TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/010692/0106002.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.7 KB | 120 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 61

SOVIET UNION

"I Have Big Plans"


Gorbachev bows out for now, but says he does not intend to close
the curtains on his career just yet

By JOHN KOHAN/MOSCOW


    Is Mikhail Gorbachev already planning a comeback? The
former Soviet leader certainly gave that impression when he
turned up at Moscow's swank Oktyabr Hotel for a farewell party
the day after his resignation. Looking tired but relaxed,
Gorbachev mingled with former aides and Moscow journalists,
signing autographs, exchanging lemon vodka toasts and cracking
jokes. "My mother has been telling me for a long time to give
it all up and come home," he quipped. But anyone who believes
the ex-President is going to slip quietly away to a dacha to
write his memoirs or putter about in the garden could be
seriously mistaken. "My role is changing, but I am not leaving
the political scene," Gorbachev announced. "I have big plans."

    It was a vintage performance, full of the verve Gorbachev
displayed at the height of his powers. Former staff members also
described how the boss had tried to buck up their flagging
spirits the day before his television address with an
unsentimental farewell chat in the Kremlin office, assuring them
that they need not worry about the future. As a participant put
it, "The moment anyone was tempted to give way to gloom and
doom, he just would not allow it." But those who could read
Gorbachev's lexicon of looks saw something more going on last
week behind the remarkable show of self-control. The brilliant
sparkle in his eyes that used to keep visitors riveted in place
seemed to flicker out. Confided a close Kremlin aide: "Mikhail
Sergeyevich knows how to take criticism. But this has come as
a crushing blow."

    During the Gorbachev era, political life in Moscow
crackled with all the raw power of a performance of Boris
Godunov. The Soviet leader's personality clashes with Russian
populist Boris Yeltsin, their pendulum swings from angry
betrayal to wary reconciliation, were as important for the
process of perestroika as finding the right mechanisms for a
free-market economy. Then came the high drama of the August
putsch and the final unraveling of the union. Given his
turbulent career, the Soviet leader probably never suspected
that everything would come tumbling down just because three
republic leaders decided to hold a weekend summit in Belorussia.

    None of the "conspirators" in that peaceful second putsch
could bring themselves to deliver the final political coup de
grace. Instead the Soviet President was left to go through the
motions of office while Yeltsin methodically chipped away at his
powers, placing the entire territory of the Kremlin under
Russian control, and pro-Yeltsin television commentators made
daily calls for Gorbachev to step down.

    Yeltsin added to the public humiliation of his old rival
by offhandedly telling the press that the ex-President would be
well taken care of: he would receive a pension of 4,000 rubles a
month (roughly $40 at the present exchange rate), the use of two
official cars and the services of a staff of 20. In private,
overzealous Russian bureaucrats reportedly told Gorbachev's wife
Raisa to pack up and vacate the presidential dacha for more
modest housing no later than midnight on the day of his
resignation.

    Gorbachev has repeatedly stressed that he would do
everything in his power to help Russia. He was clearly bitter,
however, about sneering comments from Yel tsin and his entourage
that a suitable job might be found for him. "I just could not
go on," Gorbachev complained to journalists at the farewell
party. "Yeltsin was always opposing everything I did in the last
few months. It's easy to be against Gorbachev all the time.
There is no one for them to oppose now. So, let them do what
they can."

    In the final days embarrassed dignitaries canceled Kremlin
meetings, but Gorbachev continued to conduct diplomacy by
telephone. It was not easy getting through to George Bush on
Christmas Day. Later, Gorbachev recalled warning the U.S.
President to be wary of the new order. "Watch out for Russia,"
he told Bush. "They will zig and zag. It won't all be
straightforward." Gorbachev also found time to chat with the
leaders of France, Germany and Britain in the final hours.

    Gorbachev had few mementos to take home from his Kremlin
office. As an aide put it, "He wanted to fold up the red flag
on 74 years of history." But it was not to be. Once Gorbachev
had made his resignation address, the hammer-and-sickle banner
was lowered from the flagstaff above his office and
unceremoniously carted off under the arm of a Kremlin honor
guard, looking, as one eyewitness put it, "like a crumpled
dishrag." Yeltsin then moved into Gorbachev's Kremlin office
before the ex-President had even had time to clean out the desk.
Gorbachev arrived Friday to find Yeltsin sitting there.

    Yeltsin has pledged to end the Soviet tradition of
"burying and reburying" outgoing leaders and branding them
"criminals." But Gorbachev in retirement remains a formidable
force. If the ex-President is too outspoken, the temptation will
be great to try to discredit him -- perhaps by linking him to
the investigation into billions of rubles in hidden party funds.

    Still, Yeltsin would do well to remember his own career as
political underdog. Russians have a tradition of idolizing
fallen rulers. Any attempts to attack "pensioner" Gorbachev
might have the opposite effect of refurbishing his reputation.
As a Russian proverb puts it, "You never value what you have
until you lose it." If so, Gorbachev may have a political future
after all.