Mikhail Gorbachev, Resignation. December 25, 1991
Original Source: Broadcast on Central Television, December 25, 1991; printed in Rossiiskaia Gazeta, 26 December 1991.
Dear compatriots! Fellow citizens! Due to the situation that has taken shape as a result of the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, I am ceasing my activity in the post of President of the USSR. I am making this decision out of considerations of principle.
I have firmly advocated the independence of peoples and the sovereignty of republics. But at the same time I have favored the preservation of the Union state and the integrity of the country.
Events have taken a different path. A policy line aimed at dismembering the country and disuniting the state has prevailed, something that I cannot agree with …
Speaking to you for the last time as President of the USSR, I consider it necessary to express my assessment of the path traversed since 1986. Especially since there are a good many contradictory, superficial and unobjective opinions on this score.
Fate ordained that when I became head of state it was already clear that things were not going well in the country. We have a great deal of everything — land, petroleum, gas and other natural resources — and God has endowed us with intelligence and talent, too, but we live much worse than people in the developed countries do, and we are lagging further and further behind them.
The reason was evident-society was suffocating in the grip of the command-bureaucratic system. Doomed to serve ideology and to bear the terrible burden of the arms race, it had been pushed to the limit of what was possible.
All attempts at partial reforms — and there were a good many of them — failed, one after the other. The country had lost direction. It was impossible to go on living that way. Everything had to be changed fundamentally.
That is why I have never once regretted that I did not take advantage of the position of General Secretary just to “reign” for a few years. I would have considered that irresponsible and immoral.
I realized that to begin reforms on such a scale and in such a society as ours was an extremely difficult and even risky endeavor. But even today I am convinced of the historical correctness of the democratic reforms that were begun in the spring of 1986 …
The totalitarian system, which for a long time deprived the country of the opportunity to become prosperous and flourishing, has been eliminated.
-A breakthrough has been achieved in the area of democratic transformations. Free elections, freedom of the press, religious freedoms, representative bodies of power and a multiparty system have become a reality. Human rights have been recognized as the highest principle.
-Movement toward a mixed economy has begun, and the equality of all forms of ownership is being established. Within the framework of a land reform, the peasantry has begun to revive, private farming has appeared, and millions of hectares of land are being given to rural and urban people. The economic freedom of the producer has been legalized, and entrepreneurship, the formation of joint-stock companies and privatization have begun to gather momentum.
–In turning the economy toward a market, it is important to remember that this is being done for the sake of human beings. In this difficult time, everything possible must be done for their social protection, and this applies especially to old people and children.
We are living in a new world:
–An end has been put to the Cold War, and the arms race and the insane militarization of the country, which disfigured our economy and the public consciousness and morals, have been halted. The threat of a world war has been removed …
All these changes required enormous effort and took place in an acute struggle, with mounting resistance from old, obsolete and reactionary forces-both the former Party-state structures and the economic apparatus-and also from our habits, ideological prejudices, and a leveling and parasitic mentality. The changes ran up against our intolerance, low level of political sophistication, and fear of change.
For this reason, we lost a great deal of time. The old system collapsed before a new one had time to start working. And the crisis in society became even more exacerbated …
The August putsch brought the general crisis to the breaking point. The most disastrous aspect of this crisis was the disintegration of the state system. Today I am alarmed by our people’s losing their citizenship in a great country-the consequences may prove to be very grave for everyone …
I am leaving my post with a feeling of anxiety. But also with hope and with faith in you, in your wisdom and strength of spirit. We are the heirs to a great civilization, and its rebirth into a new, up-to-date and fitting life now depends on each and every one of us.
I want to thank from the bottom of my heart those who during these years stood with me for a right and good cause. Certainly some mistakes could have been avoided, and many things could have been done better. But I am sure that sooner or later our common efforts will bear fruit and our peoples will live in a prosperous and democratic society.
I wish all of you the very best.
Source: Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. XLIII, No. 52 (January 29, 1992), pp. 1, 3.