On my country and the world by Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev

Author:Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich, 1931- -- Political and social views., World politics -- 1989-, Soviet Union -- History -- Philosophy., Russia (Federation) -- History -- 1991- -- Philosophy.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2000-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

THE UNION COULD HAVE BEEN PRESERVED

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it is important, vitally important, that this very complex process not intensify destructive tendencies that can be observed in society. After all, it is obvious to everyone that the transition will take place in circumstances of profound economic, political, and interethnic crisis, with a significant decline in the living standard.

I take a completely serious attitude toward the contents of the documents adopted at Brest [i.e., the Belovezh accord] and at Ashkhabad, and in the decrees ratified by the Supreme Soviets of the three republics. In considering the points I wish to make, I have taken into account the reaction of society both within and outside our country and questions that still remain open.

The purpose of the considerations outlined here is to specify minimum conditions without which, it seems to me, the Commonwealth under present circumstances cannot be viable. Let me make an immediate qualification: Among these conditions are some that are obvious and that all of you acknowledge, but I cannot omit them from this message.

Firsts a clear-cut understanding should be recorded that the Commonwealth is a multinational formation with absolute equality not only of the states themselves but of all the nationalities, religions, traditions, and customs, regardless of their locations. Therefore a more appropriate name, it seems to me, would be Commonwealth of European and Asian States.

Second, it is not enough simply to give official recognition to the Declaration of Human Rights and to democratic freedoms. Given the unique situation of people who have settled across an enormous space, where over the course of centuries the fates of millions of families have intersected, where there have been tens of millions of mixed marriages, the problem of open borders and of citizenship must be worked out with special care.

I am sure that in everyone not contaminated with nationalism and separatism, and that means hundreds of millions of people, there will inevitably arise a sense of loss of a great country. And when the practical work begins of defining governmental and administrative processes and other demarcations, and the terms for citizenship, a great many will be affected most directly—in their everyday lives, in production, in human relations. Therefore, possibly for a prolonged period, it will be necessary to agree on a Commonwealth citizenship alongside citizenship in a particular country.

I fear that if all this is not thought out, resolved, and reliably guaranteed, the idea of a Commonwealth will be rejected on the national level.

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