AJALOO RIIGIEKSAMI ÜLESANDED
The Russian memoir literature does not feature any consensus on the extinction
of the empire.
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All the advocates of the preservation of the Soviet Union, including Gorbachev,
blame the collapse on the local elites, separatists, nationalists, and party
nomenklatura, citing the desire to get a bite of the public property rather than the
nation’s desire for freedom as the leading motive. Those who idealise the empire
mostly discard any actual analysis of the national issue, instead eulogising the
unprecedented burgeoning of nations under the Soviet regime and socialism as
such.
These memoirs demonstrate that the liberation movements of the Baltic peoples
played a very important, in some aspect even pioneering role in the annihilation
of the Soviet Union, whereas the principal underlying reason was Russia’s own
pursuit of sovereignty. Some derzhavniks’ writings on the Baltic issue are over-
flowing with blatant fabrications and propaganda lies.