Christmas Day 20 years ago: Soviet Union dies

Latvian Popular Front Leader Mavricks
Vulfsons. Signs say "Freedom" and "1940--
Year of Stalinist Occupation Regime,"

Here's one funeral I was glad to see. On this day twenty years ago, Christmas Day in most of Christendom, the Soviet Union died when its last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned his post--although there was not really anyone around to accept it.

But the USSR's successor state, the Russian Federation, is run by someone who might have ended up running the Evil Empire had it not collapsed--Vladimir Putin. Yesterday thousands marched in Moscow demanding free elections.

Also yesterday, Gorbachev called on Putin to resign--just as he did twenty years ago.

Mrs. Marathon Pundit was born in the Soviet Union, in Latvia.

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