14. The first draft of the treaty was presented to the USSR Supreme Soviet on 23 November 1990. The USSR Supreme Soviet approved it on 3 December. It was submitted to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies in mid-December. "Draft Union Treaty," Pravda, 24 November 1990, p. 3.
15. Six republics boycotted the referendum. Some countered with their own independence polls that dramatized overwhelming popular support for complete disengagement from the union. Moscow's halfhearted attempts to bully nonparticipants into holding the union poll only increased political tensions. Several of the nine republics that did vote, including Russia and Ukraine, added questions designed to demonstrate public backing for republic autonomy.
16. Dmitriy Yazov, "With Your Yes Vote, You Vote For Renewed Union," Krasnaya zvezda, 16 March 1991, p. 1.
17. "Report by USSR Referendum Central Commission. On Results of 17 March 1991 USSR Referendum," Pravda, 27 March 1991, pp. 1-2.
18. TASS, 20 April 1991.
19. "Things are Heating Up All the Time," Sovetskaya rossiya, 20 June 1991, p. 2; Interview with Viktor Alksnis, "Gorbachev's Concepts Have Led Us into Anarchy and Chaos," Der Morgan, 6 May 1991.
20. TASS, 11 April. See also "The Army Will Play First Fiddle," Komsomolskaya pravda, 14 March 1991, p. 3; and Moscow News, No. 6, 10-17 February 1991, p. 7.
21. In a 21 June 1991 interview, Yazov asserted that Alksnis "does not represent the Soviet Army." See Lidove Noviny, 24 June 1991, pp. 1,3.
22. Interview with Deputy Defense Minister Valentin Varennikov, Moscow All-Union Radio Mayak Network, 1200 GMT, 23 March 1991.
23. The letter was also signed by hardliner Prokhanov and future coup conspirator Starodubtsev. "A Word to the People," Sovetskaya rossiya, 23 July 1991, p. 1. See also Interview with Aleksandr Yakovlev in Literaturnaya gazeta, No. 34, 28 August 1991, p. 2. After the failure of the coup, Gromov claimed that he "had no objections in principle" to the idea of an appeal, but had not read the text of it. He saw it, he insisted, only after it was published. Gromov also claimed to have been on vacation on 19 August, when the state of emergency was declared. See Komsomolskaya pravda, 28 August 1991, p. 2.
24. E. Ivanov, "Who Will Be President?" Pravda, 20 May 1991, p. 2.
