Soviet forces intervened in the newly independent Baltic republics by seizing key buildings and installations. The crackdown caused deaths and provoked an international outcry. On Jan. 7, the USSR Defense Ministry ordered paratroopers into Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as into Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and parts of Ukraine under the excuse of enforcing conscription. On Jan. 10, President Gorbachev ordered the restoration of the Soviet constitution in Lithuania. On Jan. 31, Iceland became the first country to recognize Lithuania as an independent state.
A presidential decree outlawed 50- and 100-ruble banknotes (the highest denominations). The decree was intended to wipe out the illegal cash holding of black marketeers, who supposedly had been draining 20 percent of the money supply. On Feb. 12 Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov announced that the January withdrawal of the notes was the result of a Western plot to flood the Soviet economy and create artificial hyperinflation.
In a TV broadcast, Russian Federation leader Boris Yeltsin launched a personal attack on Gorbachev and demanded his immediate resignation. He accused Gorbachev of bringing the country to dictatorship and “absolute personal power.” The Gorbachev-Yeltsin rivalry continued with Yeltsin campaigning for a “no” vote in the all-union referendum and Gorbachev working for a “yes,” to “preserve the integrity of the state which is a thousand years old.”
The all-union referendum on the preservation of the Soviet Union took place, and 76.4 percent of the voters voted “yes” according to the official report. Six republics (Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova) refused to participate in the referendum.
President Gorbachev signed a pact with 9 of the 15 union republics (the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Ukraine, and Uzbekistan). The pact gave broad support to the central government's proposed measures to stabilize the economy, including a clampdown on political strikes.
In a poll, the people of Leningrad voted (55 percent to 43 percent) to change the name of the city to St. Petersburg. It had been called St. Petersburg in 1703, after Peter the Great, and in 1924 had been renamed in honor of Lenin.
The Supreme Soviet passed a bill on the basic principles of destatization (transfer of state assets to joint stock companies) and privatization (the sale of shares to private individuals) of enterprises. The law envisaged denationalization of 40 to 50 percent of state assets by the end of 1992 and of 60 to 70 percent by 1995.
