Union Of Soviet

Dec. 30 1922 Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1972 The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

Dec. 30 1922 Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1972 The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

These are crazy and fateful days in Moscow. Speculation is rampant that hardliners might try to prevent the Soviet Union's slide to capitalism by staging a desperate military coup. Another sensation is a revelation that unless emergency funds are found, the government -- which already is battling shortages of meat, bread and cigarettes -- will run out of ink needed to print increasingly worthless rubles. Meanwhile, a much-maligned symbol of Western values, "Rambo -- First Blood," is showing to sell-out crowds.

Violetta Boft, 68, ballet mistress of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, and a longtime Russian prima ballerina, died Saturday in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The American-born Boft moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s to study with Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet. For 32 years, she was a prima ballerina of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich Dachenko Lyric Theatre in Moscow. She received the title of a People's Artist of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and several other Soviet artistic awards. She returned to the United States in 1986 to join her family in Columbus, and was hired at BalletMet.

Violetta Boft, 68, ballet mistress of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, and a longtime Russian prima ballerina, died Saturday in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The American-born Boft moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s to study with Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet. For 32 years, she was a prima ballerina of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich Dachenko Lyric Theatre in Moscow. She received the title of a People's Artist of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and several other Soviet artistic awards. She returned to the United States in 1986 to join her family in Columbus, and was hired at BalletMet.

MOSCOW -- The Soviet Congress of People's Deputies risked confrontation with the 15 republics by voting overwhelmingly yesterday for preserving the U.S.S.R. as a socialist country and for holding referendums on the union's future and on private ownership of land.Even President Mikhail S. Gorbachev -- still general secretary of the Communist Party -- previously had proposed substituting "sovereign" for "socialist" in the country's name to stress the republics' rights.Several republics already have dropped "socialist" from their names.

No end seems in sight to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The refusal this week of seven republics to form a new rump union under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's leadership is the kind of bad news that will benefit no one as a bitter winter sets in. It is impossible to think of any meaningful economic or societal overhaul in the former communist empire without determined cooperative efforts in the fields of foreign policy, nuclear armaments and...

MOSCOW -- The Soviet Congress of People's Deputies risked confrontation with the 15 republics by voting overwhelmingly yesterday for preserving the U.S.S.R. as a socialist country and for holding referendums on the union's future and on private ownership of land.Even President Mikhail S. Gorbachev -- still general secretary of the Communist Party -- previously had proposed substituting "sovereign" for "socialist" in the country's name to stress the republics' rights.Several republics already have dropped "socialist" from their names.

MOSCOW -- Will the U.S.S.R. become the U.S.S.S.? Or perhaps the U.E.A.R.?The reformist trend to rename ships, streets and cities yesterday reached the whole of the disillusioned, disintegrating Soviet empire as a number of proposals were floated for new names for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.Three names were mentioned at a session of parliament that saw contentious debate over plans for a union treaty to define a new alliance. Rafik N. Nishanov, deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet, listed the proposals, likely the first of many:* Union of Sovereign Socialist States.

MOSCOW -- Millions of voters cast their ballots yesterday for or against preservation of the Soviet Union in the first referendum in the country's history, but the result seemed likely to fall short of the overwhelming support for a renewed union that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was seeking.Interviews outside polling places and early results suggested that most voters said yes to "the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics."

No end seems in sight to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The refusal this week of seven republics to form a new rump union under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's leadership is the kind of bad news that will benefit no one as a bitter winter sets in. It is impossible to think of any meaningful economic or societal overhaul in the former communist empire without determined cooperative efforts in the fields of foreign policy, nuclear armaments and...

Many Americans naturally assumed that last week's fleeting Soviet coup d'etat was aimed at stopping democracy. But the truth is not so simple.If democracy was what worried the hard-liners, why did the tanks not roll in the spring of 1989, to halt the first free parliamentary elections? Why did they not move in the spring of 1990, when the Communist Party was forced to relinquish its seven-decade-old monopoly on power? The hard-liners were stronger then, the people more wary, and the chances for a coup to succeed far greater than they were shown to be last week.

WASHINGTON -- Move over Soviet Menace, Mother Russia is coming, and we'd better learn to tell the difference.It has not always been easy. For instance, the director of the 1966 film "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" got it dead wrong. In those distant days of Cold War it should, technically, have been "The Soviets Are Coming."Today, however, he would be right. The Russians are coming. They are coming more and more to the forefront of both national affairs and international relationships.

MOSCOW -- Millions of voters cast their ballots yesterday for or against preservation of the Soviet Union in the first referendum in the country's history, but the result seemed likely to fall short of the overwhelming support for a renewed union that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was seeking.Interviews outside polling places and early results suggested that most voters said yes to "the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics."

MOSCOW -- The Soviet Congress of People's Deputies risked confrontation with the 15 republics by voting overwhelmingly yesterday for preserving the U.S.S.R. as a socialist country and for holding referendums on the union's future and on private ownership of land.Even President Mikhail S. Gorbachev -- still general secretary of the Communist Party -- previously had proposed substituting "sovereign" for "socialist" in the country's name to stress the republics' rights.Several republics already have dropped "socialist" from their names.

MOSCOW -- The Soviet Congress of People's Deputies risked confrontation with the 15 republics by voting overwhelmingly yesterday for preserving the U.S.S.R. as a socialist country and for holding referendums on the union's future and on private ownership of land.Even President Mikhail S. Gorbachev -- still general secretary of the Communist Party -- previously had proposed substituting "sovereign" for "socialist" in the country's name to stress the republics' rights.Several republics already have dropped "socialist" from their names.

WASHINGTON -- Move over Soviet Menace, Mother Russia is coming, and we'd better learn to tell the difference.It has not always been easy. For instance, the director of the 1966 film "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" got it dead wrong. In those distant days of Cold War it should, technically, have been "The Soviets Are Coming."Today, however, he would be right. The Russians are coming. They are coming more and more to the forefront of both national affairs and international relationships.

MOSCOW -- Shaken by what they saw in a two-week break in their home districts, Soviet parliamentarians said yesterday that the country is on the brink of famine, political anarchy and civil disorder. They canceled their agenda and called a crisis session for tomorrow to be addressed by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.The atmosphere of alarm in the Supreme Soviet reflected the feeling on the streets, with a number of developments contributing to the sense of uncertainty:* Without warning, the Soviet government ordered prices freed, beginning today, on so-called luxury goods, including carpets, electronics, furniture and automobile parts.

MOSCOW -- Shaken by what they saw in a two-week break in their home districts, Soviet parliamentarians said yesterday that the country is on the brink of famine, political anarchy and civil disorder. They canceled their agenda and called a crisis session for tomorrow to be addressed by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.The atmosphere of alarm in the Supreme Soviet reflected the feeling on the streets, with a number of developments contributing to the sense of uncertainty:* Without warning, the Soviet government ordered prices freed, beginning today, on so-called luxury goods, including carpets, electronics, furniture and automobile parts.

MOSCOW -- Will the U.S.S.R. become the U.S.S.S.? Or perhaps the U.E.A.R.?The reformist trend to rename ships, streets and cities yesterday reached the whole of the disillusioned, disintegrating Soviet empire as a number of proposals were floated for new names for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.Three names were mentioned at a session of parliament that saw contentious debate over plans for a union treaty to define a new alliance. Rafik N. Nishanov, deputy chairman of the Supreme Soviet, listed the proposals, likely the first of many:* Union of Sovereign Socialist States.