34, political analyst at the Soviet Academy of Sciences
When it started I could not help but think about the grim future facing me as a liberal-minded scholar. And for a while the situation looked hopeless. But the plotters overlooked a cardinal fact. Soviet society has changed fundamentally since 1985. A new generation of Russians has emerged which no longer fears the government. The people defending the barricades on the crucial nights Monday and Tuesday were mostly in their 20s and 30s. They were there not simply to defend Yeltsin and democracy. They were there to defend their lifestyles, their careers, their property and their right to stay out of politics. They were there to defend a civilized society rather than any abstract political idea. And that is why they were ready to fight to the end.
38, editor and publisher of Tallinn This Week, an events magazine for visitors to the Estonian capital
When I heard that the putsch had begun I said, “OK, my beautiful dream is over. The old times are coming back.” But now I see that communism is over forever. The political processes are going on more rapidly than before, and it will be much easier for the democratic forces to get rid of the communists. To talk of five years is too long-even two years is too long. In six months I expect to see political independence of some sort in Estonia. The Soviet Union could remain as an economic union of independent republics. Without economic connections with the other republics, we can’t survive. I don’t think this means that the Soviet Union won’t be a superpower for the foreseeable future. For the next several years it will remain a military superpower.
68, avant-garde painter and book illustrator
We must take ideology, sociology and psychology out of the party’s hands and bring up young people to have democratic ways of thinking so they won’t kill and steal. If this is not done, there will be more coup attempts. Our government has always known all too well what art is. It must forget there is art, artists, actors, writers. Then I won’t have censorship, and I will be free.
32, founder and editor in chief of the Soviet business newspaper Komersant
The putsch means that the perestroika era is now, thank God, over. Perestroika was a sign of our society’s sickness. We are now on the way to health. The conservative danger hasn’t disappeared, but from now on conservatives will be part of our political spectrum. Plots and conspiracies are finished for now. The only people left in conservative groups are so foolish they couldn’t take charge of anything. The coup has finally convinced people that there’s nothing the communists start that won’t fail. The Soviet Communist Party will soon end up like the American Communist Party, where members have to meet in their leader’s kitchen.
23, student council president at Russian State University for the Humanities
During the coup, my conscience and beliefs were on one side of the barricades at the Russian parliament, but my party membership card was on the other side. I decided it’s better to keep my conscience than my party card. The coup finished the Communist Party, but life will go on. Young Soviets will find new outlets for political activity. It will be a healthy society with healthy youth. We will smoke marijuana, make money. We’ll have hippies and Yuppies, just like the rest of the world.
48, anchorman for “Good Evening Moscow, " a weekly news show
This is a half-victory. Glasnost will make a leap forward. But if glasnost depends on the state bureaucrats who distribute paper and grant printing licenses, then it can’t survive. The conditions for the repetition of the coup have been preserved. And the next coup won’t be so hesitant or dilettante. The country is going deeper into chaos. If the reasons for dissent are not solved, we will soon have conditions for a popular explosion.
43, director of the Russian Commodities and Raw Materials Exchange in Moscow
It was a coup of cretins against the rest of the world. Its failure has finished the opposition to reform in the leadership. After a pause, there will be adaptations. The economy now needs serious, fresh and scientifically based measures. It’s no mystery why our exchange is the biggest in the country: every decision we make is analyzed first and based on profit, not politics.
editor in chief of the independent newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta
The future belongs to Yeltsin and those who actively opposed the putsch. Gorbachev is played out as a political figure. Today he is needed solely to symbolize the restoration of constitutional structures. Now the question is: will the bright lights triumph in the wake of the fools’ defeat?
