Conway’s experts, Part IV

History is in the eye of the beholder – but some journalists behold less than others. In an obituary of the first president of Tajikistan, The Conway Bulletin writes: “He was ousted in August 1991 for supporting the coup by Boris Yeltsin that precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Wow. Every Russian above the age of five (or below it) knows that the August 1991 putsch was led ostensibly by the Soviet vice president at that time, Gennadii Yanaev, with the chiefs of the KGB and the military pulling the real strings. Yeltsin didn’t lead the coup; he led the resistance to it. He clambered atop a tank outside the Parliament building in Moscow, the “White House,” and shouted his defiance for all the world to hear. Within a day or two, the coup evaporated.

I’m afraid that this is what passes for quality Western journalism in Central Asia.  –Leon Taylor, tayloralmaty@gmail.com


Correction

An earlier version of this post said The Conway Bulletin did not run corrections.  In fact, it does publish corrections on occasion.

Good reading

Serhii Plokhy.  The last empire: The final days of the Soviet Union. Basic Books. 2014. There are a lot of good accounts of the August coup, and this is one of them.

Reference

The Conway Bulletin. First president dies. June 10, 2016.