The New Russia

A new phase was beginning in the life of our country, and in mine too. I had no illusions and knew it was going to be grim. A deluge of lies and libels rained down on me. As the economy’s problems worsened, it was wholly predictable that the politicians now in power would be looking for a scapegoat. Gorbachev was the obvious candidate.

What kept me afloat during those first months after the Kremlin? Why did I not buckle under the strain? I was firmly committed to my principles, I was tough, and in the course of my life I had learned to fight. In addition, I had the support of those close to me, Raisa and the rest of my family. I had the support too of friends and allies from the Perestroika project, and of others who became friends in later years, who helped in my work and new projects for love, not money.

Above all, what kept me going was the certainty that Perestroika had been and remained historically essential and that, having taken on a far from light burden, we were bearing it with the dignity it deserved. For all the mistakes and failures, we had led our country out of a historical impasse, given it a first taste of freedom, liberated our people and given them back the right to think for themselves. And we had ended the Cold War and nuclear arms race.

It was important to me at that time, and still is today, that many of my compatriots recognized that; and so I would like to publish just a few of the letters I received from people I never knew, but to whom I am immensely grateful.

You have a great many supporters

Responses to the resignation broadcast of the president of the USSR, 1991

Thank you for telling us the truth, and for your courage.

Captain Filimonov

on behalf of the White Sea fishermen, Belomorsk

This New Year will be very sad for us. We have always been on your side, admired you, sent telegrams of support and given what help we could. May all the other presidents find work worthy of you. We wish you and your family good health and happiness.

A. P. Valikova

Artist, Moscow

We have learned with regret but understanding of your resignation. The seed of democracy, freedom and Glasnost sown five years ago has already sprouted, and we are confident that, as the years pass, it will mature and yield good fruit. We hope you have a good holiday, recharge your batteries, and continue the work you have begun.

V. S. Goncharov

The Farm, Kantemirovka, Voronezh Province

We are grateful to you for the freedom with which you think, reflect and speak. Everything else will follow.

Staff of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

G. Glukhomanyuk and P. Logvenchev, Vladivostok

Forgive us if you can. I wish you health, spiritual strength and happiness. God Bless you!

Koshulko

Adamovka, Orenburg Province

Dear Mikhail Sergeyevich,

At what must be a difficult time, I want to express my gratitude to you. Please believe that not everybody sees what you have done only in terms of the difficulties that followed. It has been hard but it will pass. ‘Bad times pass, good people remain’, our pastor said in one of his sermons. Your resignation is a courageous and highly moral act. Personally, I am saddened by it, but hope our difficulties can be overcome and that time will put things right again.

You are a true leader. You have a great many supporters.

I wish you new strength, new success in your work, and new accomplishments

Yelena Georgievna Shadurskaya

Minsk, 27 December 1991

Greetings for New Year, 1992

Dear Mikhail Sergeyevich,

My best wishes for a Happy New Year!

You have done so much for our country, for Russia and the world. Thank you for that. You are our first President and were the first to start out on the road to Democracy, but as yet there is no Democracy in our country, no respect for Man, and it is going to be hard for you.

I wish you courage. God grant you and your family good health. I wish you all the best in the New Year.

I am only an ‘ordinary’ person, but if you need help, I will do my best to be useful to you.

N. A. Trifonova

Moscow

PLATE Section A

^{1 After the Kremlin, 1992. Photo: Herb Ritts.}

^{2 Broadcast by the president of the USSR, M. S. Gorbachev, 25 December 1991. Photo: Yury Lizunov.}

^{3 Launch of the Gorbachev Foundation, 3 March 1992. A. S. Chernyaev, Irina Gorbacheva-Virganskaya, Alexander Rutskoy, Raisa Gorbacheva, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nikita Mikhalkov. Photo: Yury Lizunov.}

^{4 The White House, Moscow, October 1993.}

^{5 Launch of The Union Could Have Been Saved, Novgorod, 1994.}

^{6 Meeting the voters in Volgograd, 9 May 1996. Photo: A. Stepin.}

^{7 Discussion with Academicians Alexey Sisakyan and Vladimir Kadyshevsky, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, 30 January 1996. Photo: Yu Tumanov.}

^{8 Meeting the voters in Samara, 25 May 1996.}

^{9 Laying of wreaths at Mamai Kurgan, Volgograd, 9 May 1996. Photo: A. Stepin.}

^{10 With Leonid Abalkin and Vadim Medvedev at the Gorbachev Foundation, 2 March 1999.}

^{11 Meeting with Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation magazine (USA), Moscow, July 1992.}

^{12 Opening of the new building of the Gorbachev Foundation, Moscow, 12 May 2000.}

^{13 In Mikhail Gorbachev’s home village of Privolnoye, August 2005.}

^{14 ‘Russia and the Modern World’. Answering students’ questions after the lecture at Moscow State University, 24 March 2010. Photo: Dmitry Belanovsky.}

^{15 Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev at the Gorbachev Foundation, 1998. Photo: Heidi Hollinger.}

I AFTER PERESTROIKA

The 1990s: Defending Perestroika

What is it like when, after fate has raised you to leadership of a superpower, you find yourself in the kind of situation I was in during the first months of 1992? Not much fun, I can tell you.

My last month as president was tense and dramatic, but I continued doing all I could to keep open the prospect of renewal of the Soviet Union, and of cooperation and continuing ties between the former Soviet republics, which by then were already independent states. I did not cling to power at all costs, power for its own sake.

It was a bitter blow that Perestroika had been halted halfway, indeed when it was still only beginning. Already I was aware of just how deeply rooted the legacy of totalitarianism was, in our traditions, in people’s mindset and morality. It had seeped into almost every pore of the social organism. That deeply troubled me in those days and, more than 20 years later, still does.