Political betrayal

It may be that the speed of change in the former Soviet Union was such that it was almost impossible to ward off a reactionary coup. By the end of the eighties, reformist change in the former Soviet Union was becoming a transformation. Gorbachev had facilitated and protected that process to a degree underestimated by Soviet radicals who had ceased to be his supporters. Some of those who should have been his friends had, unfortunately, forgotten. His chances would have been greater if radical democrats had realized how much danger Gorbachev was in, and had offered him more support as well as constructive -- not destructive -- criticism. These guilty men have deposed the most enlightened leader their country ever had.