25 years after coup, Russia wallows in Soviet nostalgia
This file photo taken on August 24, 1991 shows the leader of the Soviet-era Russian republic Boris Yeltsin (centre), flanked by his chief of guard Alexander Korzhakov (left) holding a bulletproof shield, delivering a speech during a funeral procession of the victims of the failed coup attempt in Moscow. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- Russia marks the symbolic anniversary of the August 1991 putsch this week.
- On August 19, 1991, a group of security chiefs and Communist bosses who opposed Gorbachev’s reforms declared themselves in charge.
MOSCOW, Saturday
Communists waving Marxist pamphlets and Twitter storms praising the Soviet Union are probably not what the thousands of Russians who rallied in 1991 against a coup by hardliners expected to see 25 years later.
And yet as Russia marks the symbolic anniversary of the August 1991 putsch this week, pro-Kremlin media have concentrated on nostalgia for the Soviet era, while officials have barred a rally by those who manned the barricades.
On August 19, 1991, a group of security chiefs and Communist bosses who opposed Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms declared themselves in charge, ushering in three days of turbulence.
Calling themselves the Committee for the State of the Emergency, they said Gorbachev had stepped aside for health reasons and sent tanks rolling into Moscow.
But crowds flocked to the parliament building to defend Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian republic of the USSR, who was seen as a symbol of democracy.
For the last 24 years, the people who were on the barricades have held a day of remembrance for the abortive coup that was a starting point for democratic Russia.
This year, Moscow city hall has for the first time refused permission to hold a rally outside Parliament, citing complaints about noise from locals.
“For 25 years we have been doing the same thing every year,” said Mikhail Shneider, the event organiser.
During the putsch, Shneider was one of the activists calling Muscovites to the barricades and distributing flyers.
“Rallies were numerous at first,” Shneider said, “but after Vladimir Putin came to power as PM in 1999, they started to decrease.”
This week, while barring the rally, authorities sanctioned a Communist demo and former Soviet officials were shown on state TV voicing nostalgia for the repressive regime.
Yeltsin’s former vice-president Alexander Rutskoi who supported him on the barricades though they later fell out now claimed the putschists had the right idea in 1991.
