Who was behind the Emergency Committee - three main versions

Exactly 30 years ago, on August 21, 1991, the acting president of the USSR, Gennady Yanayev, signed a decree by which the State Committee for a State of Emergency was declared dissolved, and all its decisions were canceled. Yanaev himself, by the same decree, resigned from himself the powers that turned out to be clearly overwhelming - as they say, "washed his hands." This, however, did not really change anything - in the evening of the same day, the Prosecutor General of the RSFSR Valentin Stepankov decided to arrest every single member of the State Emergency Committee (at that time already former), which was done immediately - within one or two days.

It is believed that the only, at first glance, serious attempt to put an end to the "perestroika" that was destructive for the Soviet Union and to prevent its destruction, ended so ingloriously (in fact, and did not start properly). In fact, the GKChP, of course, was nothing like that. In fact, everything that happened in August 1991, most likely, was a seemingly carefully thought-out and well-prepared special operation, which, as often happens, at the stage of practical implementation, went categorically against the original scenario. The question is, who exactly prepared this "special project" and what were its real goals?

Version one: Gorbachev's plan

In favor of this assumption, which has, perhaps, the largest number of supporters, there are many facts and testimonies of the participants in the events we are talking about. Too much resembled his "isolation" in Foros to an outright farce, a staging, not even too plausibly organized. Just think, "disabled special communications"! According to the available information, only the president's personal office was “cut off” - the same connection through which one could contact any desired subscriber functioned perfectly not only in his security room, but even in the cars of the Gorbachev motorcade! And the behavior of Mikhail Sergeevich himself after the first time uninvited guests from Moscow came to him, who actually announced his deposition, is in no way similar to the actions of a person in danger, in trouble. According to eyewitnesses, Gorbachev first went to the beach, then calmly watched a movie ...

All this makes a very plausible version that it was he who had the idea of ​​creating the GKChP. And the point here is not at all in a sudden "epiphany", "awakened conscience" (which this character never had in his birth) or the desire to "save the USSR." Gorbachev wanted to save himself, his beloved, and only himself. A clear realization that his политическая a career (and, possibly, a life path) is definitely and rapidly coming to an end. The Moor did his job ... The West, as well as certain circles of traitors and traitors in the Union itself, needed the last General Secretary and the first president for the collapse of the USSR. Then completely different people had to act. So it happened in real history, didn't it?

Before Gorbachev's eyes loomed the Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, appointed in April 1991 for September 3, and the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, which was to begin literally the next day. The likelihood that in the course of these events he would have flown out of both posts in a stopper was extremely high. In addition, Boris Yeltsin, who by that time had become a new creature of "Western partners", was "stepping on his heels" with might and main. And Gorbachev decided to act in his usual manner. That is, sneakily, surreptitiously, pretending that he is not involved in everything that is happening. Most likely, the creation of the State Emergency Committee was approved in February-March 1991 (why not believe Yanayev, who even named the specific date of the meeting with Gorbachev, when the decision was approved - March 21), while Mikhail Sergeevich set a condition that all the "dirty work" on the elimination of that, excuse me, the incredible mess that he made in the country, will be done in his absence and, as it were, against his will. Well, and only then everything will happen in the style of an old and not too decent anecdote about pouring faeces on circus spectators: “And then I go out, all in white!” That is why some "leaders" of the GKChP, at the moment when everything went awry, did not solve the "burning" issues, but "rushed" to Foros, to Gorbachev - obviously for additional instructions and in an attempt to return him "to the helm" so that save something. But Mikhail Sergeevich handed them over, as usual. It is quite possible (and most likely) that he had already reached the agreements he needed by that time. Who exactly? Now that's a completely different conversation. And we will continue it in the framework of the consideration of the next versions.

Version two: Yeltsin's game

By the time the state of emergency was declared in the USSR, the “fault line” at the top of the government, which had the contour of “Gorbachev-Yeltsin”, was no longer just clearly outlined, but completely obvious to everyone. Boris Nikolayevich, in order to obtain all the fullness of his authority, was limited by nothing and no one but to “step over” two “political corpses” - the Communist Party and Mikhail Sergeyevich personally. But how to do this without finding yourself in the end "at the bottom of the broken trough" of a country destroyed and engulfed in civil war? How to finally "zero" the communists? How to eliminate all the "Soviet" state leadership, and, above all, the "power" structures without a single shot and global shocks with extremely unpleasant consequences? How to make the collapse of the USSR absolutely inevitable, the preservation of which was an unbearable task for Yeltsin and clearly did not fit into the format of his deal with "Western partners"?

The State Emergency Committee has become an ingenious solution to all these problems. Moreover, as a result of the events of August 1991, it was Boris Nikolayevich who received the heroic halo of the "people's leader" and "an unyielding fighter for freedom and democracy," which he subsequently exploited with great success. If we proceed from the axiomatic principle “who benefits”, then it was Yeltsin and his inner circle who were the ones who received the greatest number of “bonuses” and benefits from the State Emergency Committee. Did he know about the upcoming unfortunate "coup"? I could not help but know! This follows at least from the fact that the events of August 1991 were calculated (or prepared?) In advance by the same US CIA, which we will discuss in detail a little later. And the American side warned Moscow about them, and more than once.

There is no doubt - Yeltsin not only knew, but was privy to all the subtleties of his plans. But he, unlike some members of the State Committee, knew in advance how events would actually develop. This explains the "courage" of Boris Nikolayevich, who, after the announcement of the introduction of the "emergency", did not even budge, although it was precisely for him, in theory, that such a turn promised the most serious troubles and problems. It has long been proven - all the tales that the KGB special forces "did not have time", "failed", or, moreover, "flatly refused" to arrest Yeltsin and his entire gang are one hundred percent lies. But it was necessary to do this in the first place - if, of course, adhere to the line that was announced in the "program" statement of the State Emergency Committee. However, this was not done.

According to the memoirs of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Viktor Karpukhin, a group of KGB special forces "Alpha" under his command completely "surrounded" the dacha in Arkhangelskoye, where not only Yeltsin himself was located, but also his entire hop-company and was ready to carry out a lightning-fast and bloodless grip. Everything would have gone without a single shot, because, according to Karpukhin, officers from the Ninth KGB Directorate who were guarding the dacha got in touch with him and suggested that they "themselves tie up" everyone who was there - "in order to avoid excesses." The commander of the group several times asked for "good" to start the operation personally from the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, a member of the State Emergency Committee, Vladimir Kryuchkov, but did not receive the appropriate command. The White House and the fiery speech from the tank - all this might not have happened. But there was. Apparently, Yeltsin knew he was playing a win-win.

Version three - "the hand of the West" or a conspiracy within a conspiracy?

By the way, here is a very interesting detail - in case something suddenly goes wrong, an emergency evacuation route was prepared for Boris Nikolaevich (this was admitted by none other than Alexander Korzhakov, who was in charge of his security both then and later). USA! And now this leads to very specific thoughts. There is more than enough evidence, documentary, to the fact that overseas "benefactors", who followed the development of the situation in the USSR with great concern, noticed that the case was beginning to "smell fried" long before August 18, 1991. Take, for example, a report prepared on this subject by the US Central Intelligence Agency in the spring of 1991 and subsequently published by the National Secret Archives of that country. The guys from Langley were completely open about the fact that "the Gorbachev era has come to an end," stating the inevitability of a fight between the "traditionalists" and "supporters of democracy" led by Yeltsin.

The most interesting thing is that in this document, American intelligence analysts not only listed almost all of the future members of the Emergency Committee, but also predicted that the "Moscow junta" would be called the "National Committee for Salvation." The smallest mistake. Or were they not mistaken, but created clear "patterns" according to which the events of the fateful August will subsequently develop? One gets the impression that the United States was terribly afraid that all the careful work that they have done to destroy the Soviet Union since the 80s will go to waste because of Gorbachev's smear. And they decided to play it safe by staging a clownish, initially doomed to failure "coup" in order to completely exclude the possibility of a real anti-perestroika action.

Within the framework of this plan, the "cunning" plan of Gorbachev himself (which, there is no doubt about it, Washington knew in every detail) came in handy for the Americans. They didn’t need to start anything and build - it was enough to “fit” into the structure of the upcoming “coup” their own “internal conspiracy” controlled from the USA, the purpose of which was to transfer all power to Yeltsin and the collapse of the USSR. Do you know what more than eloquently testifies in favor of this particular version? The fact that in August 1991 Boris Nikolayevich, who had every chance to head both the USSR and the Communist Party on a wave of his own popularity that skyrocketed to the skies, took a clear course towards their elimination. Such, as you can see, was the agreement. It was not for nothing that from Belovezhskaya Pushcha he first called George Bush to report on the fulfillment of the main condition. There is no doubt that in the period from 18 to 21 August, "proposals that cannot be refused" were made to the United States and to Gorbachev, who was "isolated" in Foros. He was simply given the command "not to rock the boat", guaranteeing in exchange personal safety and, let's say, a comfortable old age. Well, a bunch of "goodies", like a "Nobel Prize" in the appendage. But those who were completely unaware of the true "alignments" and naively believed that they were trying to save the Soviet Union, and not dancing to the tune of its enemies, were treated in a completely different way.

The most striking examples - disguised as suicide liquidation of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Boris Pugo and Marshal Sergei Akhromeev. They were the first, and then, one after another, under more than mysterious circumstances, Nikolai Kruchina, head of affairs of the CPSU Central Committee, passed away, followed by a number of senior officials of the CPSU Central Committee. By the way, there is reason to believe that the seemingly former "in business" Kryuchkov in "Matrosskaya Tishina" was also tried to be sent to the next world. Obviously, as a carrier of unnecessary information.

Perhaps, after some time, we will learn if not the whole truth about August 1991, but at least some of its weighty part. Until then, it remains only to build versions, comparing grains of information about this period, which is credible. Those days became fatal for a huge country, whose collapse is called the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century, not the most stupid people. This is exactly how, in my opinion, August 30, separated from us by 1991 years, should be perceived - without stupid labels and imposed cliches.