The aggravation of interethnic relations in the USSR and the collapse of the Soviet power on the pages of the Russian emigrant press in the United States (1986-1991)
The article studies the attitudes of Russian expat community in the USA towards interethnic processes in the USSR and the role of Soviet political leadership in 1986-1991. Based on the analysis of some emigrant publications of various political overtones (newspapers “Russkaya zhizn”, “Novoe russkoe slovo”, “Russkiy golos”, a magazine “Soglasie”), there is a conclusion that relating to perestroika processes started changing the image of Russia in anticommunist as well as pro-Soviet groups of Russian expat community in the USA. Two periods can be distinguished in the evolution of opinions. In 1986-1989, the Russian press in the USA reflected mainly two polar viewpoints. Anticommunist publications examined contradictory national policy of the USSR through guidelines of “the cold war” concentrating on negative sides of this policy and blaming the government in Russification. Waiting from M.S. Gorbachev for certain radical steps, the editions criticized him for piecemeal reforms. The pro-Soviet press (newspaper “Russkiy golos”), on the contrary, supporting the political course of the USSR, approved reformative initiatives of M.S. Gorbachev by avoiding negative standpoints on the activity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and suppressing interethnic issues. A revulsion of mood happened in 1990 when the processes of the republics’ sovereignization occurred. In 1990-1991, anticommunist and pro-Soviet editions uniteddue to the concern about the collapse of the USSR regarding it as a security threat to Russia and its territorial integrity. But in general, the emigrant press estimated positively the breakdown of the Soviet political system and hoped for the creation of a new democratic economically powerful Russian state predicting revival of the union federation with new conditions.