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POST-SOVIET RUSSIA
The Yeltsin Presidency, 1991-9
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) legally ceased to exist on December 31,1991. The Russian republic, renamed the Russian Federation, embarked on the road to democracy and a market economy with no clcar conception of how such a transformation would be completed.
Political and Social Changes
Yeltsin's popularity had surged after the key role he played in defeating the attempted coup against Gorbachev in 1991, when the world saw him on television in an unforgettable image, standing atop a tank and calling on the people to defy the plotters. A skilful politician, he was first elected president of the Russian republic in 1991, soon before the formal end of the USSR, and he was re-elected in 1996. Yet his first priority was to preserve his own power and authority. He managed
BORIS YELTSIN ((931-2007)
Russian politician and president of Russia (1990—9)
After attending the Urals Polytechnic Institute, Yeltsin worked at construction projects in western Russia (I 95568). He became Communist Party leader in Sverdlovsk in 1976, and he was an ally of Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev later charged Yeltsin with eliminating corruption in the Moscow party organization, and as first secretary (mayor) of Moscow (1985-7) he proved a determined reformer. His criticism of the slow pace of reform led to a break with Gorbachev, and Yeltsin lost his position. In 1989 he was elected to the new Soviet parliament by a landslide, then became president of the Russian Republic (1990) and resigned from the Communist Party. In 1991 he won the presidency again in the first popular election in Russian history.
When communist hardliners staged a coup against Gorbachev, Yeltsin successfully opposed it, facing down its leaders with a dramatic outdoor speech in Moscow, He led the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (1991) and began to transform Russia's economy into one based on free markets and private enterprise. Hardliners staged an unsuccessful coup against Yeltsin in 1993. When Chechnya unilaterally declared independence, Yeltsin sent troops to fight the rebels (1994). The Chechnya situation and Russia's deepening economic distress lessened his popularity, but he won re-election over a Communist Party challenger in 1996. After suffering a heart attack, he spent several months recovering. Continuing poor health led to his resignation on December 31, 1999. He was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.
both the government and the bureaucracy with a divide-and- rule strategy that encouraged the various factions to compete for influence. Yeltsin also frequently changed his ministers and prime ministers, leading to abrupt changes in policy. Professing to believe that the president should remain above party politics, he declined to establish his own political party or to align himself openly with any party or coalition. But he remained at the heart of the political process, enjoying his favourite role of power broker until his resignation in 1999.
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation continued to be governed under its Soviet-era constitution. The office of president had been added to the constitution of the Russian Soviet republic in 1991. However, the constitution did not clearly give supreme power to either the legislative or the executive branch, leading to constitutional conflicts between the two. The breach was exacerbated by personality clashes between Yeltsin and the parliamentary leadership, and by the government's preoccupation with financial stabilization and economic reform, apparently heedless of the social needs of the public. Complicating Yeltsin's difficulties was the fact that many members of the Congress of People's Deputies had vested interests in the economic and political structure of the communist era. The leader of the parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, and Yeltsin both sought support from regional elites by promising subsidies and greater local control. Their struggle reached a climax in March 1993, when Yeltsin was stripped of the decree-making powers that he had been granted after the attempted coup of August 1991.
Yeltsin was not prepared to accept total defeat. He announced that a referendum would he held on April 25, 1993, over who "really ruled" Russia. He also ruled that any acts passed by parliament that contradicted presidential decrees would be null and void. But Yeltsin's ministers, including Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, only half-heartedly supported this move, and Yeltsin eventually had to back down. Nonetheless, it was agreed that a referendum would be held. Four questions, drafted by the Congress to maximize Yeltsin's embarrassment, were put to the Russian people: (1) Do you trust the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin? (2) Do you approve of the socioeconomic policies implemented by the President of the Russian Federation and the government of the Russian Federation since 1992? (3) Do you consider it essential to hold pre-term elections for the presidency of the Russian Federation? and (4) Do you consider it essential to hold pre-term elections for the People's Deputies of the Russian Federation? The Constitutional Court ruled that the first two questions were non- binding and that the latter two needed the backing of at least half of all eligible voters (and not just half of the actual ballots cast). With Yeltsin's camp using the slogan "Da, da, nyet, da" ("Yes, yes, no, yes"), the result was a victory for Yeltsin. However, as only 43 per cent of eligible voters backed early parliamentary elections, Yeltsin was forced to continue his uneasy relationship with the Congress.
In the summer of 1993 both Yeltsin and the parliament drafted versions of a new post-Soviet constitution. Inevitably, the drafts were incompatible, bur an increasing number of regional leaders supported the Congress's version. In September 1993 Yeltsin issued a series of presidential decrees that dissolved the parliament and imposed presidential rule until after elections to a new parliament and a referendum on a new draft constitution were held in December. The parliament declared Yeltsin's decree illegal, impeached him, and swore
VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN (b. 1938)
Prime minister of Russia (1992-8)
Born in Cherny-Otrog in 1938, Viktor Chernomyrdin, who joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961, acquired extensive experience as an industrial administrator, having served as deputy chief engineer and director of a natural gas plant in Orenburg in the 1970s. He went to Moscow in 1978 to work for the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in 1982 he was appointed deputy minister of the Soviet natural-gas industry. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev promoted him to serve as minister of the gas industry. In this post in 1989 Chernomyrdin converted the Ministry of Gas into a state-owned corporate complex called Gazprom, which was one of the few profitable large-scale enterprises in the declining Soviet economy. He remained chairman of the board of Gazprom during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Russian Federation in 1991. In June 1992 he became a deputy prime minister and minister of fuel and energy in the reformist government of the Russian acting prime minister, Yegor Gaidar. When Russia's Congress of People's Deputies refused to confirm the liberal Gaidar as prime minister, Yeltsin replaced him with Chernomyrdin on December 14, 1992, As a long-time Soviet administrator, Chernomyrdin was more acceptable to the Congress, which confirmed his nomination.