
The final gasp of the Soviet Union, August 1991
Photo: Lenin, still presiding over the Finland Railway Station, St Petersburg, 2007 775 words / 3 ½ minute read On August 5, in a moment of much needed relaxation, Gorbachev flew to the Crimea (to the very Simferopol in which the Crimean Tartars had demanded sovereignty less than two months earlier)…