"YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS ARE AS DAZZLING AS YOUR SUBJECTS"

Monday, July 12, 2010

"IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO TODAY": BORIS YELTSIN WALKS OUT OF THE PARTY


"IT WAS 20 YEARS
AGO TODAY"


BORIS YELTSIN WALKS
OUT OF THE PARTY

"IT WAS the Party's last hurrah. ...

"Four thousand, six hundred eighty-three delegates were called to the Twenty-Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but only one walked out of the Congress, out of the Palace of Congresses, and out of the Party forever. That one was Boris Yeltsin. A handful of journalists were waiting in the foyer as he passed through, and I was one of them.

"The long day was winding down into night, and the long Congress was winding down into the history books. It was July 12, 1990, the next-to-last day of a contentious two-week convocation of the leaders of the Soviet Union, the mighty and the small. It was evening outside and a bit dull inside the lobby of the great Palace of Congresses.

...

"Suddenly a rush! Boris Yeltsin had unexpectedly interrupted the proceedings to ask to speak, and to the astonishment of the auditorium, had announced his resignation from the Party. As head of the Russian Republic, he said, he could not continue to be subjected to the directives of any party. The father of the country he was to be, above the fray, above any parties. I flew downstairs to station myself by the door to await his exit."

Continued in "Pivot"

Chapter One of RUSSIA REDUX

by Gwendolyn Stewart

and here


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