Encyclopedia of Russian History

by James Millar

  Yeltsin was not exiled back to Siberia, however. Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin to be first deputy chair of the USSR State Committee for Construction, a post that allowed him to remain in Moscow and in the political limelight. Yeltsin also remained popular with Muscovites, many of whom felt they had lost an ally. Almost one thousand residents of the capital staged a rally to support Yeltsin, which had to be broken up by police. Yeltsin was unavailable. As would frequently occur during his political career, times of high political drama tended to incapacitate him. At the time of the Central Committee Plenum, Yeltsin was hospitalized for an apparent heart attack. He was literally taken from his hospital bed to attend the session of the Moscow City Committee to be formally fired.

  Yeltsin reappeared in public at the 1988 May Day celebration, joining other Central Committee members to watch the annual parade. He was selected as a delegate from the Karelian Autonomous

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  Socialist Republic for the extraordinary Nineteenth CPSU Conference in June; Party officials may have selected the remote constituency to reduce publicity for Yeltsin. Instead, the publicity came on the last day of the Conference.

  Gorbachev allowed Yeltsin to speak at the Conference in order to clear the air of rumors regarding the October affair and to see what this “man of the people” had to say. On live television, Yeltsin began by responding to criticisms recently levied against him by his fellow delegates and then tried to clarify his physical and mental condition at the Moscow City Plenum. He repeated his criticism of the slow pace of reform and of privileges for the Party elite. Then, for the first time in Soviet history, a disgraced leader publicly asked for rehabilitation. Yeltsin was followed to the podium by Ligachev, who continued to criticize and denigrate the fallen Communist. When the Conference ended, Yeltsin had not been reinstated. But in a move suggesting that Gorbachev had some respect for Yeltsin’s point of view, Ligachev was soon reassigned to agriculture.

  RISING DEMOCRAT

  Yeltsin began a remarkable political comeback with the March 1989 elections to the first USSR Congress of People’s Deputies (CPD). Although the Central Committee declined to put Yeltsin on its slate of candidates, some fifty constituencies nominated him. Yeltsin opted to run from Moscow-not Sverdlovsk-and won almost 90 percent of the vote, despite an official smear campaign. When the CPD announced candidates for the new Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin was not on the ballot. Large popular protests began in Moscow, and delegates were swamped with telegrams and telephone calls supporting Yeltsin. Ultimately Alexei Kazannik, a deputy from Omsk, offered to relinquish his seat to Yeltsin-and Yeltsin only. Yeltsin became co-chair of the opposition Inter-Regional Group and called for a new constitution that would place sovereignty with the people, not the Party. Further signaling his break with Gorbachev, during the July 1990 Twenty-eighth Party Conference, Yeltsin dramatically resigned from the CPSU, tossing his party membership card aside and striding out of the meeting hall. He had cast his lot with the Russian people.

  Meanwhile, Yeltsin had established roots in the RSFSR, giving him a political base to challenge Gorbachev. He was elected to the Russian Congress of

  ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

  YELTSIN, BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH

  People’s Deputies in March 1990 and became chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet in May 1990. He declared Russia sovereign in June 1990, triggering a war of laws between his institutions and those of Gorbachev. In June 1991 Yeltsin was elected to the newly created office of RSFSR President. Unlike Gorbachev as president of the USSR, Yeltsin had been popularly elected, a mandate that gave him much greater legitimacy than Gorbachev could claim for himself. He even called for Gorbachev’s resignation in February 1991. During the negotiations for a new union treaty in early 1991, Yeltsin demanded that key powers devolve to the republics. Eventually the two leaders came to an agreement, and Yeltsin planned to sign the new Union Treaty on August 20, 1991.

  When hard-line communists tried to block the treaty and topple Gorbachev, Yeltsin sprang into action. While Gorbachev was under house arrest in the Crimea, Yeltsin was at his dacha outside Moscow. Refusing his family’s and advisers’ pleas that he go into hiding, Yeltsin eluded the commandos surrounding his dacha and went to the Russian parliament building, known as the White House. Climbing atop one of the tanks surrounding the White House, Yeltsin denounced the coup as illegal, read an Appeal to the Citizens of Russia, and called for a general strike. Yeltsin’s team began circulating alternative news reports, faxing them out to Western media for broadcast back into the USSR. Soon Muscovites began to heed Yeltsin’s call to defend democracy. Thousands surrounded the building, protecting it from an expected attack by hard-line forces. Throughout the three-day siege, Yeltsin remained at the White House, broadcasting radio appeals, telephoning international leaders, and regularly addressing the crowd outside. When the coup plotters gave up, Yeltsin had replaced Gorbachev as the most powerful political figure in the USSR. Yeltsin banned the CPSU on Russian soil, effectively endings its operations, but did not call for purges of communist leaders. Instead, he left for his own three-week Crimean vacation.

  While Yeltsin inexplicably left the capital at this critical time, Gorbachev was unable to rally support to himself or his reconfigured Soviet Union. Upon his return to Moscow, Yeltsin seized more all-union assets, institutions, and authorities until it became obvious that Gorbachev had little left to govern. Then, on the weekend of December 8, 1991, Yeltsin met with his counterparts from Belarus (Stanislau Shushkevich) and Ukraine (Leonid Kuchma). The three men drafted the Belovezhskaya

  ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

  Accords, in which the three founding republics of the Soviet Union declared the country’s formal end.

  THE STRUGGLE FOR RUSSIA

  Yeltsin began the simultaneous tasks of establishing a new state, a market economy, and a new political system. Initially the new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) served to regulate relations with the other Soviet successor states, although Ukraine and other western states resented Yeltsin’s argument that Russia was first among equals. Yeltsin, for example, commanded the CIS military, which he initially used in lieu of creating a separate Russian military. Domestically, he faced secessionist challenges from Chechnya and less severe autonomist movements from Tatarstan, Sakha, and Bashkortostan. Radical economic policy was implemented as Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar’s economic shock therapy program freed most prices as of January 1, 1992, and Anatoly Chubais led efforts to privatize state-owned enterprises. The two policies combined to bring Russia to the brink of economic collapse. Not only did Yeltsin face public criticism on the economy, but his own vice president, Alexander Rutskoi, and the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, also denounced his policies.

  On the political front, Yeltsin found himself in uncertain waters. Although work was underway to draft a new constitution, the process had been interrupted by the collapse of the USSR. Russia technically still operated under the 1978 constitution, which vested authority in the Supreme Soviet. However, the Supreme Soviet had granted Yeltsin emergency powers for the first twelve months of the transition. As these powers neared expiration, Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet became locked in a battle for control of Russia. As a compromise, Yeltsin replaced Gaidar with an old-school industrialist, Viktor Chernomyrdin, but that did not appease the Congress, which stripped Yeltsin of his emergency powers on March 12. Narrowly surviving an impeachment vote, Yeltsin threatened emergency rule and called a referendum on his rule for April 25, 1993. Yeltsin won that round, but the battle between executive and legislature continued all summer.

  On September 21, 1993, Yeltsin issued decree number 1400 dissolving the Supreme Soviet and calling for elections to a new body in December. Parliament, led by Khasbulatov and Rutskoi, refused, and members barricaded themselves in the

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  YELTSIN, BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH

  Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Polish president Lech Walesa confer, August 25, 1993. © PETER TURNLEY/CO
RBIS White House. Rutskoi was sworn in as acting president. Attempts at negotiation failed, and on October 3, the rebels seized the neighboring home of Moscow’s mayor and set out to commandeer the Ostankino television complex. Yeltsin then did what the hardliners did not do in August 1991: He ordered the White House be taken by force. Troops stormed the building, more than one hundred people died, and Khasbulatov, Rutskoi, and their colleagues were led to jail.

  Parliamentary elections took place as scheduled in December. Simultaneously, a referendum was held to approve the super-presidential constitution drafted by Yeltsin’s team. If the referendum failed, Russians would have voted for an illegitimate legislature. Fearing rivals for power, Yeltsin had eliminated the office of vice president in the new constitution, but he also refused to create a presidential political party. As a result, there was no obvious pro-government party. Gaidar and his liberal democrats lost to the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). Rumors persist that turnout was below the required 50 percent threshold, which would have invalidated the ratification of the constitution itself.

  The Duma, the new bicameral parliament’s lower house, began with a strong anti-Yeltsin statement. In February it amnestied the participants in the 1991 putsch and the 1993 Supreme Soviet revolt. Yeltsin tried to accommodate the red-brown coalition of Communists and nationalists in the Duma. Economic liberalization eased, privatization entered its second phase, and a handful of businessmen-the oligarchs-snatched up key enterprises at deep discount.

  Yeltsin reached out to regions for support, with mixed results. A series of bilateral treaties were signed with the Russian republics, especially Tatarstan, giving them greater autonomy than specified in the federal constitution. However, one republic, Chechnya, remained firm in its refusal to recognize the authority of Moscow, and a showdown became imminent. A group of hardliners

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  ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

  YELTSIN, BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH

  within the Yeltsin administration orchestrated an invasion of Chechnya on December 11, 1994. Although they had expected a quick victory, the bloody war continued until August 1996.

  Yeltsin approached presidential elections scheduled for June 1996 with four key problems. First was the ongoing and highly unpopular war in Chechnya. Second, the communists dominated the 1995 Duma elections. Third was his declining health. (He had collapsed in October 1995, triggering a succession crisis in the Kremlin.) Fourth, his approval ratings were in the single digits, and advisors Oleg Soskovets and Alexander Korzhakov urged him to cancel the election. But yet again, Yeltsin launched an amazing political comeback. He fired his most liberal Cabinet members, including Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev whose pro-West policies had angered many, and floated a new peace plan for Chechnya.

  In a campaign organized by Chubais and Yeltsin’s daughter Tatiana Dyachenko, Yeltsin barnstormed across the country, delivering rousing speeches, handing out lavish political favors, and dancing with the crowds. The campaign was bankrolled by the oligarchs-a group of seven entrepreneurs who had amassed tremendous wealth in the privatization process under questionable circumstances and wanted to protect their interests. The Kremlin boldly admitted to exceeding the campaign-spending cap. Yeltsin failed to win a majority of the votes in the election, forcing him into a run-off with CPRF candidate Gennady Zyuganov.

  Between the first election and the run-off, Yeltsin suffered a massive heart attack. This news was kept from the Russian population, who went to the polls unaware of the situation. Only after Yeltsin had secured victory was news of his health released. He underwent quintuple bypass surgery in November 1996, contracted pneumonia, and was effectively an invalid for months. During this time, access to the president and the daily business of running the country fell to Yeltsin’s closest advisors: Chubais and Dyachenko, known as “The Family.”

  Yeltsin’s last years in office were marked by a declining economy, rising corruption, and frequent turnover in the office of prime minister. The oligarchs soon turned on each other, fighting for assets and access. Yeltsin’s immediate family was implicated in a variety of graft schemes. With the economy declining, Yeltsin embarked on prime minister roulette. He fired Chernomyrdin, replacing

  ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

  Russian president Boris Yeltsin appeals to the people to vote in the 1993 referendum. © PETER TURNLEY/CORBIS him with Sergei Kiriyenko (March-August 1998), Chernomyrdin again (August 23-September 10), then Yevgeny Primakov (September 10, 1998-May 12, 1999), and Sergei Stepashin (May 12-August 8). In August 1998 the ruble collapsed, and Russia defaulted on its foreign loan obligations. Next in line as prime minister came ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin.

  In 1999 Yeltsin associates floated the idea of his running for a third term. They argued that the two-term limit imposed by the 1993 constitution might not count Yeltsin’s 1991 election, as it occurred under different political and legal circumstances. Yeltsin’s health was a key concern, as was his family’s complicity in a growing number of corruption schemes. Before Yeltsin could leave office he needed a suitable successor, one that could protect him and his family. On New Year’s Eve, 1999, Yeltsin went on television to make a surprise

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  YELTSIN CONSTITUTION

  announcement-his resignation. According to the constitution, Prime Minister Putin would succeed him, with elections called within three months. As acting president, Putin’s first action was to grant Yeltsin immunity from prosecution.

  Yeltsin retired quietly to his dacha outside of Moscow. Unlike Gorbachev, he did not form his own think tank or join the international lecture circuit. Instead, Yeltsin wrote his third volume of memoirs, Midnight Diaries, and largely kept out of politics and public life. See also: AUGUST 1991 PUTSCH; CHECHNYA AND THE CHECHENS; CHUBAIS, ANATOLY BORISOVICH; DYACHENKO, TATIANA BORISOVNA; GAIDAR, YEGOR TIMUROVICH; GORBACHEV, MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH; KHASBULATOV, RUSLAN IMRANOVICH; KORZHAKOV, ALEXANDER VASILEVICH; OCTOBER 1993 EVENTS; PUTIN, VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH; RUTSKOI, ALEXANDER VLADIMIROVICH

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Breslauer,George W. (2002). Gorbachev and Yeltsin As Leaders. New York: Cambridge University Press. Dunlop, John B. (1993). The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Shevtsova, Lilia. (1999). Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Yeltsin, Boris. (1990). Against the Grain. New York: Summit. Yeltsin, Boris. (1994). The Struggle for Russia. New York: Random House. Yeltsin, Boris. (2000). Midnight Diaries. New York: Public Affairs.

  ANN E. ROBERTSON

  YELTSIN CONSTITUTION See CONSTITUTION OF

  1993.

  paign are still disputed. Most sources indicate that he was a Volga Cossack who fled north in 1581 in order to escape punishment for piracy; Ruslan Skrynnikov, however, argues that Yermak was fighting in the Livonian War in 1581 and went to Siberia in 1582. Yermak and his Cossack band were hired by the Stroganovs, a family of wealthy Urals merchants, to protect their possessions against attacks by the Tatars and other indigenous peoples of Siberia. Thereafter Yermak and his band of a few hundred men set off along the Siberian rivers in lightweight boats; it is not clear whether the Stroganovs sent them to attack the Siberian khanate, or whether the decision to go on to the offensive was taken by the Cossacks. In October 1582 they defeated the Siberian khan, Kuchum, and occupied his capital, Kashlyk (Isker). The local peoples recognized Yermak’s authority and rendered him tribute. In 1585, however, Khan Kuchum launched a surprise attack on the Cossack camp and killed most of the band. Yermak himself, according to legend, drowned in the River Irtysh, weighed down by a suit of armour that he had received as a gift from the tsar. Subsequent expeditions continued the Russian annexation of Siberia that Yermak had pioneered. After his death Yermak became a folk hero; his achievements were celebrated in oral tales and songs, and later depicted in popular prints (lubki). See also: IVAN IV; SI
BERIA

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Armstrong, Terence, ed. (1975). Yermak’s Campaign in Siberia: A Selection of Documents, tr. Tatiana Minorsky and David Wileman. London: Hakluyt Society. Perrie, Maureen. (1997). “Outlawry (Vorovstvo) and Redemption through Service: Ermak and the Volga Cossacks.” In Culture and Identity in Muscovy, 1359-1584, ed. A. M. Kleimola and G. D. Lenhoff. Moscow: ITZ-Garant. Skrynnikov, R. G. (1986). “Ermak’s Siberian Expedition.” Russian History / Histoire Russe 13:1-39.

  MAUREEN PERRIE

  YERMAK TIMOFEYEVICH

  (d. 1585), Cossack chieftain, leader of an expedition that laid the basis for Russia’s annexation of Siberia.

  Little is known about Yermak’s early biography, and many of the details of his Siberian cam1710

  YESENIN, SERGEI ALEXANDROVICH

  (1895-1925), popular poet of the Soviet period, known for his evocations of the Russian countryside and the Soviet demimonde.