A Word to the People
Encyclopedia
A Word to the People was an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....

 signed by a number of Soviet politicians, literati and other figures. The declaration was published in 'Sovetskaya Rossiya' (a newspaper that expressed anti-Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

 views) on 23 July 1991. Among signatories of the publication were Yuri Bondarev
Yuri Bondarev
-Biography:Bondarev took part in World War II as an artillery officer and became a member of the CPSU in 1944. He graduated in 1951 from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute...

, Valentin Varennikov
Valentin Varennikov
Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov was a Soviet/Russian general and politician, best known for being one of the planners and leaders of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, as well as one of the instigators of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991.-Early life:Valentin Varennikov was born to a poor Cossack family...

, Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov is a Russian politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union , deputy of the State Duma , and a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...

, Alexander Prokhanov
Alexander Prokhanov
Alexander Andreyevich Prokhanov is a Soviet and Russian writer. He is a member of the secretariat of the Writers Union of the Russian Federation and the editor-in-chief of ultra-nationalist newspaper "Завтра" ....

, Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Grigoriyevich Rasputin is a Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for survival of centuries-old traditional rural ways of life...

, Vasily Starodubtsev
Vasily Starodubtsev
Vasily Alexandrovich Starodubtsev is a Soviet/Russian politician and ex-governor of Tula Oblast . He was also one of the GKChP members during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and is a former leader of the Agrarian Party of Russia.-References:...

.

The authors of the writing appealed to the citizens of the country, severely criticizing the policies of Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

 and Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

 and pleaded to avoid the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and suggested forming opposition movements.

An enormous, unforeseen calamity has taken place. Motherland, our land, a great power, given to us to ward with the nature, glorious ancestors, it is perishing, breaking apart, falling into darkness and nonbeing. And this collapse takes place at our silence, toleration and accord.<...>

Brethren, too late are we waking up, are observing the misery when our home is already burning in four corners, when extinguishing this has to be done not by water, but by our own tears and blood. Do we allow for the second time during this century civil discordance and war
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

, again throw ourselves into merciless millstones, set started not by us, that will be grinding the bones of the people, breaking in two the backbone of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

? <...>
Let us unite, so as to stop the chain reaction of the disastrous collapse of the state, economy, human personality; in order to contribute to the strengthening of the Soviet power, to the transformation of it into a genuinely people's power, and not some manger
Manger
A manger is a trough or box of carved stone or wood construction used to hold food for animals . Mangers are mostly used in livestock raising. They are also used to feed wild animals, e.g., in nature reserves...

 for the hungry nouveaux riches, who are ready to sell off everything for the sake of their insatiable appetite.<...>
Soviet Union, this is our home and stronghold, built with enormous efforts of all the peoples and nations, that has saved us from disgrace and slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 at the times of hideous invasions! Russia - unique, beloved! - she is crying for help.


V. Bondarenko has later recalled, that it was Alexander Prokhanov
Alexander Prokhanov
Alexander Andreyevich Prokhanov is a Soviet and Russian writer. He is a member of the secretariat of the Writers Union of the Russian Federation and the editor-in-chief of ultra-nationalist newspaper "Завтра" ....

 who wrote the text of the publication. Three of the signatories (Valentin Varennikov
Valentin Varennikov
Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov was a Soviet/Russian general and politician, best known for being one of the planners and leaders of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, as well as one of the instigators of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991.-Early life:Valentin Varennikov was born to a poor Cossack family...

, Alexander Tizyakov and Vasily Starodubtsev) later joined the State Committee on the State of Emergency
Gang of Eight (Soviet Union)
The State Committee on the State of Emergency was a group of eight high-level officials within the Soviet government, the Communist party and the KGB who attempted a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev on 18 August 1991...

 (GKChP). In his memoirs, Alexander Yakovlev
Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev
Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev was a Soviet politician and historian who was a Soviet governmental official in the 1980s and a member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...

, an ideologist of perestroika and former head of the propaganda department of the Communist Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

, regarded the letter as 'demagogic' and volume of 'rabid passages and at the same time desperate sighs of the soul' and 'a vulgar work'.

The letter has also been regarded as a call to arms on the eve of the August coup. According to A. James Gregor, the signatories (a number of them active CPSU members) abandoned the class war
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....

 rhetorics, emphasising rather 'a salvation of the Motherland', emphasising the priority of patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

 over Soviet Marxist ideology.

Ten years after the publication, on 14 August 2001 'Sovetskaya Rossiya' published an appeal entitled 'Stop reforms of death!' («Остановить „реформы смерти“!»), in which the letter 'A Word to the People' was called 'prophesying'.

See also

  • Letter of Forty-Two
    Letter of Forty-Two
    The Letter of Forty-Two was an open letter signed by forty-two well-known Russian literati, aimed at Russian society, the president and government, in reaction to the events of September – October 1993...

  • August coup
  • Gennady Zyuganov
    Gennady Zyuganov
    Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov is a Russian politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union , deputy of the State Duma , and a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...

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