The corners of the game do not seem to affect the mainstream of the game, but the combination of many corners can stifle a big dragon and turn the situation around.

And at the heart of this chess game, in the center of the normal stage play, Yeltsin was finally elected president of the Russian Federation with 57% of the votes.

The New York Times commented: "Yeltsin no longer has to go through the back door to the White House to ask for an audience with the President of the United States." ”

In order to determine the future status of the Soviet Union, and above all, whether it was necessary to continue to exist, the Soviet Union held a national referendum, but the three Baltic countries resisted this and did not participate in the referendum. In fact, the three Baltic states and Georgia had already become independent from the Soviet Union, so whether or not to retain the Soviet Union was of no practical significance to these countries.

According to the referendum held in March 1991, more than 70 percent of the Soviet people still advocated the preservation of the Soviet Union, but what the reformed Soviet Union should look like had different views and propositions at the top of the CPSU, different factions, and representatives of the republics. In order to reconcile the interests of the union republics, the Federation Council began to draft a new union treaty at the Novo-Ogaryovo government villa, 35 kilometers from Moscow.

The new Covenant changed the name of the Soviet Union to the "Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics", and even the abbreviation was written and pronounced the same as the Soviet abbreviation. But even if it is the abbreviation, the name already highlights the word sovereignty, so the central power of the Soviet Union as a unitary state will be greatly weakened, and the local authorities will gain more autonomy, and they will also be able to form a check and balance on the central government of the Soviet Union.

The Covenant discussed the status and distribution of power between the central and local governments in the new Soviet Union, and in addition to this, how to divide the unified army, and whether the command of the armed forces should be delegated to the sovereign republics; There are also economic changes, such as privatization on a larger scale and the issuance of new currencies in some countries; Whether the unified transportation, oil and gas transmission, electric power, communication systems, and other infrastructure should also be adjusted and changed.

Of course, the more detailed issues will not be left to the minds of figures like Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who are actually fighting for more high-end issues, involving a series of issues such as national sovereignty, the ownership of the military, and financial power. It can be said that each of these issues will determine whether the future Soviet Union will be a unified state or a federation, or even a loose confederation. It also determines which faction will dominate and which faction will be the main faction in the future political situation.

Because of the sensitive topics and the fact that the positions were quite opposed, the discussion was very gunpowdery, and whenever the discussion in the venue was suffocating, Gorbachev immediately called it off and invited the delegates to dinner. Banquets usually help to ease the mood, but once the banquet is over and everything is back to the way it was, no one will give in easily, because if they give in, they will never be able to turn over.

At 2 p.m. on July 23, the Federal Council met again, this time to discuss fiscal and taxation issues. The meeting was discussed for two hours, but no progress was made. Gorbachev believed that the central government should tax every enterprise and be responsible for adjusting their contributions, which put the fiscal and taxation power in the hands of the central government, no matter how tossed below, as long as the central government has money and the bottom has no money, then the Soviet Union can still maintain the strength of the central government. Yeltsin, on the other hand, insisted that each republic must implement the principle of a single channel of fixed contributions, which clearly set aside the Soviet central government, let the local governments control the financial power, and hollow out the economic capacity of the central government.

"If I don't put that into the treaty, then I don't have much to do here." Gorbachev said as he packed up his folders and prepared to leave. In fact, he wanted to put on a show and coerce Yeltsin into making concessions.

But Yeltsin didn't buy his account at all, and he already knew very well what kind of Gorbachev was like all the way, this person was indecisive, ambitious and talented, liked to shirk responsibility when encountering problems, and simply did not have enough patience to make ridiculous decisions after panicking.

"Don't force us to fix this in your absence." Yeltsin was so good at being honest and honest, but in fact he was the most direct threat.

Gorbachev could not have imagined that he, as the president of the Soviet Union and the presiding officer of the meeting, would be contradicted by Yeltsin like this, and Yeltsin's meaning in and out of his words was that we can make decisions without you, and the implication is that the Soviet Union is gone, and the republics can still live a good life. Gorbachev was in a dilemma, and he was even more embarrassed, he did not get angry on the spot, after all, in front of so many deputies, he simply announced the adjournment of the meeting and found a step down.

A few days later, Gorbachev again held a secret meeting with Yeltsin, Nazarbayev, and other leaders in power of the union republics in Novoogarevo; he did not realize the seriousness of the problem at all, and the differences and contradictions were so huge; instead, he naively believed that this discussion would completely resolve the remaining Union tax issue in the draft Union Treaty, and he even wanted to set a date for signing the new Union Treaty, even if the intention to sign it was not reached at this time.

Moreover, during the secret meeting, Yeltsin and Nazarbayev suggested to Gorbachev that in order to calm the pressure of the conservatives within the CPSU, KGB Chairman Kryuchkov, Defense Minister Yazov, Internal Affairs Minister Pugo, Soviet Vice President Yanaev, and Prime Minister Pavlov should be directly replaced with more liberal and enlightened figures, so as to promote the entire negotiation process, in case these conservatives who are hard-line are unwilling to let the weakened Soviet Union delay the "great plan" of the Soviet Union's rebirth. Gorbachev was originally dissatisfied with the old obstructive and stubborn conservatives, and he clearly forgot that he and Yeltsin were not all the way, and Yeltsin could not completely think about him, so Gorbachev once again did a foolish thing, and he agreed to the suggestion of replacing these conservative top leaders of the CPSU later.

But who did Gorbachev want to rectify, some of the most powerful politicians in the Soviet central government. The secret talks held at the Novo-Ogaryovo dacha had already been monitored by the KGB, and when the conservatives heard that Yeltsin, Gorbachev and others were actually going to work against them, they certainly could not tolerate such provocative moves, and even more so to protect their own power.

For example, in addition to the so-called democratic liberals and traitors, Yeltsin's radicals are either nationalists everywhere, loose and weak, and have only been established for a short time, and they do not have much organizational effectiveness, basically relying on the support of the West and their own propaganda demagogy.

And the list of conservative bigwigs is scary enough: KGB chief Vladimir? Kryuchkov, Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry? Yazov, Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs Boris? Pugo, Soviet Prime Minister Valentin? Pavlov, Soviet Vice President Gennady? Yanayev, Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council Oleg? Bakranov, Gorbachev's head of the secretariat Valery? Poldin and Shenning, a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and so on.

Almost all the high-ranking officials in the cabinet who can be almost named have already boarded the same boat. When Gorbachev was trying to remove some senior conservative officials, the conservative leaders finally couldn't sit still.

Pavlov said anxiously: "Once Gorbachev's order is given, we will be all finished, and it is estimated that there will be no recovery in this life, Yeltsin's white-eyed wolf will turn the Soviet Union into Russia, and those of us who have too strong red colors will even be placed under house arrest and monitored." ”

Kryuchkov said contemptively: "In that case, let's not let them have this opportunity, take us down, and then do things that can only destroy the stability of the country!" ”

Yazov raised his eyebrows and asked: "Vladimir, you mean, we are about to launch?" ”

The KGB had been preparing for a long time to deal with the Soviet Union's emergency situation, which was in fact a "coup guide" aimed at maintaining the Soviet Union and the CPSU while fighting the lawless radicals, and also taught the brainless Goeth a lesson.

Those involved in this small group knew from the day they joined that they might all end up on this dangerous path, staging a coup d'état to remove those who were in the way of the eyes and put the country back on the right track.

However, this is not an easy thing to do, even if these old men are high, they know that because of the decline in living conditions and the propaganda offensive of the West, many Soviets think that the Soviet system and the existence of the Soviet Union are the main culprits for their miserable life, and if they want to protect the Soviet Union, they may oppose the majority of the people, even if the people are deceived.

"It is still possible to opt out at this time, and we respect the choice of any comrade," Kryuchkov said. ”

In fact, there is really a half-lack of courage among these people, but it is useless to dwell on it at this point, and if you don't fight for your life, this life may be so mediocre.

After looking around, Kryuchkov found that no one expressed their willingness to retreat, and then nodded and said: "The loyalty and love of the comrades for the country will be remembered by future generations!" ”

However, everyone knows that the person who carried out the coup d'état may be criticized in the future, and the weapon of public opinion is in the hands of the West, and they do not know what Lu Dao will write about this coup.