NÕUKOGUDE LIIDU LAGUNEMINE UUEMAS VENE MEMUAARKIRJANDUSES
THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION AS PRESENTED IN RECENT RUSSIAN MEMOIR LITERATURE

Summary/Abstract: The article provides reference and analysis of the representation of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the memoirs written by Russian (Soviet) state and public figures, published in Russia predominantly within the past decade. The authors discussed include President of the Soviet Union and Secretary General of the CPSU Mikhail Gorbachev, his closest aides Anatoli Chernyayev and Andrei Grachov, writer and former dissident Alexandr Zinovyev, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, retired KGB General Vyacheslav Shironin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Nikolai Ryzhkov, the first government head of the Russian Federation Yegor Gaidar, prominent politicians and members of the Russian State Duma Dmitri Rogozin and Alexei Mitrofanov. The imperialistic nostalgia that has been rearing its head in Russia recently has made a substantial impact on political memoirs. Two contrasting opinions prevail as regards the debacle of the Soviet Union: (1) the downfall of the empire represented a natural course of events, and the Soviet Union ought to have been demolished long ago; and (2) the Soviet Union ought to have been preserved, which would have been indeed possible if the actions taken had displayed a greater degree of sensibility. Gorbachev and his opponents the derzhavniks agree that it would have been possible to sustain the Soviet Union. Both sides, however, keep accusing each other and President Yeltsin of destroying the state. The advocates of the modernisation theory, on the other hand, tend to blame the crash of the superpower on the crisis of communism and the Soviet system. The majority of the authors listed above proceed from the assumption that it was possible, and even more so, imperative to retain the Soviet Union seeing that the consequences of its disintegration extending into the present day are disastrous. They are trying to convince the audience of the correctness of their action from the perspective of avoiding the catastrophe. It is useless to look for competent and honest answers to all questions in the memoirs of leading Russian politicians. Rather, one has to put up with the plurality of truths, as is common in historiography. The leading figures of the period of perestroika keep justifying their own actions and accusing their one-time antagonists and opponents, thus fighting for their place in history. Settling of old accounts, public enmity and hatred, deliberate lies and provocations, slander and fabrications and extreme irrationalism are by far not exceptional. Severe accusations of crime, genocide, conspiracy, treason, etc. are being hurled at one another. The various domestic and external conspiracy theories, particularly those originating in the former KGB circles, can be viewed as a fruit of extreme subjectivism and fantasy. The Russian memoir literature does not feature any consensus on the extinction of the empire.

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