The Fall of an Empire

 

I had always been intrigued by the fall of the mighty communist regime, USSR, the only other superpower to counterbalance the capitalist USA and the country on which India had depended heavily in the early years of her independence, copying the model of planned development of economy and for starting many heavy industries like steel. Even today we heavily lean on Russia for the requirements of our defense equipment. How did it suddenly disintegrate into its constituent states, creating tiny small republics that dot central Asia today?

Recently when I happen to get a book by Mikhail Gorbachev, “Perestroika,” my interest in the topic got rekindled and I greedily read it and followed it up by reading “The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union,” by Serhii Plokhy. I have shored up “Memoirs” by Gorbachev to round it all up. The drama that unfolded in front of me in these pages was amazing and I thought I must share with you if not the process, the major reasons that led to this fall and disintegration.

To give a background, USSR was formed on 30 December 1922 with 12 smaller autonomous states annexed to Russia. This was preceded by the Russian Revolution of 1917 where Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin abolished monarchy and established the communist Socialist State on the ruins of the former Russian Empire. Russian Empire had exited from 1721 to 1917, and in 1917 Bolsheviks pressurised the Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to abdicate and later in 1918 assassinated the whole family of five daughters and a boy along with the Tsar and Tsarina in 1918, wiping out traces of monarchical rule from Russia. Lenin’s communist rule developed into a highly centralized country.

Russia, the main nation has a population consisting of 84% of Russians, the people of Rus, who belong to the ethnic group of Slavs. Other Slavic tribes native to Eastern Europe, like Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Poles, Czechs, Moravians are also present in USSR with varying degrees among the Russian population. Ukraine, a big Slavic state has 73% of Ukrainian Slavs and 15% Russians living mainly in Crimea, and south east of Ukraine. You would remember recently in 2014 the present Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea. Belarus is another big Slavic state with 80% of Belarusians. These three Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are important Slavic nations with a minority of others living with them.

Then come the small Baltic States Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with minority of Russians living with them. In 1940 the Baltic States Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were militarily occupied and incorporated into USSR based on the 1939 Moltov-Ribbentrop pact, which was basically a non-war pact between Nazi Germany and USSR. But this pact was broken the very next year by Nazi regime who captured these states. USSR recaptured them in 1944.

That leaves another eight republics or states, of which five are Central Asian republics Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan with Muslim majority. All of Central Asia, which was under Persian Empire and conquered by Islamic caliphates in the 9^th century and become Islamized, was gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 19^th century. By default they were passed on to USSR in the Bolshevik take over in 1922.

The other four republics are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Trans-Caucasian regions were annexed by Soviet in 1922 after the First World War. Soviet created an autonomous region of Nagorna-Karabakh with majority of Armenian population but incorporated it in Azerbaijan, in a divide and rule policy. To add to the problems Armenia, has a majority Christian population and Azerbaijan majority Muslim population. Nagora-Karabakh voted to join Armenia in 1980s which led to a major war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1994, reverberations of which are heard even today, when in December 2020 this flared up. Georgia was the third Trans-Caucasian area that was annexed by Soviet in 1922. Moldova has a difficult history. It belonged to Romania which ceded it to Russian Empire in 1878 as per a pact. In World War I Romania was able to wrestle back Moldova. But in 1940 USSR took her back and it became a part of USSR in 1947 during World War II.

Though these fifteen states had on paper the right to secede and form independent states, in practice under USSR it was not possible and they were not allowed to. Now that we have seen the background history of all the fifteen republics or states that belonged to USSR, let’s see how and why these blocs separated from USSR and became independent countries. This has been our original quest too.

The main reason for the disintegration of USSR was that the communist economy was faring badly, especially when compared to the economy of the capitalist USA. Those Soviets who visited USA and its supermarkets were amazed to see the overflowing goods on the counters and that too so many different varieties of one particular item, being imported from various corners of the world. This affluence was sadly missing from the life of the Soviet Union. Wanting to bring in that type of prosperity to Soviet was the dream of the Communist leaders, especially Mikhail Gorbachev who was elected the General Secretary of the Political bureau in 1985.

The way forward as designed by Gorbachev was to liberalize the economy and introduce market economy as in the West. Like his ancestor Tsar Peter the Great in 1689s who looked to the Western Europe to reform and modernize Russia, bringing in wearing of Western clothes and trimming of bears, Gorbachev also looked to the West. To restructure the economy, he brought in Perestroika that is, restructuring economy by opening it up and introducing market economy and restructuring the society itself. He introduced elections to the municipalities and states; he liberalized media by his famous policy of Glasnost, that is, openness and removed state control over them. Politically it was a new way of thinking and it brought sudden and swift changes and a break from the controlled life under communism to democracy and the call for independence started. Once he opened up the flood gates of these reforms he could not contain them. Like Robespierre of French Revolution, who encouraged killing of thousands by the killing machine guillotine, becoming a victim of it himself, Gorbachev became the victim of his own reforms.

The fame for having extinguished the life of the Soviet Union would go also go to Yeltsin, the democratically elected President of the nation Russia, who came to power after the failed coup to displace Gorbachev in 1991. With the new found strength of democracy and the people, he gradually and surely ousted the then President and General Secretary Gorbachev from his office, by outlawing Communism in Russia, and abolishing the party posts. In his eagerness to step into the shoes of the party President, and be the boss of all the independent republics of the former Soviet Union, he became autocratic and abusive. Gorbachev had no role to play in the new system and was relegated to not even be a rubber stamp! There was no party post of General Secretary! He was forced to resign on 25^th December 1991. And that was the end of USSR, the mighty superpower of the world.

A crucial role will be played by Ukraine’s President Kravchuk, a major Slavish republic with abundant natural resources. Realizing Yeltsin’s game and not wanting to be under the rule of Russian conglomeration, he quickly declared independence of Ukraine and announced that Ukraine will secede from USSR and be independent. Once this was ratified in his parliament on 1 December 1991, things moved fast. The other Slavic republic Belarus soon followed suit and declared independence. Yeltsin now has to be satisfied only with Russia. He tried to pass orders taking over all the central offices and resources in Moscow. Gorbachev could do nothing to stop him!

With the three Slavic republics, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declaring independence, and forming a Commonwealth, the five central Asian Muslim majority republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan also joined the bandwagon, separating themselves from USSR. The three Baltic republics Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had already become independent following elections in 1990 and as encouraged by President Bush of USA (the senior Bush) and agreed by Gorbachev they became separate sovereign nations in September 1991. Soviet troops were withdrawn from these countries. Thus by December 1991, almost all the republics of the communist USSR declared independence and walked away with it. The President of USSR was left with nothing and he resigned and handed over whatever he held to Yeltsin who stepped into his shoes, but shorn of 14 republics, loosely wound around Commonwealth. American President was keener on the nuclear weapons’ activating code which was with Gorbachev. This was handed over to Yeltsin, with an assurance that whatever international treaties agreed between Bush and Gorbachev will be honored by Yeltsin.

That the great communist country USSR which stood as the other superpower to counter the power of capitalist country USA disintegrated without violence and bloodshed was a major achievement and the credit would go to Gorbachev. Though he knew that he was losing power and position, he did not try really to unleash the army or KEB on the leaders or the people. After the coup in August 1991, when Gorbachev was confined to his house in Crimea, he lost the game to Yeltsin. The army or KEB would not even listen to him, even if he had wanted them to support him and continue in position. Bush, President of America, though tried to keep him in power as long as possible and wanted Yeltsin to offer an honorable and respectful retirement to Gorbachev, when the game was over, he sided the new powerful Yeltsin and even prided announcing that he had won the cold war and overcome the Soviet competition.

Gorbachev would not have dreamt that his own policies of perestroika and glasnost, restructuring and openness, would dismantle USSR and also evict him from the position of power. His actions were crucial in ending the cold war in the world after the Second World War and bringing down the terror of igniting a nuclear war. He had served his calling and had to quit, almost like the British public who voted out Churchill, the war time hero, who was instrumental in winning the Second World War for England as the Prime Minister.

So are the Empires on earth; they come and go; they are all built on bloodshed and death of thousands of innocent people. Doesn’t that create a desire in our hearts to look for an everlasting kingdom, Kingdom of God, which will not only last forever but will be ruled in righteousness and justice? Let His kingdom come. Amen.