Moscow, December 25, 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union Stephen Orgel and even that most capricious

and even that most capricious of animals

if necessary

the answer lies in answering ten powerful

Linda Liang

Moscow, December 25, 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union Stephen Orgel and even that most capriciousThe implosion of the Soviet Union was the culmination of a gripping game played out between two men who intensely disliked each other and had different concepts for the future. Mikhail Gorbachev, a sophisticated and urbane reformer, sought to modernize and preserve the USSR; Boris Yeltsin, a coarse and hard drinking bulldozer, wished to destroy the union and create a capitalist Russia. The defeat of the August 1991 coup attempt, carried out by