduating from the Law Department of Leningrad University in 1975, he was assigned to work in the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Soviet National Security Council. He was engaged in intelligence collection on the West in the then Democratic Germany for many years. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, Putin, who held the rank of colonel, returned to Leningrad.