Thirty-one years ago tomorrow, what later became known as the August Coup began in the capital of the Soviet Union. IPN held a debate to discuss the significance of this event and how the Moldovan Government in exile at the time managed the situation.
Igor Boțan, the Political Culture Series standing expert, described the failed August Coup as a “more or less classic” one, involving the head of the Soviet KGB, the chief of the Soviet Army and the minister of the interior, among others.
The writer Ion Hadârcă, the head of the 1991 Moldovan Government in Exile, said the biggest problem that the political elite had to deal with was that it had very limited experience, as Moldova’s statehood was only in its infancy.
“On the very day of the coup, the republic’s president Mircea Snegur was contacted by the putschists from Moscow and was offered to join, but he refused. The Government and the Parliament’s board were urgently convened and the Security Council was inaugurated, which decided we needed to have a government in exile, in the event democratic processes failed. This Government, in case of failure, had to prepare the transfer of power. Later in August, the Great National Assembly took place, and in November-December, Mikhail Gorbachev held talks with George Bush in Malta and the Ceaușescu regime collapsed, almost simultaneously with the condemnation of the Molotov-Ribentrop Pact by the Congress of People’s Deputies (of the Soviet Union). But our hopes for a leadership faithful to our ambitions of European integration, liberty, freedom of speech and strong ties with the new political elites in Romania never fully materialized. The Bridge of Flowers was just a cry of despair to show we could do at least something”, said Ion Hadârcă.
According to him, the failure of New Union Treaty project hastened the dissolution of the USSR. “Together with fellow deputies from other Soviet republics, the zero version was developed, but it did not enjoy much support. Instead, Gorbachev in despair launched a project that would reform something in the USSR, but that reform was worse than the 1922 Soviet Union founding treaty. 20 August 1991 was set as the day when the new union treaty was to be signed, but it was supported by only a few republics. In order to prevent the signing of this new treaty, the team of Ligachev and Pavlov, the prime minister at the time, raised the issue of removing the president of the Soviet Union. Pavlov broke with Gorbachev and joined the putschists in order to legitimize their actions”, stated Ion Hadârcă.
Alexandru Arseni, constitutional lawyer and MP in the first democratically elected Moldovan Parliament, says that the people in the Moldavian Socialist Republic suddenly felt the spirit of freedom, as the intelligentsia took the helm of the democratization and national liberation movement. “This is how the first democratic Parliament of the Republic of Moldova was established. Many years after the Soviet occupation, the purpose of the Parliament to represent the will of the people through actions was finally achieved. After the elections, the will of the people began to materialize through the adoption of the Tricolor flag, the amendment of the MSSR Constitution making the transition to pluralism, the adoption of the Declaration of Sovereignty, the creation of the Constitution Drafting. Most deputies were a few steps ahead of the events taking place”, said Alexandru Arseni.
The debate was the 259th instalment of IPN’s Political Culture Series, run with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
