Gorbachev Reportedly Pens Book on Coup

NEW YORK —  In a new book, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev reportedly writes that he’s still committed to “the socialist idea” and explains events leading up to August’s failed coup.

The New York Times reported today that it obtained a copy, marked “confidential,” of the manuscript of “The August Coup,” a 74-page Gorbachev memoir to be published by HarperCollins.

“I’m convinced that the discrediting of socialism in the eyes of the masses is a passing phase,” it quotes him as saying.

Gorbachev also writes that the true ideal of the October revolution was lost through “the forcible introduction of the Stalinist model of society. One must not confuse the two things.”

Concerning the coup attempt, Gorbachev says his strategy of trying to accommodate the hard-liners who eventually tried to overthrow him “will haunt me to the end of my life.”