ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev's return to power helped to channel the surging masses and convince those who were occupying the streets to go home. Gorbachev was forced to- accept the dissolution of the Congress of People's Deputies, the federal parliament he had worked so hard to establish and see elected in 1989. Future historians who analyze Gorbachev's strengths and weaknesses will undoubtedly see him as the true founder of the new Russian parliamentary system. After the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR adjourned on September 5, Gorbachev and the leaders of the republics managed to agree to resume negotiations on the Union Treaty. Valery Boldin's betrayal must have wounded Gorbachev even more deeply than Anatoly Lukyanov's. Boldin followed Gorbachev throughout his rise to the highest echelons of power, assuming a position equivalent to that of a cabinet leader in the West.
