The historian Serhii Plokhy wrote: “Those who managed to ‘save’ Gorbachev first would determine the success or failure of the coup and the political—perhaps even physical—survival of the main players on the Soviet political stage.” This sentence captures the mood on the two planes, but the reality was entirely different. Gorbachev was not in a position “to pick winners and losers.”111 Yeltsin and the Muscovites had created a new political narrative in the country and around the world, and the Soviet President could only join this narrative. And the most crucial factor for Gorbachev
