A Step Back for Reforms

When Mikhail S. Gorbachev was ousted, so were some of the achievements that blossomed under perestroika. Among them:

Union Treaty: Gorbachev was to officiate at the treaty’s signing, scheduled to begin Tuesday. His treaty would have kept the federation together while granting greater autonomy to the republics. These republics were to be given greater powers in the national legislature, military matters, foreign affairs, natural resources and the administration of energy resources. This new federation would be called the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics. Eight of the 15 republics had agreed to sign the treaty.

Right to Protest: Citing the ostensible danger of “chaos, anarchy and fratricidal civil war,” the ruling Emergency Committee’s Resolution No. 1 decreed that all press and broadcast organs are now subject to official “control,” political parties that break the peace are to be shut down, government bodies that violate Soviet law are to be dissolved and strikes and demonstrations are banned.

Freedom of the Press: Resolution No. 2 suspended all but nine Moscow-based newspapers, saying publications must reregister with the Emergency Committee. Among those banned are the liberal or radical Moscow News, Kuranty, Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Komsomolskaya Pravda.