The collapse of the Soviets union
The Second Red Collapse (1981–1985)
I. The Rise of Oleg Milan (1979–1981)
After the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1979, the Central Committee of the CPSU elected Oleg Milan as the new General Secretary—a moderate reformist, technocrat, and protégé of Andropov. Milan promoted a vision of “renewed socialism,” inspired by Dubček’s 1968 model, advocating for political openness, greater economic decentralization, the legalization of small cooperative businesses, and tolerance of limited ideological dissent.
This decree sent shockwaves through the military high command, the KGB, and hardliner sectors of the CPSU. For them, the reforms evoked the failures of Hungary in 1956 and Prague in 1968.
II. The Coup of August 19, 1981
Supreme Commander of the Soviet Army, Artemy Sergel—a WWII veteran and Politburo member—viewed Milan’s reforms as a betrayal of Marxist-Leninist legacy and the 1945 Soviet victory. Sergel allied with Air Force Marshal Ivan Pleshkov and KGB hardliners led by Valery Kryuchkov, nephew of Vladimir Kryuchkov.
At dawn on August 19, 1981, KGB Alpha Group stormed the Kremlin. Milan was arrested on charges of treason and collaboration with Western powers. State television announced that the Politburo had declared a national emergency to “save the Union from total collapse.”
III. Shadow War: Resistance and Purge (1981–1983)
Resistance did not erupt immediately, but in republics like Lithuania, Ukraine, and Georgia, Milan’s allies organized massive protests and worker strikes demanding his release and a return to reform. The Party fractured: a significant portion of the Communist Youth (Komsomol), urban technocrats, and academics defended Milan. The underground Socialist Renewal Front was formed.
The new Sergel regime, calling itself the Government for the Restoration of the Soviet Spirit, outlawed all dissent. Thousands of reformists were arrested, disappeared, or sent to reactivated labor camps in Siberia. Stalinist symbols were restored and total repression imposed. The gulags began to function openly once again.
IV. The New Ideological Order (1983–1985)
As economic chaos and international pressure grew (with the U.S. imposing a full embargo), Sergel sought stabilization by aligning with Russian ultranationalist groups, radical Stalinists, and national-Bolsheviks. Among them stood out Yuri Dugin, an underground intellectual who preached a fusion of Bolshevism and Slavic chauvinism, advocating for a “Third Red Rome.”
This coalition developed a new ideological framework: “Restorationist National Communism,” claiming that internationalism had weakened the USSR and that only a Russian-ethnic socialism, led by a single Party and guided by a mystique of order, could save Soviet civilization.
In 1984, Sergel convened the Soviet National Unity Congress, where the new political system was proclaimed as the Union of National Soviets (UNS), with a constitution replacing classical Marxism with a nationalist-collectivist ideology. The CPSU was merged with the Russian National Front to form the Soviet Patriotic Party, a one-party authoritarian structure with a strong cult of State and Army.
V. Consequences
- Non-Russian republics such as the Baltics, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine experienced armed uprisings and sabotage, brutally repressed.
- In 1985, Oleg Milan died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic labor camp. His name became a clandestine symbol of liberty.
- The USSR continued to exist but had transformed into a militarized, isolated, and ultra-ideological state, resembling North Korea more than the original Soviet Union.
- The Eastern Bloc fractured: Czechoslovakia and Hungary distanced themselves, while Bulgaria and Romania aligned with the new regime.
- China, alarmed by the Soviet radicalization, broke off relations in 1986 and moved closer to the West.