ABSTRACT
According to the received wisdom, during 1989-91 the democratic majority in the Soviet Union defeated the party-state elite. By their victory they abolished the state socialist system and initiated the attempt to build a capitalist system. On one side was the old elite, fighting to maintain its privileges by trying to save the system upon which those privileges were based. On the other side was the majority of the people who, having come to loathe the old system, threw their support to the political opposition, led by Boris Yeltsin. The opposition won the elections and stared down the tanks of the old regime, finally achieving their goal at the end of 1991.
