Михаил Горбачёв

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09/15/2022

Dmitry Semenido

My Mikhail Gorbachev. Part 2

Crisis

I met the economic crisis in the local judo club on Marinesco Street, when our coach announced that classes would now cost more. The news was met with a deathly silence. Unable to withstand our glances, the coach broke down: "my will, I would have hit Gorbachev with a sledgehammer on the head!".

Me in judo classes (yes, all Leningraders are judokas), 1990

"It probably hurts — a sledgehammer on the head," I thought melancholically. And why Gorbachev?". Even then, it seemed strange to me to blame all the problems on one person, especially the prices for the sport classes.

Then there was a very funny queue for meat - it lasted all day. In the morning, my grandmother found out that they sell frozen beef at the grocery store near the Avtovo metro station. There was no meat in stores in a long time so she took a place in the line, and the saleswoman wrote a number on her palm with a blue pen. A few hours later, my grandfather replaced grandmother in the queue. Then they stood together. In the evening, mom and stepfather came home from work and took over the baton. When it got dark outside, there was beef in our freezer.

I was standing in another queue, at a hardware store. At some point, even toilet paper became a deficit. After standing for an hour and a half, we bought twenty rolls at once, stringing them on a long rope. And I proudly carried this garland around my neck, like beads. Everyone else did the same, leaving the store as a crazy club, with rolls around their necks. When goods are in short supply, you want everyone to know how lucky you are!

In the summer of '90, mom and stepfather were doing apartment repairs together. There was no wallpaper to get. Not anywhere. By chance, my mother heard that wallpaper would be delivered to the hardware store on Avtovskaya Street. In order to buy them without waiting in line, my stepfather helped unload the truck with wallpaper for an hour for free. The color and pattern did not matter, they grabbed what they gave. Everyone else stood in line for several hours. The latter got only scraps.

"Bitter on coupons, sweet on coupons, what have you done, a head with a patch?" my grandmother sighed. I think she read this epigram in a newspaper. There was publicity in the country, and Gorbachev could be openly scolded. Caricatures of him were freely published in newspapers and magazines.

In one of them, he was hugging the Soviet Union with his arms and legs, as if trying to keep it from disintegrating. When I hear today that Gorbachev "destroyed the Soviet Union," I recall it. At the end of the 80s, everything was seen from a different angle - the collapse of the USSR, as an obsolete, cumbersome and unwieldy structure, was almost in trend, and Gorbachev, with his ideas of a "renewed" USSR, was considered as a retrograde who clings to the past.

Gorbachev against the desintegration of the USSR

On the other picture, Gorbachev was painted in the image of a beggar with "5%" written on his hat. In order not to raise food prices, a "presidential" five percent tax on luxury goods was introduced.

No one called Gorbachev a "democrat" or "peacemaker" at that time. With his thick-lensed glasses, he seemed a bit of a demonic figure. And they criticized him not for democracy and reforms as today, but for authoritarianism and unwillingness to reform the economy.

Against his background, Boris Yeltsin, the former first secretary of the Moscow City Committee, was rapidly gaining popularity, who demanded reforms "not in words, but in deeds" and the abolition of party privileges. There was a joke among the people: a man with a machine gun appears in the hall where the Congress of People's Deputies is taking place and says: "Boris, get down!".

Another young man!

At last, there is one decent person among Soviet politicians!

Contract prices

After the speech of Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, the neologism "contract price" enters life. No one understands anything, and a neighbor, 10-year-old Romka, tries to explain to me: "Well, this is when you come to the store, and there ice cream costs a ruble. And you say: sell it to me for 10 kopecks. So you make a contract."

Me and Romka, Shapki village, summer of 1991

Tomorrow was a war

On TV, more and more often they show the military, who are rushing past the cameras on tanks and armored personnel carriers. From these shots a chill runs down the back. Will there be a war? However, wars are already underway: in addition to the "official" war in Afghanistan, which has been permanently going on for 10 years, and distant wars in the Middle East, where there are no our soldiers, hostilities are also taking place on the territory of the USSR. The word "Nagorno-Karabakh" is heard especially often. However, for us children, all this is just a background. We are much more interested in bubble gum with inserts, Rambo and Disney.

Military transport in the Soviet cities is one of the signs of the late 80s

Self-financing

Glasnost and intensification passed me by, but I remembered the neologism "self-financing" (for some reason I heard "sell-financing"). One day my stepfather offered to introduce self-financing at home: "You wash the dishes, vacuum the floor, take out the trash bucket - I pay you 10 kopecks, and if you get a low grade, you pay me a ruble." I wept at such a sell-financing.

No propaganda

My first history lesson. An old teacher, a former participant in the WWII, looks confused at the textbook, then at us.

"Kids. There is a lot of talk that Lenin was bad, but for now we will study according to the old system," she says. We shrugged — okay, sounds reasonable. There was no new program anyway.

Many years later, when I was in college, and we were helping a descriptive geometry teacher sort out the office, I came across stacks of essays and term papers from the 80s. In the upper right corner of the title pages, it was often written: "Dedicated to the XXVII Congress of the CPSU." Then I thought how lucky I was that I studied in the 90s! No ideals were imposed on us at school, college, or university, and therefore we had only real authorities - those that we chose ourselves, those who earned our respect by concrete deeds. We respected strong professionals, athletes, successful businessmen, popular actors and singers. No one told us whom we "must" respect. In many ways, this is the merit of Gorbachev, who eliminated ideology from Soviet education.

Crisis 2.0

Pavlov’s reform*. Queues again, but now to the Savings bank on Zaitseva street. People exchange "old" money for "new ones". Those who made the exchange get stamps in their passports - in violation of all the rules. Mom does not stand in lines, they change money right at her work. But there is nothing to change, in our family only a 93-year-old great-grandmother has savings, and she does not want to say where and how much. "Let the state get it. Maybe I want to give the government a gift!"

Line to the Savings bank, January of 1991

In the summer, grandfather, as a WWII veteran, was given humanitarian aid, and he brought it home. It was a small but heavy box made of thick green cardboard. The box contained canned mackerel in tomato sauce, a package of blueberry jam, a pack of mint gum, matches, and pills that would decontaminate swamp water, making it drinkable. During the unpacking, my grandfather told me that this was a Western German soldier's ration for one day.

There were a lot of such bags in the package, each time I had to guess what was in them

"It can’t be for one day," I hesitated, "there’s too much in it, even chewing gum!"
In Russia, one-day rations were given for the rest of the lives. I kept my inserts and stickers in this sturdy box for many years.

Today, under the pictures of planes with humanitarian aid from the 90’s in social media, you can often see comments like: "shame!", "how low we have fallen!". But despite the fact that grandfather was a participant in the war, humanitarian aid from Germany did not cause him any irritation. He perceived the FRG as a modern democratic state that had nothing to do with the Nazis. Moreover, he was happy of any opportunity to get food for the family. Thanks to him, we didn't go hungry.

*Pavolv’s reform – was a monetary reform in USSR in January of 1991 when, in order to reduce consumer demand, large banknotes were exchanged for new ones with a limit on the amount of exchange. So that citizens could not exchange money at different banks, they stamped in their passports that marked the exchange.

State of emergency

In August, rumors reached the village Shapki where we were spending summer holidays: junta had seized power in Moscow. The new abbreviation: CSEC (Council of the State Emergency Committee - in Russian GKChP) does not sound as somthing good.

Tanks in Moscow, August of 1991

"Maybe it’s not too bad," my grandmother reasoned philosophically, "at least the military will sort things out."

Zero information. Word of mouth spreads scattered facts. There are tanks near Gatchina - will CSEC shoot at the people? There are no matches in the store, Aunt Valya maintains an "eternal flame" in the kitchen. Sobchak did not let the tanks into the city. On TV only "Swan Lake"...

The Chairman of the Leningrad City Council Anatoly Sobchak talks to the crowd directly from the window of his office, August 1991

When we returned to Leningrad, everything was over. The same footage was played hundreds of times on TV: Gorbachev is returning from Foros. His tear-stained granddaughter, wrapped in a blanket, is led down the stairs of an airplane.
- She got raped - briefly commented my grandma.

Coming back of the "Foros prisoner"

- Now there will be not 15 but 18 republics, - stepfather states, - Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary will join USSR.
Where did he get it from?

School again. We don’t have to wear October stars at school anymore. The uniform is optional.

September the 1st of 1991, already without stars but still in uniform (well, some of us)

On the new TV-channel RTR (Russian Television and Radio) they show a cartoon depicting the past members of Council of the State Emergency Committee as caricatured dwarfs, which Yeltsin flushes down the toilet. From the realization that we won, the soul is joyful. But my dad, as always, is not in the mainstream.
- Everyone is happy now, but tomorrow they will run with posters "We support CSEC!".

His words seemed to me stupid - it was obvious that the putschists were silly and cowardly people who did not understand what had they done. They had no "order restoring" program. The nonsense they spouted was like childish babble.

But he turned out to be right. Nowadays, when the pitiful image of the "shaking-handed bolsheviks" has already been erased from the collective memory, sympathetic voices on their side are more and more common. "We would have crushed everyone with tanks, we would have lived like in China!"

The last autumn

The gloomy fall of 1991. Everyone looks angry and depressed. It seems that if desired, the common irritation can be heard - it is in the air like the electric hum of a transformer substation.

Gorbachev almost does not show up, only Yeltsin is everywhere. Instead of the "Vremya" on the 1st program, everyone watches "Vesti" ("News") on the RTR where the letter E is stylized as a tricolor. When Gorbachev appears on the screen, he looks pathetic. "A minister without a portfolio," mom says about him.

Svetlana Sorokina - the young and beautiful host of the program "Vesti", 1991

Unexpectedly, in the midst of autumn grayness, shortages and hopelessness, on November 7 a big city fest was arranged - balloons were raised over Kirovskaya Square, there were dancers on the stage and artists in the crowd dressed as Peter the Great and Catherine 2 - two months ago Leningrad was renamed to its historical name Saint-Petersburg, and now Peter and the Hermitage again became its symbols instead of the revolutionary cruiser "Avrora" and Smolny.

November 7, 1991, Kirovskaya Square, Leningrad. On the left - my cousin Anton, on the right - an unknown kid of our age

"Sobchak spent 50 thousand rubles on this event!" - stepfather lamented.

A lot of people gathered for the holiday, but it was clear that everyone was not up to fun. There were no smiles on the faces. The crowd near the stage contemplated the dances of the mummers almost with hostility.
"A feast during the plague," commented my mother.

Crime

Terrible news - a pop-singer Igor Talkov was killed in the Yubileiny Palace of Sports in St. Petersburg. On TV, they endlessly show how he is carried on a stretcher to an ambulance. With a beard, undressed (he is wearing only white underpants), he greatly resembles Christ in the painting "Descent from the Cross".

The last minutes of Igor Talkov

At this very time, we also have an ambulance at home. Mom has myocarditis. Mom was born on the same day and year with Talkov.

Shampoo instead of bread

In stores there are just empty shelves. In our local grocery store there is only canned sea cabbage at the old price of 88 kopecks. Grandma buys it and uses as a filling for creepes.

I remember very well these empty shelves, on which there are only scraps of rope and wrapping paper.

If I used to think: "at least there are no queues for bread" now there are lines even for bread - through the entire store. Several of my classmates are standing in different parts of it at the same time.

Salaries are still paid on time, but it is clearly seen that this is money from the printing press - the banknotes are brand new, large sums are sealed in bundles. My stepfather teaches me how to get a banknote out of a pack without opening it.

Packs of rubles

Strangely, at that moment, neither the parents nor their friends think about the reasons for what is happening. Where have the products gone? Everyone is concerned only with the question of where to get them.

Vidal Sasson Wash & Go - shampoo and conditioner in 1

Meanwhile, the closed Soviet market is beginning to open. In the local store "Passage" there is a line for imported shampoo "Vidal Sassoon". Everyone thinks that this is a one-time action and they rush to grab it, gaining ten bottles. The shampoo is expensive, 1 bottle costs 59 rubles. Mom's employee complains - his wife does not allow him to use the expensive imported shampoo ("It is not for your bald head"). Children joke about the word "sasson" which sounds like "sucker" in Russian.

Belavezha Accords

On the New Year Eve on all channels there are video reports from Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The hang out of the three presidents is presented as a summit meeting, something very solemn and official. Well, the CIS, okay, may it will be CIS*, who cares when there is nothing to eat?

Yeltsin, Sushkevich and Kravchuk sign the death warrant of the USSR

On December 25, the "minister without portfolio" himself announced his resignation and left the Kremlin, but almost no one noticed this. The country was preparing for the New Year.

Soviet people watch as Gorbachev announces his resignation, December 25th of 1991

* CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) - is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eastern Europe and Asia which was established instead of Soviet Union on December the 8th of 1991 when the presidents of Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian republics of USSR met in Belovezhskaya Puscha, Belarus and signed a declaration that Soviet Union ceased to exist as a political entity. The declaration was established secretly from Gorbachev and was caused by the unwillingness of the President of Ukraine to be part of any unions without the independence of his republic.

Gorbachev for president!

For the next few years, Gorbachev practically did not remind of himself. He flashed several times on TV shows, in one of which his famous winter hat, forked from above, was solemnly brought into the audience. Without power and high office, Gorbachev looked charming again - he smiled, joked a lot, and still answered every question for a long time. It seemed that he would forever remain a "political pensioner."

However, in the elections of 1996, Mikhail Sergeevich unexpectedly put forward his candidacy for the presidency of Russia. It was a bit odd. Of course, in those years, the abundance of bile addressed to him had not yet reached today's volumes, but I could not imagine that someone would seriously vote for him. "He is like an ex-wife with whom you broke up long ago, and to whom you don’t want to return," my mom commented on his return.

During the election program, Gorbachev suddenly appeared on one of the broadcasts of our St. Petersburg television. He was with Raisa. The couple kept themselves very modest, sat on the edge, answered questions with restraint. Later, I learned that in Moscow, Yeltsin completely blocked Gorbachev's access to TV, and only Sobchak, out of old memory, provided the air in St. Petersburg. TV viewers could call the studio and ask questions in real time. The thought of having a personal talk with Gorbachev himself seemed exhilarating to me. But about what? I was only 13 years old, and I knew almost nothing about politics.

"You want to become a military man, ask him what benefits the military will have if he comes to power," my mother advised. But I never got through on the air.

Elections were held on June 16, at the height of the summer season. At that time, my grandfather and I lived in a dacha in Solnechnoye, and he voted by absentee ballot at the local resort "Vzmorye".

There were surprisingly many candidates, even Solzhenitsyn was among them! And also weightlifter Yuri Vlasov (Schwarzenegger himself called him his idol), General Lebed, the hero of the war in Transnistria, and a honored ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fedorov. The pompous nouveau riche Bryntsalov caused the greatest irritation. It was somewhat strange to see Gorbachev in this company, but his color portrait also hung on the election stands.

Like most Russians, grandfather voted for Yeltsin. Having lowered our ballot into the ballot box, we received a sticker "I voted!". Later, the whole city was pasted over with them. And Gorbachev scored only 0.5%.

Nostalgia

My love for the 80s era began in the late 90s. It was partly influenced by the reunion of Modern Talking, when, along with new songs, the duo released many old tracks in an old-school sound, which led to a flurry of re-releases of 80s hits and the return of dozens of artists from retirement to the big stage.

Gradually, along with my interest in the music of the 80s, I developed an interest in the era as a whole. At the dacha in the summer of 2001, I often went to the local library on Primorskoye Highway, where my grandfather and I were once frequent guests. But instead of fiction I was asking for political literature - journalism of the 80s, press digests, all kinds of translated authors, "Ogonyok" and "Yunost" magazines. With great interest I read The Myth of Stagnation, Geller's book The Shine and Poverty of Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev's personality did not attract me in itself, but books about him seemed important to me for understanding the 80’s era.

In 2003, I founded the site Disco Encyclopedia, which later grew into a separate resource "We love the 80s", where, in addition to pop culture, there is a large historical section "Time Machine". Collecting bit by bit important dates, I involuntarily learned more about Gorbachev. It is one thing to analyze disparate facts, and quite another thing when these facts are lined up on the time axis in the context of other events that took place in the USSR and world.

Gradually, causal relationships lined up in my head, an understanding of the motives and origins of perestroika reforms came, and at the same time a strong feeling that almost no one knows the real Gorbachev today. None of the epithets with which he is awarded today ("democrat", "reformer", "traitor", "enemy of the nation") is absolutely not suitable for his characterization.

Only time will give a true assessment of his personality.