Moscow, December 25th, 1991 by Conor O'Clery

As for his leadership of the Moscow Communist Party, “that of course will be decided by a plenum of the city committee of that party.” We cannot permit this.” Besides, the opposition to him from Comrade Ligachev was such that he must resign from the Politburo, he said. A taste for adulation, which can gradually become the norm again, can become a cult of personality. This tendency to adulation is absolutely unacceptable. He was deeply troubled by “a noticeable increase in what I can only call adulation of the general secretary by certain full members of the Politburo. The promise of perestroika was raising unrealistic expectations that could give rise to disenchantment and bitterness. Nevertheless, the thrust of his argument was clear.

He spoke for about seven minutes in a disjointed fashion, using notes jotted hastily on his voting card. “I believe Boris Nikolayevich wishes to say something,” he remarked icily. He would give Yeltsin enough rope to hang himself. There were cries of “No!” Slowly the big man from Sverdlovsk stood up, his intuition to speak out winning out over the pressure to conform. Gorbachev pointed him out to Ligachev, who asked if members wanted to open debate on the speech. ?” Yeltsin hesitantly raised his hand, then took it down, as if he were of two minds. After 30 minutes he finished, and Ligachev asked, “If there are no questions. The general secretary outlined his presentation. Yegor Ligachev, the member of the Politburo who had recommended Yeltsin be brought to Moscow, presided. By convention the advance speeches of the general secretary would be approved by acclamation, and everyone would retire to enjoy a pleasant lunch. Yeltsin took his place in the front row along with the half dozen other Politburo candidate members and various senior party officials. The 14 Politburo members sat in a line behind a desk on a raised podium, facing the assembly. Here, in rows of ornate chairs beneath the stony gaze of 18 prerevolutionary poets portrayed in bas-relief among the white Corinthian columns and pilasters high above, they awaited the single item on the agenda: General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev reading his prepared speech. They stepped out of their Zils and Chaikas and hurried into the e18th-century Senate Building. 21, 1987 without any sense that a blowup was imminent. The three hundred members of the Central Committee converged on a raindrenched Kremlin early on Oct. The third part explains how Yeltsin began the climb to leadership of Russia, from where he was able to bring down Gorbachev. This is the second excerpt from Conor O'Clery's new book, ' Moscow, December 25, 1991: The last day of the Soviet Union.' The first part introduces the enormity of what two leaders accomplished that day.

Moscow, December 25th, 1991 by Conor O'Clery