America put forward Yeltsin?

In 1991 the Soviet Union was collapsing, Germany was reunified and most of eastern Europe was gaining it's independence from the Soviet Union, hard liner communists blamed Gorbachev's reform program feeling he was giving too many powers to the republics, Gorbachev was put under house arrest and pronounced ill to the Russian people, he had only recently offered an end to the Cold War with the United States probably trying to buy time but was flatly turned down.

With only days left in the Soviet Union the hard line communists who prepared to launch the 'August Coup' as it was come to be known demanded that Gorbachev issue a state of emergency to buy some more time, after he refused he was put under house arrest and was told to be ill.

The emergency committee that had taken over had sent in tanks to Moscow after declaring a state of emergency, however nobody knew where or how Gorbachev was, several soldiers taking part refused their orders, Gorbachev's former rival Boris Yeltsin spoke out against the coup.



Before it had gotten bloody the coup had collapsed since the Committee in control had no way to go forward and hadn't the loyalty in the military, from this Yeltsin used the coup's failure to eliminate the political power of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

This meant the end for Gorbachev and hastened the end of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin had instead proposed a commonwealth of ex Soviet nations, primarily Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, Yeltsin had told the president of the United States George HW. Bush about what had been done before informing Gorbachev.

One has to wonder if American influence had put Yeltsin forward to help orchestrate a speedy fall of the union, what followed after the fall was the Yeltsin era marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems.

By the time he left office, Yeltsin had an approval rating of two percent!