Chapter 25 Summary

In December 1990, Eduard Shevardnadze resigns as foreign minister. For the Lithuanian independence movement, Shevardnadze's resignation is a disaster. Shevardnadze is the only Soviet leader they can trust. In his resignation speech, Shevardnadze warns a dictatorship is coming. Shevardnadze's resignation coincides with several bombings on war memorials and monuments in Lithuania, orchestrated to appear as the work of the Baltic independence movement. During this time, newspapers assume a more important role in the Soviet Union, becoming a vital information source for the Soviet people. No longer controlled by the state, there is now a paper for every ideological view. A new newspaper, Nezavisimay Gazeta, is launched by Vitaly Tretyakov, the former deputy editor of Moscow News. Tretyakov says he wants to start "the first western-style, respectable, objective paper in the Soviet era." The newspaper is staffed by young, fearless reporters, who excel at investigative...