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Now it is time for our World. We chart the downfall of Mikhail | :00:03. | :00:06. | |
Gorbachev and the events that led to the break-up of the once-mighty | :00:06. | :00:16. | |
empire. The revolution was swept away by | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
the pace of his own reforms. The Kremlin leader who started out a | :00:21. | :00:29. | |
master of compromise and ended up its victim. 20 years on, the Inside | :00:29. | :00:35. | |
story Of Gorbachev's downfall and the demolition of the Soviet empire. | :00:35. | :00:42. | |
TRANSLATION: It was a struggle for life and death. | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
TRANSLATION: As a politician I lost what I could have won if I had been | :00:48. | :00:58. | |
:00:58. | :01:25. | ||
prepared to use force. I refused. I stuck to my principles. By the | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
early 1990s, simmering tensions were erupting into a crisis across | :01:29. | :01:35. | |
the Soviet Union. Reform supporters were pushing Mikhail Gorbachev to | :01:35. | :01:42. | |
go faster but opponents were also uniting against him. | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
(CHANTING). That enormous white building across | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
the Moscow river is exactly what it looks like - the imposing | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
headquarters of somebody very high up and important. Vladimir Putin, | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
the most powerful politician in Russia. 20 years ago it was | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
something very different. It was the centre of the resistance to the | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
attempted coup that tried to topple Mikhail Gorbachev and reverse his | :02:07. | :02:14. | |
reforms. (CHANTING). | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
Resentment of Moscow's control over the Soviet republic was growing. | :02:18. | :02:27. | |
One by one, they were demanding more freedom. In Lithuania, one of | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
the three Baltic republics, the parliament defiantly declared its | :02:31. | :02:38. | |
independence. Gorbachev, who let Eastern European nations decide | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
their own fate, refused to give them the same right. | :02:44. | :02:50. | |
TRANSLATION: The Baltic states are part of the Soviet Union. Anyway, | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
to resolve the issue, seceding from the Soviet Union, we agreed there | :02:54. | :03:01. | |
should be special mechanism for leaving. But not through trembling | :03:01. | :03:09. | |
on all of our laws or rewriting them. No. -- trampling. He really | :03:09. | :03:19. | |
:03:19. | :03:26. | ||
did not understand the full force of nationalism. But the Soviet | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
Foreign Minister had told the Americans of his worst fears some | :03:29. | :03:34. | |
years earlier. He said - if we don't change our policies, that | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
could be the end of the Soviet Union. I never thought I would | :03:38. | :03:45. | |
heard the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union told the United States | :03:45. | :03:55. | |
:03:55. | :03:59. | ||
that his country could be doomed. Gorbachev's problems were many. He | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
had given hardliners key positions in his government. His friends and | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
Foreign Minister deserted him, warning of an impending | :04:07. | :04:17. | |
:04:17. | :04:17. | ||
dictatorship. TRANSLATION: It was the shortest | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
speech I ever made. I said they were preparing to take over power | :04:23. | :04:33. | |
:04:33. | :04:38. | ||
with who knows what consequences. We will all be in danger and to | :04:38. | :04:48. | |
:04:48. | :05:06. | ||
register my protest I am resigning right now. for the very people | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
commit economic upheaval was making life unbearable. -- Fawdon Mary | :05:11. | :05:21. | |
people. Gorbachev took the brunt of their rage. He said there was a | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
food shortage in Moscow and people were queuing for bread and they had | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
been queuing for a long time and were getting very irritated. One | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
man turned in the queue and said to his neighbour - I am fed up with | :05:33. | :05:40. | |
this, I blame Gorbachev. I am going to kill Gorbachev, and off he went. | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
He came back a few days later and they ask him, did you kill | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
Gorbachev? No, he replied, the queue to kill Gorbachev was just | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
too long. There was another political threat to his power. | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
Gorbachev had created for himself the post of Soviet President to | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
bolster his weakening power. The Russian power called elections for | :06:06. | :06:16. | |
:06:16. | :06:35. | ||
its own Russian President. Boris Yeltsin, a former protege of | :06:35. | :06:41. | |
Gorbachev, won by a landslide. Suddenly, instead of one, there | :06:41. | :06:51. | |
:06:51. | :06:58. | ||
were two contenders to the Kremlin throne. The West tried to court | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
them both. Gorbachev is still resentful. | :07:04. | :07:10. | |
TRANSLATION: They even entered into secret agreements with Yeltsin. The | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
British and the Americans know about that. Particularly the | :07:13. | :07:23. | |
:07:23. | :07:26. | ||
Americans. We didn't make any deals with Boris Yeltsin. We recognise | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
the fact that Gorbachev was still the President of the Soviet Union. | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
We were meeting with him. We also met with the opposition. We would | :07:34. | :07:44. | |
:07:44. | :07:48. | ||
meet with Yeltsin as well. Both he and Yeltsin were reformers, | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
Gorbachev wish to reform socialism and yachts and wish to destroy it. | :07:53. | :08:03. | |
They wanted different relationships with the West -- Nelson. In January | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
1991 the hardline KGB defence ministers in Gorbachev's government | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
ordered an attack on the breakaway Lithuanian Republic, testing the | :08:14. | :08:21. | |
waters for a crackdown. It was not clear how much Gorbachev knew. Now | :08:21. | :08:31. | |
he admits he was sidelined. TRANSLATION: I never gave them | :08:31. | :08:37. | |
permission to impose my shawl or presidential rule. -- martial law. | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
They took that decision. People don't realise that the terrible | :08:41. | :08:51. | |
thing was that I didn't know. Americans were horrified. The | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
American ambassador went to the Kremlin to protest. Up to ask | :08:55. | :09:02. | |
Gorbachev or was going on. Gorbachev said, tell me, had you | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
assess the situation? I said, Mr President, I no longer understand | :09:06. | :09:16. | |
we were going. He listened carefully and then he said - please, | :09:16. | :09:21. | |
please explain to you President this country is on the brink of | :09:21. | :09:31. | |
:09:31. | :09:32. | ||
civil war. And I must do, as President, all I can to prevent | :09:32. | :09:42. | |
:09:42. | :09:51. | ||
that. That means I'm going to have to zig-zag. The assault on | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
Lithuania failed, rebuffed by popular assistance. They still | :09:57. | :10:07. | |
commemorate the event every year. It was an ominous sign that a power | :10:07. | :10:17. | |
:10:17. | :10:25. | ||
struggle over who should rule the Soviet Union was imminent. By the | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
summer of 1991 the public mood was becoming angry. At the annual May | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
Day parade, the crowd in Moscow's Red Square jeered at Gorbachev. | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
Members of his government next to him on the podium were privately | :10:39. | :10:46. | |
scheming against him. TRANSLATION: We saw in Gorbachev | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
someone who was incapable of governing, we were quite convinced | :10:49. | :10:58. | |
of this. The Americans heard rumours that a coup was being | :10:58. | :11:07. | |
planned to oust Gorbachev. It was Boris Yeltsin's idea. I told him it | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
was more than a rumour. It could happen at any time. He actually | :11:11. | :11:21. | |
:11:21. | :11:22. | ||
laughed and said something about naive Americans. By early August | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
1991, Gorbachev decided to join forces with his arch rival, Boris | :11:26. | :11:31. | |
Yeltsin. They struck a deal in a secret meeting. | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
TRANSLATION: We agreed that Yeltsin would stay in Russia as he was the | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
elected President, and Gorbachev would be Union President and we | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
would get rid of all those who were putting spokes in the wheels. Then | :11:43. | :11:51. | |
we named them, the people we were talking about. What Gorbachev | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
didn't realise was that the very hardliners he was planning to get | :11:55. | :12:04. | |
rid of had secretly used the KGB to record the conversation. His deal | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
with Yeltsin backfired. His enemies, including his own for vice- | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
president, defence and K G B chiefs decided to act at once and stage a | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
coup against him. TRANSLATION: our goal was to | :12:19. | :12:29. | |
convince him that it was essential to declare a state of emergency. | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
Not necessarily in the whole country but wherever it was | :12:32. | :12:42. | |
:12:42. | :13:02. | ||
required. It was threatening to destroy the Soviet Union. | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
plotters sent a delegation to come from Gorbachev at his villa by the | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
Black Sea. At a meeting they presented him with their ultimatum. | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
TRANSLATION: I even swore at them. I said go and convened a Congress | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
and we will see whose plan gets more support, yours or mine. In the | :13:22. | :13:30. | |
end they left empty handed. I think they got drunk on the way. | :13:30. | :13:39. | |
Reporting back by Gorbachev had refused. Refused what? Refused to | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
sign the order delegating my powers to the vice-president due to the | :13:43. | :13:53. | |
:13:53. | :14:01. | ||
poor state of my help. What lies. - - my health. In Moscow, tanks | :14:01. | :14:11. | |
:14:11. | :14:23. | ||
State television and radio announced that Gorbachev was ill | :14:23. | :14:31. | |
and an emergency committee was now in charge. It looked as though the | :14:31. | :14:40. | |
old, terrifying Soviet dictatorship was back. Boris Yeltsin managed to | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
hide in the Russian parliament to avoid arrest and appealed to the | :14:44. | :14:51. | |
outside world for help. We managed to get through to him on the | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
telephone and he said I am in the Russian White House and the | :14:55. | :15:00. | |
communists are coming to get me. I have about 20 minutes. Will you go | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
out and tell people what is happening. I did. I went out into | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
Downing Street and I made a statement strongly in support of | :15:10. | :15:20. | |
:15:20. | :15:23. | ||
reform. As the drama unfolded, Gorbachev | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
realised the fines were disconnected and he and his family | :15:26. | :15:36. | |
:15:36. | :15:38. | ||
were under house arrest. He and his wife feared the worst. | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
They surrounded us with the cars down by the seashore and everywhere. | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
They parked their cars so nobody could drive past at the entrance | :15:46. | :15:56. | |
:15:56. | :15:58. | ||
because many people were trying to get in. They let nobody through. | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
TRANSLATION: Several of our bodyguards deserted us and we were | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
not sure we could trust those who stayed behind. I did not know | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
whether they were protecting us off guarding us. They could have turned | :16:11. | :16:20. | |
their guns on ask any time. They watch us from every staircase. | :16:20. | :16:28. | |
somehow Gorbachev managed to follow the tense drama in Moscow. | :16:28. | :16:34. | |
I listened mainly to the BBC. I had a Japanese radio which is in a | :16:34. | :16:44. | |
:16:44. | :16:54. | ||
museum now. I have always trusted the BBC. | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
Boris Yeltsin denounced the coup as illegal in the capital and urged | :16:59. | :17:06. | |
people to join him at the White House to defend Russia's fledgling | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
democracy. Thousands gathered, people who | :17:12. | :17:20. | |
realise that after six years of Gorbachev's reforms they had lost | :17:20. | :17:30. | |
:17:30. | :17:31. | ||
their fear. It was this new-found defiance | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
which dealt an ultimate blow to the leaders of the coup. Parts of the | :17:35. | :17:45. | |
:17:45. | :17:47. | ||
army also refused to fire on the people. Within three days, it was | :17:47. | :17:51. | |
over. Gorbachev and his family returned to Moscow but everything | :17:51. | :17:59. | |
had changed. The coup leaders had lost but so had Gorbachev, as it | :17:59. | :18:06. | |
turned out. TRANSLATION: You could see that Gorbachev wanted to put | :18:06. | :18:16. | |
:18:16. | :18:20. | ||
everything back in order. When Boris Yeltsin invited him to a | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
session of the Russian parliament, he tried to reassert himself and | :18:24. | :18:34. | |
:18:34. | :18:43. | ||
take control. But Boris Yeltsin would not let him | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
and instead he had to sit near as not number one but a number two. | :18:49. | :18:54. | |
That was when I realised that Gorbachev could no longer rely on | :18:54. | :19:03. | |
the power he had before - the power of the presidents before him. | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
But Gorbachev seemed to be in denial. He still thought he could | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
keep the Union intact with himself at the helm. Readers in some Soviet | :19:13. | :19:19. | |
republics were becoming restless. Trans Mak I believe it was Boris | :19:19. | :19:26. | |
Yeltsin that brought up the idea of meeting without Gorbachev in | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
conversation. We agreed to meet in Belarus. | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
During an informal gathering in a remote hunting lodge deep in the | :19:37. | :19:42. | |
forest, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus dealt a final | :19:42. | :19:52. | |
:19:52. | :19:54. | ||
blow to Gorbachev and the entire Soviet Union. | :19:54. | :20:00. | |
TRANSLATION: Boris Yeltsin said, would you agree to the Soviet Union | :20:00. | :20:09. | |
in its existence. I said OK. It only dawned on me afterwards when | :20:09. | :20:19. | |
:20:19. | :20:21. | ||
my guard came to take me home. I was thinking, tomorrow I need to | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
present this to do but there was Parliament and they can throw it | :20:25. | :20:31. | |
out. This is a momentous thing. Usually I have a nap in the car but | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
after that I could not sleep. It was decided that the bill was | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
President should break the news to Gorbachev while Boris Yeltsin | :20:39. | :20:49. | |
:20:49. | :20:50. | ||
announced it to the world. TRANSLATION: When they finally put | :20:50. | :20:58. | |
me through to Gorbachev, Yeltsin was already on the phone to George | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
Bush. I thought, can you imagine what the outside world will think | :21:02. | :21:12. | |
:21:12. | :21:18. | ||
of this? Gorbachev said we were idiots to get involved and I said | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
that Boris Yeltsin was on the find to George Bush right now. There was | :21:24. | :21:34. | |
:21:34. | :21:37. | ||
a silence of the other end of the phone, and then Gorbachev hung up. | :21:38. | :21:47. | |
:21:48. | :21:53. | ||
Gorbachev had no choice but to resign. TRANSLATION: -- After six | :21:53. | :21:55. | |
years in power, he went on television. | :21:55. | :22:02. | |
He was the last President of the Soviet Union. The red flag came | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
down and was replaced by the Russian try:. Boris Yeltsin, | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
President of Russia, was now in charge. He and Gorbachev never | :22:09. | :22:19. | |
:22:19. | :22:26. | ||
spoke again. -- Russian tricolour. TRANSLATION: He is a scandal and a | :22:26. | :22:33. | |
traitor. We agreed how things would be anti- began to scream behind my | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
back. The story is about Boris Yeltsin, the traitor. | :22:39. | :22:49. | |
:22:49. | :22:51. | ||
-- we agreed how things would be and then he began to scheme behind | :22:51. | :22:58. | |
my back. I'll I was very sad for him on a | :22:58. | :23:06. | |
personal level because I appreciated what he had achieved. | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
20 years later, the last President of the Soviet Union lives quietly | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
in Moscow with his family. In his 80s, he is still heading a | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
political institute. His granddaughter helps him keep | :23:19. | :23:29. | |
:23:29. | :23:30. | ||
abreast of technology. Politically, he is a lonely figure, | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
respected abroad but blamed by many in his own country for bringing | :23:34. | :23:40. | |
down the Soviet Union. Gorbachev is not nostalgic but he looks ahead | :23:40. | :23:50. | |
:23:50. | :23:53. | ||
with trepidation. He is scathing about putting's Russia -- Putin's | :23:53. | :24:03. | |
Russia. TRANSLATION: It should be a different countries. They are about | :24:03. | :24:08. | |
stability but stability kills a country and leads to stagnation. | :24:08. | :24:14. | |
-- a different country. I think they have blown it with democracy. | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
Our electoral system was nothing remarkable but they have simply | :24:18. | :24:27. | |
castrated it. I apologise for my choice of words. | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
He insists his concern is not his own reputation but the future of | :24:32. | :24:39. | |
his country. If we miss these next five or six years, we will always | :24:39. | :24:45. | |
lag behind. We are in a transitional path to democracy and | :24:45. | :24:54. | |
the best we are only halfway through. The man who changed the | :24:54. | :25:01. | |
world but lost an empire. Gorbachev is one of the towering figures of | :25:01. | :25:07. | |
the last half century because of what he achieved in changing a | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
nation by the force of his own will and determination. In terms of | :25:12. | :25:19. | |
internal reputation, he paid a heavy price. | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
TRANSLATION: In the eyes of his own people, he will go down in history | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
as the person who destroyed the country but in the west where they | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
were always eager to see this country collapse, he is the man who | :25:33. | :25:43. | |
made history. History will be extraordinarily kind to Mikhail | :25:43. | :25:53. | |
:25:53. | :25:58. | ||
Gorbachev as well as to Edward Sheverdnadse. That is because they | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
were determined not to use force. If not for them, the Cold War could | :26:03. | :26:13. | |
:26:13. | :26:20. | ||
have ended with a bang instead of a have ended with a bang instead of a | :26:20. | :26:29. | |
The weather was fairly mixed across the UK yesterday. There were spells | :26:29. | :26:31. | |
of sunshine occasionally punctuated by heavy downpours. Most places | :26:31. | :26:39. | |
will be dry today with a few showers in the north and west. It | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
will feel quite warm in the spells of sunshine. The odd shower for | :26:43. | :26:46. | |
north-west Wales is the exception rather than the rule. A dry and | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
fine start to the day in Northern Ireland. A different story for | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
northern and western parts of Scotland, with a high chance of | :26:52. | :27:02. | |
:27:02. | :27:13. | ||
showers. Warm highs in London and Norwich. Very good news for the | :27:13. | :27:17. |