CRISIS IN THE KREMLIN : ‘The World Should Know of What That Group Was Going to Do’

Following are excerpts of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s remarks to Soviet television upon his arrival in Moscow, as translated by Cable News Network and by CBS News:

The world should know of what that group was going to do, of what they demanded of me and what I didn’t give them. . . .

They wanted . . . to push people in a way which would lead the whole society to a catastrophe. This have not succeeded, and this is a great victory for perestroika. . . .

What did they do to the president and his family? For 72 hours, they surrounded him with troops, and they wanted to break his willpower, but they lost.

And here is my respect to the Soviet people, and specifically, to Boris Yeltsin, the president of Russia, and to all labor collectives, to all people who stood up in the way of reaction. This is what we should be proud of. . . .

Those people just used the moment, they used those difficulties, deciding to realize under the pressure their long foreseen plans. . . .

When they sent their emissaries to me, I rejected them completely. I wanted to persuade them not to do it, and I demanded that a congress of Soviet deputies be called immediately. . . .