(Minghui.org) The Soviet Union was in a state of chaos before it imploded in 1991, from rampant corruption to declining living standards, from skyrocketing funding for “stability maintenance” to ecological disasters caused by the large-scale water conservation projects.
Many people, including those in the privileged class, lost confidence in the Communist Party.
Leonid Brezhnev, the general secretary of the Central Committee of the governing Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between 1964 and 1982, said to his brother, “What communism? It is all empty talk to seduce people.”
After Mikhail Gorbachev took office in 1985, he initiated significant reforms to preserve the Soviet state and its socialist ideals.
Books that were previously banned were re-published. The film “Repentance,” which was generally thought to allude to Stalin, was screened nationwide. Facts about the history of the civil war, the “New Economic Policy,” “The Great Purge,” the “Soviet famine,” and World War II that had been covered up were put out in the open for all to see.
The truth left many people shaken. They were shocked to realize that they'd been lied to about so many things.
The Soviets began to reflect on what they understood about the history of the Communist Party. Five million out of the 19 million Party members publicly quit the CPSU before its collapse.
The Military Coup that Led to the Disintegration of the CPSU
Although Gorbachev acknowledged and embodied Khrushchev's views of de- Stalinization, he had no intention of dissolving the Soviet Union and tried hard to maintain a complete state structure without centralization.
However, the KGB (the Russian Committee for State Security) wiretapped his secret meetings with Yeltsin. Worried about their own positions in the renewed Soviet Union, some hardliners and KGB officers planned a military coup to drive Gorbachev out of office.
On August 19, 1991, hundreds of tanks rolled into Moscow and surrounded the “White House,” Russia's parliament building. The “State Committee on the State of Emergency” made up of eight senior government leaders who were later known as the “Gang of Eight,” declared it was in control of the entire state, and the media was shut down.
Yeltsin managed to quickly gather tens of thousands of his supporters to assemble at the “White House.” They surrounded the tanks and armored vehicles, and young people confronted the soldiers.
Support for Yeltsin rang out across the country, and the air force and naval commanders announced that they “would not use force against the people” and would not support the “State Committee on the State of Emergency.”
The KGB-controlled forces still wanted to attack the “White House,” but several commander generals were hesitant, knowing it would lead to bloodshed and death. In the end, they decided not to follow their orders because they didn’t want to be held responsible for the CPSU’s crimes. The coup failed, Gorbachev was released from house arrest, and the CPSU disintegrated not long after.
Many Party members openly broke with the Communist Party and burned their Party membership certificates on the streets. Many called for the Communist Party to be put on trial, similar to the Nuremberg trial.
The Chinese People Are Awakening
Just like the CPSU, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been ruling the country with lies and violence. The CCP's cover-up of the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic is an eerie echo of the Chernobyl Disaster 34 years ago.
Even though cases of infection had already been reported in early December 2019, the CCP didn’t disclose them—and punished those who did.
After the virus spread worldwide and became a pandemic, the CCP shifted the blame to Western countries and now claims it is willing to “strengthen cooperation with other countries” and “together build a community with a shared future for mankind.”
But after seeing the real story, many journalists in China are making their own voices heard. Instead of repeating the CCP’s propaganda narrative, they are exposing the government cover-up and the failed healthcare system. They are also calling for freedom of the press so that people can get factual information.
The article “As China Cracks Down on Coronavirus Coverage, Journalists Fight Back” published in the New York Times on March 14, 2020, quotes Jacob Wang, a journalist for a state-run newspaper in China. In an article he posted on social media last month, Wang pointed out that patients in Wuhan were still struggling to get medical care amid bureaucratic failure, even though the authorities are claiming the epidemic has slowed down in Wuhan.
“People were left to die, and I am very angry about that. I'm a journalist, but I'm also an ordinary human being,” Wang said.
“Everyone is in a state of feeling held back and wronged. Free expression is a way for us to fight back,” said Tenney Huang, another journalist from a state-run press.
Mr. Huang has been in Wuhan for several weeks and said that, as censorship has gotten tighter, media reporters have switched to sharing their stories on social media platforms and getting them out in other ways.
“Facts are like firewood,” he said. “The more you pile on, the bigger the flames when a spark finally lights it.”
Ever since it seized power, the CCP has instilled “falsehood, evil, and fighting” into people's minds and always glorified itself as being “great, glorious, and correct.” It rules the country with lies and violence and has turned China into a police state where public opinion is repressed. It has never cared about the wellbeing of the people and yet it tells the people they should be grateful for it.
To date, more than 350 million Chinese have chosen to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. When people learn the truth, renounce the Party, and stay away from it, the Party will wither and die.
All content published on this website is copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: News Commentary
