ABSTRACT
The Latvian deputy had succeeded because Mikhail Gorbachev was not presiding over the session at the outset. The Congress rules of procedure, drawn up under his guidance, stated that until the election of the new chairman, the chief of the electoral commission would preside. Other leaders of the Moscow Group followed Andrei Sakharov to the podium. But Gorbachev was not to be swayed by appeals to democracy or even Vladimir Lenin. Gorbachev, against the wishes of most of his advisers, had insisted on a complicated two-tier parliamentary structure. Voters had elected 2,250 deputies to the Congress but it would sit only two weeks a year. Gorbachev joined the standing ovation at the end of his speech. Sakharov was unrepentant, although he admitted he could offer no proof to support his statement. Gorbachev’s puzzlement about criticism of his conduct of the session was genuine. He had known about the plan of the Baltic deputies and let them get away with it.
