An unusual atmosphere spreads through the streets of Vilnius, where a fire of agitation spreads from the hearts of the people and grows in contact with each other, where old resentments and discontents are accumulating, and the great feelings seem to need an outlet only to be discharged.

There were no goods in the shops, social welfare policies were not implemented, and the three Baltic countries had a very different background from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania, and the latter three countries received strong support from China, especially in financial credit and the export of consumer goods, especially Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, because they did not experience the kind of conflict changes in Romania, and under the direct support of China's semi-instructed or semi-controlled support, almost some regions reversed the decline in a year.

Economists and industry experts from China have helped these countries to adjust their industrial economies, large amounts of renminbi investment have revitalized some enterprises, substantial tariff reductions have made the local consumer market more prosperous, and China's more flexible socialist market economy has also caused some nimble people to go to sea to engage in industrial and commercial activities.

Lithuania, on the other hand, was not so lucky, and even hoped to join the liberal and democratic capitalist camp, while looking down on Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other countries that still retained the socialist system. It's just that the countries they aspire to will not provide them with economic support and assistance on a large scale like China.

Although Lithuania had declared its independence in the nineties, no one had yet recognized this independence, and in fact the Lithuanian government was still a Soviet government, and there were no drastic changes in the system. In the face of economic difficulties and instigated by Western fighters and nationalists of their own country, the inhabitants of Vilnius finally began to take to the streets, with factory strikes, school strikes, and demonstrations. However, this demonstration soon turned into large-scale riots, the whole of Vilnius order collapsed, and the anti-Soviet and outright independence tendencies became more pronounced.

Moscow, Gorbachev, who was frequently challenged by Yeltsin, was even in a mess, and he really wanted to control this separatist force in Lithuania, but he was even more worried that the top level of the CPSU would be hollowed out by the forces led by Yeltsin, and if Russia completely became independent from the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union would basically be finished.

But Lithuania really can't leave this matter alone, and no one knows whether Lithuania, which has already declared independence once, will really strengthen its determination this time, promulgate a new constitution like this, and then completely break away from the Union, and even the skin of the Soviets.

Military hardliners and Defense Minister General Yazov specially summoned relevant personnel to give Gorbachev a special briefing on the situation in Lithuania and pointed out the dangerous consequences that could arise if left unchecked. However, Gorbachev had no intention of listening carefully to these contents, but waved his hand and said to Yazov: "I believe in the military's ability to handle the situation, you can try it, and just report the results to me." ”

Yazov was stunned when he heard this, he was promoted by Gorbachev, and it was Gorbachev who fell in love with him at a glance when he inspected back then, so he was able to climb so fast. But Gorbachev's character weaknesses have long been figured out, this person is a typical ambitious and talented, and indecisive, very uncommitted, this matter is done well, it is nothing, if it is done badly, eighty percent of their military will be pushed out as a scapegoat.

The Soviet Union's handling of the rebellion and riots of this kind of union republic has always been lacking in retrospective and rough carelessness, and their favorite thing is to directly send airborne troops and transport aviation, and then occupy local TV stations and other facilities, and then clear the field, so many people in later generations jokingly said that the cornerstone of the Soviet Union's maintenance of local rule is the airborne troops + transport aviation.

The crackdown on Vilnius soon began, and on 11 January, Soviet troops appeared on the streets of Vilnius, and paratroopers occupied the building of the Lithuanian Territorial Security Service, cutting off the ability of the Lithuanian official armed forces to resist. Immediately, the press building was also occupied, which was also the old routine of the Soviets to suppress the locality. On the 12th, after the airborne troops, they rushed to the tank unit and swaggered into the city, they did not realize that their actions would be concentrated in the spotlight, even if the Soviet troops were relatively peaceful, they did not shoot or anything, but that kind of bullying, when those news photos showed Soviet tanks driving on the main road, and angry Lithuanians confronted Soviet soldiers, people would only admire the courage of these Vilnius, and would not think that the Soviet troops were restrained. The disgust for the Soviet army naturally soared.

This disgust is not only among Lithuanians and Westerners, but even among the Soviet media, which has been completely disgraced by Gorbachev, and at the end of the argument naturally leads to a collateral negative effect.

At 1:30 a.m. on the 13th, 10 tanks surrounded the Lithuanian television building, which was forcibly occupied by the KGB special forces, and the Soviets did not cause casualties during the capture. A few hours earlier, Lithuanian radio had already broadcast the news: Moscow had begun an attack on the sovereign Republic of Lithuania.

However, the fact that the Soviet Army and the KGB did not want to hurt people does not mean that some people do not want to. During the storming of the television building that night, a group of Lithuanian ultra-nationalist militants opened fire on the television building and opened fire on the crowd below, killing 14 people, and the ensuing chaos also led to the death of a special soldier of the KGB security forces, resulting in a total of 15 deaths.

The bloodshed immediately ignited people's anger and dissatisfaction with the Soviet Union, and even became an important pretext for the radicals led by Yeltsin to attack Gorbachev. Yeltsin strongly condemned Gorbachev's dispatch of troops to suppress the Lithuanian people, denouncing it as violent, bloody and anti-democratic, and those involved must be held accountable and punished.

In the end, the Vilnius incident turned out to be as Yazov expected, and after the chaos, the map head did not have the courage to take responsibility for his subordinates, but he was still trying his best to absolve himself of responsibility, emphasizing that the orders were not given by himself, but that the local and military leaders were too arbitrary and rude, and used the wrong way.

Gorbachev did not realize that the more he said this, the more he would disappoint the officials and members of the military who were working for Gorbachev, but in the end they could only be treated as scapegoats when things went wrong, and Gorbachev who gave the order was like a nobody. This is not the first time, after the Vilnius incident, the Soviet military began to become more alienated from Gorbachev.

At this time, the most laughable scene appeared, an anti-separatist suppression, it stands to reason that the Russians should be more tolerant of this, after all, it is to maintain the Soviet Union, and the main body of the Soviet Union is the Russians. However, after the bloodshed broke out in Vilnius, more than 100,000 people in Moscow took to the streets and began to raise anti-CPSU and anti-Goshi slogans.

Yeltsin, of course, made a lot of efforts in this, and even the main organizers of these demonstrations were his party members, with the aim of creating an atmosphere in which Gorbachev was already angry and unpopular, and preparing for his own policies and the destruction of the Soviet Union.

On 9 February, Lithuania held a referendum in which 90% of its citizens supported the country's independence. On March 3, Estonia and Latvia also held referendums, a smaller proportion than Lithuania, but also a majority, choosing independence from the Soviet Union.

The internal and external troubles facing the Soviet Union have become even more obvious!

Outside the Kremlin, which has become like in the West, there are crowds of demonstrators everywhere, and the crowd is naturally divided into two factions, one group supports Yeltsin, and they shout: "Yeltsin is right!" Gorbachev was wrong! ”

And Gorbachev's supporters shouted the slogan: "Trial of Yeltsin's gang!" People's Deputies, this is your Stalingrad! ”

At this time, Gorbachev did another stupid thing, his party group clearly occupied the propaganda channels of the Soviet Union, but instead of making good use of these channels, Yeltsin was beaten upside down.

In mid-February, Yeltsin asked Soviet television to give him an hour to speak. Gorbachev wavered, he said to the head of the TV station: "Just give Yeltsin 20 minutes on Channel 2." ”

On the 19th, Yeltsin finally appeared in a TV interview, at this time he had transformed from a CP man to a politician similar to the West, speaking hard and straightforward, and was very popular with some Soviets and Russians who were dissatisfied with the status quo.

In the interview, Yeltsin first said a lot of innocuous things, and just when the TV producers were bored that he had not broken any big news, suddenly Yeltsin changed his tone and bombarded Gorbachev's autocracy a few minutes after the show, saying that he had betrayed the people and explicitly demanded that he step down.

In fact, there have been voices calling for Gorbachev to step down, but Yeltsin's words have had a huge impact and repercussions when this point is raised in such an open and effective setting. Even some, after reflection, strongly echoed Yeltsin, believing that Gorbachev had brought chaos and should be responsible for stepping down. At this time, Gorbachev cowardly chose to remain silent, and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution condemning Yeltsin's statement.

Goe, who imitated the Western model, finally suffered, and the system he built was eating him back. At a plenum of the Central Committee held at the end of April, several local party secretaries spoke out against Goe's reforms, saying they had brought chaos. Gorbachev lost control of his emotions and offered to resign, and after saying that, he didn't care about anyone else, so he returned to his office.

The plenary session of the Central Committee was interrupted for more than two hours, and the members of the Central Committee did not know what to do for a while, so they only divided into small groups to discuss the current situation. Since the CPSU was already in vain, and there was no candidate to succeed Gorbachev, ****** announced that for the sake of the party's supreme interests, he implored the general secretary to withdraw his mandate. Gorbachev promised to remain in the post of General Secretary of the CPSU for the same reason "in the highest interests of the party." However, as soon as this farce came to an end, many members of the CPSU were extremely disappointed and disgusted with Goe, and they did not believe that he could lead the Soviet Union.

Opinion polls show that a year ago, Gorbachev's approval rating had remained at 6 or 70 percent, but by the first quarter of 1991 his approval rating had continued to fall to only about 10 percent.