"The policy of reforms, launched at Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s initiative and designed as a means to insure the country’s dynamic development and the democratization of social life has entered for several reasons a blind alley. Lack of faith, apathy, and despair have replaced the original enthusiasm and hopes. Authorities at all levels have lost the population’s trust. Politicking has replaced in public life concern for the fate of the Motherland and the citizen. Malicious outrage against all state institutions is being imposed. The country has in fact become ungovernable. Having taken advantage of the granted liberties and encroaching upon the first sprouts of democracy, there have emerged extremist forces that have embarked on the course toward liquidating the Soviet Union, ruining the state, and seizing power at any cost. The results of the nationwide referendum on the Motherland’s unity have been trampled upon. Cynical speculations on national feelings are merely a smoke screen to satisfy ambitions. Neither today’s misfortunes of their peoples, nor their tomorrow, worry political adventurists. In creating an atmosphere of moral and political terror and seeking to hide behind the shield of popular trust, they forget that the relations they condemn and disrupt were established on the basis of far broader popular support, which, besides, has passed the centuries-long test of history."