Yeltsin

by Timothy J. Colton

  CHAPTER FIVE

  1 Boris Yel’tsin, Ispoved’ na zadannuyu temu (Confession on an assigned theme) (Moscow: PIK, 1990), 67–69.

  2 Yakov Ryabov, Moi XX vek: zapiski byvshego sekretarya TsK KPSS (My 20th century: notes of a former secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU) (Moscow: Russkii biograficheskii institut, 2000), 37–38. Ryabov mentions Yeltsin fielding suggestions to become secretary of the party obkom of Kostroma province and, in Moscow, deputy head of Gosstroi, the State Construction Committee. The second organization is where Yeltsin was to be sent after his break with Gorbachev in 1987.

  3 Interview with Yakov Ryabov, Central Committee Interview Project, University of Glasgow (transcript supplied by Stephen White).

  4 Calculated from lists at http://www.worldstatesmen.org/RussSFSR_admin.html. We have only years of birth, not exact dates, for most of the secretaries. Five of the 1976 first secretaries had been born in 1931, the same year as Yeltsin.

  5 “Vstrecha v VKSh, 12 noyabrya 1988 goda s 14 do 18 chasov” (Meeting in the Higher Komsomol School, November 12, 1988, from 2:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M.), in RGANI (Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Moscow) (microform in Harvard College Library), fund 89, register 8, file 29, 41. Yeltsin said in this presentation that the two met twice, but it was unclear whether that was twice overall or twice during Andropov’s general secretaryship. My suspicion is that it was the former. Assuming they conferred after the anthrax incident in 1979, they likely had one meeting while Andropov was Soviet leader.

  6 Ye. K. Ligachëv, Predosterezheniye (Warning) (Moscow: Pravda International, 1998), 410.

  7 Arkadii Vol’skii, interview with the author (June 13, 2000); Ligachëv, Predosterezheniye, 410.

  8 Mikhail Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy (Life and reforms), 2 vols. (Moscow: Novosti, 1995), 1:291–92. As he often does, Gorbachev imputes to third parties the gossip about Yeltsin drinking, in this case “the observation” that he left a Supreme Soviet session on somebody’s arm. “Many people were upset—what was it? Well-wishers offered assurances that nothing special had occurred, it was just a little rise in his blood pressure. But [Sverdlovsk] natives smirked: This happens with our first secretary; sometimes he overdoes it a bit.”

  9 Aleksandr Budberg, “Proigravshii pobeditel’: Mikhailu Gorbachevu—75” (Losing victor: Mikhail Gorbachev at 75), Moskovskii komsomolets, March 3, 2006.

  10 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 67. While Yeltsin says he took “one or two seconds” to say no to Dolgikh, he also relates that he barely slept a wink that night and expected to hear from someone else shortly.

  11 Tatyana Yumasheva, first interview with the author (July 15, 2001). When Tatyana first moved to Moscow in 1977, the only family friend her parents had there was one female classmate from UPI, who lived in a communal apartment. Boris Yel’tsin, Prezidentskii marafon (Presidential marathon) (Moscow: AST, 2000), 337.

  12 Yeltsin’s favorite folk song was “Ural’skaya ryabinushka” (Urals Mountain Ash). In his third book of memoirs (Marafon, 183), Yeltsin mentioned his preference as a young man for the lilting compositions of Isaak Dunayevskii (1900–55), Mark Fradkin (1914–90), who was mainly a writer of movie scores, and the much decorated Aleksandra Pakhmutova (1929–), who was said to be Leonid Brezhnev’s favorite songwriter. The English translation of Yeltsin’s memoir, perhaps trying to make him look hipper, drops Pakhmutova from the listing and adds guitar-strumming troubadours Bulat Okudzhava (1924–97) and Yurii Vizbor (1934–84).

  13 See Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 56–58. Vitalii Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka” (Sverdlovsk upstart), part 3, Politicheskii klass, April 2006, 87, points out a “comradely” tradition in the Politburo of addressing one another as ty. Yeltsin was not aware of it and never ascribed this tendency to any member of the inner elite other than Gorbachev.

  14 Grigorii Kaëta, a member of the bureau at the time, interview with the author (September 9, 2004).

  15 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 71.

  16 Ryabov, Moi XX vek, 56.

  17 The city of Tomsk is 1,100 miles east of Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) and, like it, was closed to foreigners until 1990. This was because of secrecy surrounding the Tomsk-7 chemical combine, the USSR’s largest complex for producing weaponsgrade plutonium.

  18 Viktor Manyukhin, Pryzhok nazad: o Yel’tsine i o drugikh (Backward leap: about Yeltsin and others) (Yekaterinburg: Pakrus, 2002), 54–56.

  19 Kaëta interview.

  20 Pilar Bonet, “Nevozmozhnaya Rossiya: Boris Yel’tsin, provintsial v Kremle” (The impossible Russia: Boris Yeltsin, a provincial in the Kremlin), Ural, April 1994, 105–6.

  21 Stanislav Alekseyev, a party propagandist in Sverdlovsk at the time, interview with the author (June 24, 2004).

  22 Manyukhin, Yeltsin’s last second secretary in Sverdlovsk, says (Pryzhok, 56) that Ligachëv at some point told Yeltsin he was going to be made a Central Committee secretary, and that Gorbachev forced the appointment to be made at the department level.

  23 Gorbachev writes in Zhizn’ i reformy, 1:292, that, when the Politburo resolution appointing Yeltsin to the construction department was being drafted, the two had “a short conversation” in his office. “It has not stuck in my memory,” he adds snootily.

  24 Kaëta interview.

  25 Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy,1:292.

  26 Yelena’s husband, Valerii Okulov, was reassigned to overseas Aeroflot flights, a nice promotion. Following Boris Yeltsin’s demotion in 1987, Okulov was not allowed to fly at all for three years.

  27 Politburo transcript for June 29, 1985, in APRF (Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow), fund 3, register 3194, file 22, 8–9. I do not know why Tikhonov should have been so unimpressed. In the first volume of his memoirs (Ispoved’, 54–55), Yeltsin states that as Sverdlovsk leader he had “normal, businesslike” relations with Tikhonov from 1980 to 1985. It could be that Tikhonov’s ire was directed at Gorbachev as much as at Yeltsin.

  28 He was never anyone’s deputy and had no desire to be one now, Yeltsin wrote in Ispoved’, 70. The first assertion is only partly true. He had never carried the precise title of deputy (zamestitel’), but as head engineer of two construction concerns in the early 1960s he reported to the director. And from 1968 to 1975, as head of the construction department of the Sverdlovsk obkom, he answered to the first secretary through one of the secretaries—just as it was with Dolgikh in the Central Committee apparatus from April to July 1985. In ibid., 110, Yeltsin asserts that Dolgikh, finding him “sometimes too emotional,” tried to block his promotion to Central Committee secretary at the Politburo meeting of June 29. The transcript of the meeting, however, shows Dolgikh as supporting the decision. Yeltsin also reports that he and Dolgikh served together amicably after that, which does seem to have been the case. Dolgikh was ousted from the Politburo and Secretariat in September 1988.

  29 Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy,1:292.

  30 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 82–83.

  31 Manyukhin, Pryzhok, 59–60. On the other hand, Yakov Ryabov spoke to Yeltsin about the Moscow job and found him to be unenthusiastic. Ryabov interview (University of Glasgow).

  32 Politburo transcript for December 23, 1985, in Volkogonov Archive (Project on Cold War Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University), 1–3.

  33 The Politburo had nineteen full and candidate members as of February 1986. Yeltsin was one of only nine full-time party apparatchiks in the group. He continued to attend the Secretariat’s weekly meetings.

  34 See Timothy J. Colton, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), 384–92, 428–29, 567–72; and Viktor Grishin, Ot Khrushcheva do Gorbacheva: memuary (From Khrushchev to Gorbachev: memoirs) (Moscow: ASPOL, 1996), 292–320.

  35 Nikolai Ryzhkov, interview with the author (September 21, 2001). In Ispoved’, 54, Yeltsin says he and Ryzhkov were acquaintances (znakomyye) in Sverdlovsk and that when Ryzhkov was named prime minister he tried “
not to abuse” their relationship. Naina Yeltsina was cool toward Ryzhkov and felt his rapid rise had gone to his head.

  36 Ryzhkov interview. Most of these details are omitted in his published account: N. I. Ryzhkov, Desyat’ let velikikh potryasenii (Ten years of great shocks) (Moscow: Kniga, Prosveshcheniye, Miloserdiye, 1995), 139. Ryzhkov told me he was sure the Politburo would have ratified the appointment even if he had opposed it.

  37 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 83.

  38 Yurii Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS: pervyi sekretar’ MGK KPSS vspominayet (Before and after the ban on the CPSU: a first secretary of the Moscow gorkom remembers) (Moscow: Algoritm, 2005), 71.

  39 Anatolii Luk’yanov, interview with the author (January 24, 2001).

  40 Ye. I. Chazov, Rok (Fate) (Moscow: Geotar-Med, 2001), 86–88.

  41 Luk’yanov interview.

  42 Aleksei Shcherbinin, a professor at Tomsk State University, interview with the author (February 24, 2006).

  43 Aleksandr Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin: ot rassveta do zakata (Boris Yeltsin: from dawn to dusk) (Moscow: Interbuk, 1997), 52. Korzhakov also writes that Yeltsin “worshiped” Gorbachev at the beginning, which is an exaggeration.

  44 “Otchët Moskovskogo gorodskogo komiteta KPSS” (Report of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU), Moskovskaya pravda, January 25, 1986.

  45 Grishin, Ot Khrushcheva do Gorbacheva, 298–99.

  46 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 84.

  47 A. S. Chernyayev, Shest’ let s Gorbachevym (Six years with Gorbachev) (Moscow: Progress, 1993), 63–64. This valuable memoir is available in English as Anatoly S. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, trans. Robert D. English and Elizabeth Tucker (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).

  48 XXVII s”ezd Kommunisticheskoi partii Sovetskogo Soyuza: stenograficheskii otchët (The 27th congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: stenographic record) (Moscow: Politizdat, 1986), 140–42. The references to officials’ privileges were purged from the chronicle in the next day’s Pravda but, as quoted here, appeared in the final transcript of the congress.

  49 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya t. Yel’tsina B. N. 11 aprelya s. g. pered propagandistami g. Moskvy” (Extract from the statement of comrade B. N. Yeltsin on April 11, 1986, before Moscow propagandists), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Materialy samizdata, July 18, 1986, 3.

  50 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 85; Valerii Saikin, interview with the author (June 15, 2001).

  51 Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 64.

  52 Lobbying the center is described in V. I. Vorotnikov, A bylo eto tak: iz dnevnika chlena Politbyuro TsK KPSS (But this is how it was: from the diary of a member of the Politburo of the CPSU) (Moscow: Sovet veteranov knigoizdaniya, 1995), 84; and “Kak reshalsya v Moskve prodovol’stvennyi vopros” (How the food question was resolved in Moscow), Izvestiya TsK KPSS, December 1990, 125.

  53 On October 23, 1986, for example, the Politburo discussed Soviet bread shortages. Yeltsin observed that bakers—his mother’s occupation in Kazan in the 1930s—were not being trained in Moscow. Andrei Gromyko demanded to know why the Politburo was discussing so picayune a matter and asked rhetorically if it was supposed to answer for the supply of lapti (handwoven bast shoes). Gorbachev expostulated that, if such resolutions were to be adopted, at the urging of Yeltsin or anyone, the Soviet military would have to be engaged, “so as to deal with this at the point of the gun.” V Politbyuro TsK KPSS . . . (In the Politburo of the CPSU) (Moscow: Gorbachev-Fond, 2006), 92.

  54 Saikin interview.

  55 Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin, 54–58.

  56 Vitalii Tret’yakov, “Fenomen Yel’tsina” (The Yeltsin phenomenon), Moskovskiye novosti, April 16, 1989.

  57 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 7–8. George W. Breslauer, Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), detects similarities with the populism of Nikita Khrushchev a generation before. There were some commonalities, but Khrushchev was a much less radical agent of change than either Yeltsin or Gorbachev. The definitive study is William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (New York: Norton, 2003).

  58 Vladimir Mezentsev, “Okruzhentsy” (Entourage), part 2, Rabochaya tribuna, March 25, 1995.

  59 According to Jonathan Sanders, the Moscow-based staffer who worked with producer Susan Zirinsky, “I pointed out that we were sending one of our most respected correspondents to do the interview, someone who was a veteran of the Nixon White House and was personally quite interested in him [Yeltsin]. At this point, the ever clever Ms. Zirinsky pulled out a glossy eight-by-ten photo of Diane Sawyer and said this was the star who would be doing the interview. Now, remember what the Soviet anchorwoman looked like in the mid-1980s? Remember how much [Richard] Nixon was respected? And remember how much Boris Nikolayevich understood intuitively about the power of the media? So we did the interview.” Sanders, personal communication to the author (October 9, 2005).

  60 “Pribavlyat’ oboroty perestroiki” (Quicken the pace of perestroika), Moskovskaya pravda, April 4, 1987.

  61 Colton, Moscow, 576.

  62 Gavriil Popov, interview with the author (June 1, 2001).

  63 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 5; “Mera perestroiki—konkretnyye dela” (The measure of perestroika is concrete affairs), Moskovskaya pravda, March 30, 1986.

  64 Andrei Karaulov, Vokrug Kremlya: kniga politicheskikh dialogov (Around the Kremlin: a book of political dialogues) (Moscow: Novosti, 1990), 96.

  65 Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka,” part 3, 86–91. Aleksei Stakhanov was a miner in the Donbass area of Ukraine who in 1935 set a USSR record for digging coal on his shift. The Stakhanovite movement was organized to imitate his fervor. It experienced a revival in 1988, eleven years after Stakhanov’s death.

  66 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 3.

  67 The resolution was about services in one of Moscow’s municipal districts. Two deputies voted against it and three against proposed amendments. Press reports did not mention Yeltsin’s role, which I learned about in my interview with Arkadii Murashov (September 13, 2000).

  68 On the flavor of these hothouse organizations, see Judith B. Sedaitis and Jim Butterfield, eds., Neformaly: Civil Society in the USSR (New York: U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee, 1990). A then-deputy of Saikin’s reports that Yeltsin telephoned Gorbachev for advice before meeting the Pamyat group. Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 186–88.

  69 Speech to Central Committee, January 27, 1987, in RGANI, fund 2, register 5, file 34, 73.

  70 Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy, 1:310, 371 (italics added).

  71 Korzhakov writes (Boris Yel’tsin, 61) that during the Georgia visit Yeltsin played with his security detail and staff every day, starting the first morning at five A.M. They then invited the local champions, who for one of their matches engaged a professional athlete. The Muscovites still won.

  72 Boris Yel’tsin, Zapiski prezidenta (Notes of a president) (Moscow: Ogonëk, 1994), 270.

  73 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 95.

  74 Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin, 58.

  75 Ibid., 55. Korzhakov, though of proletarian origin, exemplified Muscovite condescension when describing in his book (50) Yeltsin’s musical activities: “Yeltsin was born in the village of Butka, and there it was a prestigious thing to play on the spoons.” In an interview in 1989 (Karaulov, Vokrug Kremlya, 100), Yeltsin was still thin-skinned about Sverdlovsk, saying it was “not on the periphery” and that it had more to teach the rest of Russia than to learn from it.

  76 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 5; Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 90; “Deputaty predlagayut, kritikuyut, sovetuyut” (The deputies recommend, criticize, and advise), Moskovskaya pravda, March 15, 1987.

  77 Tret’yakov claims to have heard from former subordinates of Yeltsin that some of the questions at encounters like this were planted by organizers and that Yeltsin prepared his answers in advance. Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka,” part 4, Politicheskii klass, May 2006, 103.

  78 “Vypi
ska iz vystupleniya,” 7, 9–10. Yeltsin instituted the changes in the workday immediately after taking office. Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 63.

  79 Erik H. Erikson, Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (New York: Norton, 1962), 155–56.

  CHAPTER SIX

  1 Boris Yel’tsin, Ispoved’ na zadannuyu temu (Confession on an assigned theme) (Moscow: PIK, 1990), 116. Gorbachev, too, reports in his memoirs being unhappy with the unsociability of official Moscow. But he was much better acquainted than Yeltsin with its ways. He spent five years at university in Moscow, and general secretaries and Politburo members often holidayed or took the cure at the mineral-springs resorts of Stavropol Province.

  2 Ibid., 69, 115–16, 119. The inconsistencies in Yeltsin’s discussion of his housing and perks are brought out in Vitalii Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka” (Sverdlovsk upstart), part 3, Politicheskii klass, April 2006, 82–84, 88–90. Tret’yakov maintains that Gorbachev’s former dacha was posher than what Yeltsin had the right to and this created nervousness on his part. There may be some exaggeration in the Yeltsin account. A former chief of Kremlin protocol notes, for example, that candidate members of the Politburo were entitled to two cooks, not three, and that their monthly food allowance was half that of full members. Vladimir Shevchenko, Povsednevnaya zhizn’ Kremlya pri prezidentakh (The everyday life of the Kremlin under the presidents) (Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 2004), 124.

  3 Den’ v sem’e prezidenta (A day in the president’s family), interview with El’dar Ryazanov on REN-TV, April 20, 1993 (videotape supplied by Irena Lesnevskaya).

  4 Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka,” part 3, 90.

  5 Vladimir Voronin, a city hall functionary at the time, interview with the author (June 15, 2001).

  6 Boris Yeltsin, third interview with the author (September 12, 2002).

  7 Author’s first interview with Aleksandr Yakovlev (June 9, 2000) and interviews with Arkadii Vol’skii (June 13, 2000) and Anatolii Luk’yanov (January 24, 2001). Several individuals who attended the October 1987 plenum of the Central Committee told me Yeltsin mentioned Raisa there, and the claim is made in Aleksandr Yakovlev, Sumerki (Dusk) (Moscow: Materik, 2003), 405. Aside from Yeltsin’s memory, the published transcript and unpublished archival materials, which I have examined, confute this.