Crisis of M. S. Gorbachev's perestroika policy in the journals’ assessments of the «third wave» of emigration from the USSR

Abstract

The article is devoted to the period of crisis of the perestroika policy initiated by M. S. Gorbachev. The purpose of the article is to analyze the perception of the socio-economic and political processes of the USSR development in 1990–1991 by representatives of the anti-communist emigration. The source base of the article is materials of the émigré press (journals «Continent», «Strana i Mir», etc.), as well as unpublished sources from the funds of the Archive of the former St. Petersburg Research Center «Memorial». The author comes to the conclusion that the anti-communist emigration, closely following the developments in the USSR, has no illusions about the prospects for democratization in the country. By 1990 the leading émigré periodicals concluded that M. S. Gorbachev's strategy had failed and the country was sliding into chaos and anarchy.