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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIn its weekly edition published on October 13, The<\/em> Moscow News <\/em>featured multiple articles concerning the seemingly out-of-control power shift in the USSR. Within the alarmingly titled article, \u201cThe Next Putsch Will Be Unannounced,\u201d journalist Yevgeniya Albats likens this extreme fluctuation to the shift in 1917 from the tsarist regime. Albats goes as far as to call it a \u201crevolutionary situation\u201d hailing the definition of such a situation as provided by Lenin himself. Lenin\u2019s definition of such a state is \u201cwhen the authorities can no longer resolve accumulating political and economic problems and the people can no longer tolerate the aggravating crisis.\u201d Albats notes that evoking Lenin\u2019s ideals and the events of summer 1917 are not far removed from the situation unfolding in fall 1991 and predicts that the spring of 1992 will bring more chaos and another possibility for a putsch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With a shortage of oil, food, and electric energy as the shriveling USSR approaches the winter season, people are reminded of war as they begin \u201cqueuing for bread\u201d while shops lack flour, meat, milk, fish, sugar, oil, butter, and more staples. This is the argument for the beginning of another coup, as Albats writes, for \u201cRussia will remember its tradition of revolts sparked off by hungry people craving for bread.\u201d This will drive revolts as the winter ushers in a \u201cstronger drive towards sovereignty\u201d and will leave Boris Yeltsin either \u201caccused of betraying the interests of Russians\u201d or the role will be passed, and Yeltsin will \u201cassume the role of tsar.\u201d Further aggravating the situation, the Russian Army is \u201cbarely controllable\u201d per the Military-Political Department of the Institute of U.S. and Canada. Despite the increasingly tense situations, there may not be a second coup ramping up amongst the people and a spiraling army. However, the uncertainty and lack of cohesion within the USSR are evidence of its failure to contain and manage its own egregious policies and institutions for its people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea of a second coup is one shared throughout Moscow News <\/em>as the inner-workings of CPSU officials become more obvious. The depth of the corruption within the CPSU comes more to light with each passing week, highlighted in another article entitled \u201cWhat does the CPSU\u2019s money smell of? Putsch-2 what lies behind it.\u201d The article begins by dissecting <\/strong>a sum of money that had been \u201cconcealed and remitted\u201d prior to the August putsch. Through the sleuthing work of the British Guardian <\/em>it was revealed that <\/em>CPSU rubles were converted and accumulated in \u201csecret bank accounts\u201d until the day of the putsch. The Guardian <\/em>also discovered \u201cquantities of oil, weapons, and even scrap metal\u201d were in possession of the CPSU, which controlled customs and KGB border guards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to continued questionable acts by former USSR Minister of Finance Vladimir Orlov, a popular belief among analysts held that the CPSU was well aware of the coming coup and prepared to profit from the USSR before it collapsed. Much of this money was used in a personal capacity for individuals such as villas purchased through proxies. The Moscow News<\/em> continues to examine the use of this corrupted money by stating \u201cthe CPSU money has been put in action\u201d by the foundation of \u201cperiodicals with chauvinistic biases\u201d and \u201copenly subversive radio stations.\u201d Moreover, the audacity of the situation is heightened as the money festers <\/strong>in arrested bank accounts during the \u201ccatastrophic budget situation\u201d Russia faces. All of this culminates, the article advocates, as a call of action to the people of Russia for a legislative act to channel these adulterous <\/strong>funds to \u201cmeet social needs.\u201d With the drastic <\/strong>state reached by mid-October 1991, the paper signaled a need for reform and radical change across the country, particularly the formation of new institutions, investigations, and a new national identity, even while fears remain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The concern with the criminality and corruption of CPSU leaders even spilled into the pages of Krokodil<\/em>. <\/em>In an article appearing in the October issue (#29), \u201cA Failed Coup: The Details about the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Investigations,\u201d Krokodil <\/em>outlines some of the extraordinary events that led up to the August Putsch and criticizes members of the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GkChP).. Accompanied with an image of a stack of papers labeled \u201cCPSU\u201d the article reacts to points of violence in hindsight, stating Iazov continuously quoted General Suvorov that \u201cthe bullet is a fool, but the bayonet is a fine chap,\u201d on the eve of the putsch. Krokodil <\/em>states that Yeltsin should have been arrested by KGB Chairman and coup leader Vladimir Kriuchkov, all to claim that the prosecutors \u201cestablished criminal negligence and official incompetence\u201d while GKChP leaders orchestrated and developed a military coup. Iazov ordered that an exact replica of the Russian \u201cWhite House\u201d be constructed on the Black Sea with the intent to train soldiers. These few and rather outlandish reports enhance the themes of ineptitude, uncertainty, and upheaval that the USSR have been subjected to for far too long, ultimately continuing to call on the people for a radical change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Natasha Netzorg is a junior majoring in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n A. S. P’IANOV. (1991). Krokodil #29. Izdatel\u2019stvo Pravda. Retrieved from https:\/\/dlib-eastview-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu\/browse\/book\/66974<\/p>\n\n\n\n (1991, October 13). Page 6. Moscow News Digital Archive. Retrieved from https:\/\/dlib-eastview-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu\/browse\/doc\/49796831<\/p>\n\n\n\n (1991, October 13). Page 9. Moscow News Digital Archive. Retrieved from https:\/\/dlib-eastview-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu\/browse\/doc\/49796834<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Natasha Netzorg By mid-October 1991, the discernible shift in the USSR\u2019s economical and political situation still drove headlines. Both Moscow News, the main English-language paper, and Krokodil, the venerable Soviet satirical magazine, provided abundant commentaries on the uncertainty and … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/1xv08nz8IjIzzPofpbb5zdVX-A1GVNslzTubbR4-HRs0BZgM95FZQBPY6VKcetziMm1UPh5t_5TT_MthhOnPCEOBUoNWGkap_fiX_o_YBCnICiVDM1efSDmr7-1kYNHjiJK0KO7V=s0\")
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