Part V Summary

As thousands of protestors march against the Communist party, demanding its destruction, hundreds of Party members and their aides begin their own process of destruction. Members of the Central Committee desperately try to destroy records and archives of the Party's seventy-year history. As the battle between Yeltsin and Gorbachev continues, Yeltsin humiliates Gorbachev at a meeting of the Russian Parliament by forcing him to read aloud transcripts that detail how all of the members of Gorbachev's inner circle supported the coup. Yeltsin then announces it is time to vote on a decree to suspend all activities of the Russian Communist party. Gorbachev is shocked, but powerless. On Aug. 24, 1991 Gorbachev resigns as general secretary and the Central Committee is resolved. Gorbachev, once the face of hope for millions of Soviets, is now an outcast in his own country. Although to the Western...