Exactly 30 years ago, the first president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, announced the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the former leader of the country, this was not inevitable - the Soviet Union could have been saved by turning it into a confederation - the Union of Sovereign States. The last chairman of the Supreme Soviet (VS) of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov said that Gorbachev's idea was not much different from the CIS project and that it was impossible to keep the Soviet state in its then form.

Novoogarevsky process

The development of a new union treaty due to the urgent crisis between the republics of the USSR began in April 1991. It owes its name to the residence of Mikhail Gorbachev near Moscow in Novo-Ogaryovo.

It was supposed to reform the state and turn it into a soft federation. Under the agreement, the rights of the republics would be significantly expanded (including the Union could transfer part of its exclusive powers to the republic on whose territory they would be exercised, subject to the approval of other republics).

From the text of the "Treaty on the Union of Sovereign States" it follows that each republic - a party to the agreement - is a sovereign state.

And the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics (according to the transcript of the meeting, at the insistence of Gorbachev, this is how the renewed country should have been called - ed.) - “a sovereign federal democratic state formed as a result of the unification of equal republics and exercising state power within the powers that voluntarily endowed by the parties to the Treaty. ”

For the first time, the signing of the agreement was prevented by the events called the "August putsch". After the failure of the self-proclaimed State Committee for a State of Emergency to seize power, the Union of Sovereign States was planned to be created as a confederation. The end of the state reform was put by the signing of the Belovezhskaya Agreement (establishment of the CIS) in December 1991. According to him, the USSR ceased to exist. Gorbachev soon resigned.

If only

“At first we underestimated the scale and depth of the problems of interethnic relations, relations between the center and the republics. We didn’t immediately come to the conclusion that the Union needed to be renewed, ”Gorbachev told TASS on December 25. He assured that the goal of the authorities of the Soviet Union was "to create a real federation with real sovereignty of the republics, which delegate part of the powers to the center."

“Security, defense, transport network, a single currency, ensuring human rights under the draft union treaty were in the sphere of the union structures. I am sure that this was a viable option, most of the republics would have supported it, but the GKChP putsch thwarted this opportunity, ”the former leader of the country said.

At the same time, he believes that the Union could have been preserved "even after the putsch, when the republics declared their independence, and the positions of the President of the USSR were seriously weakened."

Gorbachev added that then the Union of Sovereign States would become a confederal state with even broader powers of the republics. “In particular, they would become members of the UN, and the Union would retain its seat on the Security Council. The unity of the armed forces and control over nuclear weapons would be preserved. I am sure that it would have been much better than what happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ”said the ex-president of the USSR.

He also condemned the conclusion of the Belovezhskaya Agreement, calling it "hasty" and doubting its legality.

"Palliative body"

The last chairman of the Supreme Soviet (VS) of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov said that he fundamentally disagrees with Gorbachev's statements.

“He himself dissolved the Union of Soviet States. He brought the state to the point that it was already disintegrating. So Gorbachev was lucky that the putsch took place, because if it hadn't been for that, everyone would have accused him of defeating the Soviet Union. And now, you see, he has the opportunity to say: “No, I would have kept it, but I was prevented,” he said.

Khasbulatova is convinced that the only significant difference between the JIT project and the CIS agreement was that there would be a “powerless president” in the Commonwealth.

“He's the last project, you know, as he called it - the SSG - the Union of sovereigns, not even a union, the community of sovereign states, he called it that.

There was no longer any party, there was not even a council of ministers, there was no supreme council, a union of organs. In general, this project was very close to that signed by Yeltsin, Shushkevich and Kravchuk.

The only thing that there was some kind of palliative body allied with this Commonwealth was a powerless president. But Gorbachev's project is a little better. The Commonwealth of sovereign states would be the same, because the union did not even have taxes, ”he concluded.

bbabo.Net