Shevardnadze Resigns Video
These two videos show Shevardnadze's resignation as it registered on opposite sides of the Cold War divide. The first is the moment itself: the foreign minister's abrupt address to the Fourth Congress of People's Deputies on December 20, 1990, stepping down as Gorbachev maneuvered to placate the hardening conservative reaction against his program. The second turns to how the West received the news that same day, in an ABC News report that read the departure of Gorbachev's closest reform ally—and his warning of approaching dictatorship—as a signal of how precarious perestroika had become.
Eduard Shevardnadze Resigns at the Fourth Congress of People's Deputies. December 20, 1990
Western News Coverage of the Resignation. December 20, 1990