'It Could Have Gone Badly'.(Georgian political leader Mikhail Saakashvili on his country's future)(Interview)

Georgia's recent "rose revolution" was the latest inspiring (it helps being televised) episode of pure people's democracy breaking out. On Nov. 23 the bloodless revolt toppled President Eduard Shevardnadze, 75, long acclaimed in the West for his pivotal role, as Gorbachev's foreign minister, in dissolving the Soviet Empire peacefully. The luster of that service had long ago turned bitter in his native land, where he has been the dominant figure since 1972. Electoral fraud in Nov. 2 parliamentary elections ignited the street protests against his rule, which were masterfully fanned by Mikhail Saakashvili, a 35-year-old U.S.-educated lawyer turned populist politician. Saakashvili is widely tipped to become the country's next president in Jan. 4 elections. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Ken Stier about the remarkable weekend events and how his country's new beginning was never a certainty--and how fragile it still is. Excerpts:

STIER: Before you stormed the Parliament, how clear a plan did you have?

SAAKASHVILI: I did not have a precise plan [but] we knew we had to somehow enter Parliament to kick them out. Definitely, we were afraid all the way through. If they had seen our fear, they would have gotten really nasty, really aggressive.

It seemed to go so smoothly. But was it really that perfect?

To the superficial observer, it looked like a music festival, but it was not. It was very close to violence. It could have gone very, very badly. When we went into the Parliament, there were a lot of armed people there, and when we entered the square in front of Parliament, there were a lot of arms, busloads of weapons with the Adjarians [mostly police from the breakaway region of Adjara]. Shevardnadze declared a state of emergency, and [security forces later] said they had orders to kill me. But the troops and the police did not want to protect Shevardnadze. We were feeding them for 10 days before, because they were not paid salaries and didn't get any food from the government. Nobody was willing to shoot, even the Adjarians.

What was the role of Russia and the United States in nudging Shevardnadze out?

Basically, Colin Powell refused to back [Shevardnadze] in his state of emergency. He said the state of emergency would be dangerous, it risked force and that force should not be used against peaceful demonstrators. Then the first thing [Russian Foreign ...