Segment from "The Collapse of The Soviet Union" (2006)
104
Published 2021-02-02
The Russian people as of he early-1990's were already waking up to the realities of capitalism, turning on their new leadership, and were mobilizing to respond. More specifically, the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union had evolved into two parties, the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks [headed by chemist Nina Andreyeva] and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation [headed by Oleg Shenin]. Most of the AUCPB formed the elected stronghold in the Russian legislature that was crushed, then barred from contesting elections after Yeltsin assaulted the Duma.
Note how the documentary commentators - this is PBS after all - call this mobilization of communists as "nationalists," "hardliners," and "the anti-Yeltsin mob." In fact, the documentary is reluctant to note the continued insurgence and organization of communists. Note the US embassy representative saying the US favored "economic" reforms over "political" reforms, and how US Treasury officials flew in to Moscow to ensure this stance from a divided embassy staff. This has always been the US stance, anywhere, and has always been the role of US embassies, everywhere.
Listen to Strobe Talbot, Clinton's friend and so-called "Russia specialist" note the US support for all of Yeltsin's excesses: "It wasn't pretty .. It was bloody ... But as long as the prevailing instinct was toward reform and letting the people decide, it was something the United States could support." This was the Washington line as Yeltsin closed the elected Russian parliament and sent in tanks to murder over 100 elected delegates. Then when Yeltsin's approval rating drop to single-digits, and he is polled to lose the run-off election to the communists, the boxes of cash appear. US dollars. To prop Yeltsin up. So, who wants to talk about meddling in elections?