Moscow: It was only the name Leningrad which died yesterday. The Kremlin — that shorthand word which has summed up the world’s concept of power in the Soviet Union fer our life-times — also keeled over and sank.
For two generations people inside the “Soviet Union and outside it has thought of this country’s power structure as a triad. We accepted it as an axiom of life. The Kremlin was symbol and reality, metaphor and place. it meant unelected power, exclusive party control, and centralized administration.
All three elements lie in ruins today. The trend which has been gathering pace for the last three years has become unstoppable. It was Mikhail Gorbachev who started it off, but it is Boris Yeltsin and the voters of Russia who finished the job.
His impressive victory in the first presidential poll in Russian history has legitimized the concept of full “democratic” participation in the choice of supreme leader. It has dramatically weakened the role and influence of the communist party, hastening the day when it splits apart. And it has made the transfer of. power from the federal center to the republics _ irreversible. Together they mean that “the Kremlin” is no more: (Hindustan Times, June 15)
