Varennikov and the State Emergency Committee

Some particularly stubborn democrats express bewilderment: Dmitry Medvedev hastened to express condolences to the relatives of General Varennikov, a firm and consistent Stalinist, the only defendant in the State Emergency Committee case who did not accept Yeltsin’s amnesty and did not repent of the rebellion. Does this mean that Medvedev sympathizes with the State Emergency Committee, which Varennikov was not a member of, but clearly approved of the idea?

Doesn't mean that, of course. Participation in the State Emergency Committee is not the main fact in the biography of Varennikov, who in May 1945 headed the very guard under which the Victory Banner was delivered to Moscow from Berlin. One can argue about what kind of strategist Varennikov was, how he commanded a group of Soviet troops in the GDR and Afghanistan, how he led the ground forces, etc. - the Soviet generals of late Soviet times had their pros and cons, and Varennikov personified this type of military leader to the fullest. However, he was a worthy person, which even his opponents agreed with. So the Russian president acted quite adequately - both from a moral and political point of view. Those who tried Varennikov in 1991–1994 behaved inappropriately.

On August 23, 1991, “Interlocutor” sent me to interview Yuri Karyakin, a philologist and thinker, a scholar of the sixties. Karyakin then said that the only way to break through to a new Russia from the eternal Russian circle is to immediately pardon all participants in the State Emergency Committee. Name it and forgive. If this happens, there is a chance that the resulting “Yeltsin” Russia will be new. If not, a tactical victory will turn into a strategic defeat. We published this then, and few people agreed with Karyakin. And now I understand: he said the truest words.

There were decent people in the State Emergency Committee - not all of them, but there were some. The putschists abandoned a large-scale military confrontation, and they were stopped not only by the crowd at the White House (in 1993 no crowd stopped anyone), but also by their unpreparedness for major bloodshed, and this will still count for them. Compared to Rutskoi, Khasbulatov and Makashov, they look very, very decent. So it was not Medvedev who changed democracy today - it was democracy in 1991 that failed to seize the moment to begin a new Russian history. It was necessary to forgive, respect merits and understand mistakes then.

And then, you see, there would have been no putsch-93, no assault-94, no elections-96, no default-98, no Russia in which today General Varennikov looked like almost the only State Emergency Committee - the State Large Decent Man.