Arrival of Russian Democracy

   March 26, 1989

it was cold on march 26, 1989. There was snow on the ground. At least that was how it was in Leningrad, where I had gone over spring break with my students. We spent the day touring Tsarskoye Selo, but found watching polling stations being opened just as interesting as Rastrelli’s architecture. I proudly announced that I had no plans to vote because I had never voted in my life. Actually, I twisted the truth a bit here. Although I, personally, had never once set foot in a polling station during the Soviet era, I had not objected to my parents taking my passport and going to vote for me. Apparently nobody at the polling station objected either.

By March 1989, my “anti-voting” attitude was a bit out of date. Millions of people throughout the country saw things differently and, for the past few months, had been discussing the new election law and the possibilities it offered.

The Law Concerning Election of USSR People’s Deputies,
adopted December 1, 1988.

Article 1: In those districts that elect a single deputy, the election of USSR People’s Deputies will be conducted on the basis of a universal, equal, and direct right to vote using a secret ballot. In order to ensure representation of social organizations in accordance with the norms established by this Law, one third of USSR People’s Deputies will be elected from within social organizations – the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, labor unions, cooperative organizations, the All-Union Lenin Communist Union of Youth [the Komsomol], women’s associations, veterans of war and labor, scientists, unions of arts professionals, and other organizations created in accordance with the law and having an All-Union body. The elections of people’s deputies from social organizations shall be conducted at their congresses and conferences or at plenums of their All-Union bodies.

Soviet citizens, who for decades had been obediently casting their votes for a “single candidate from the block of Communists and non-party members” did not need it explained to them how to chose the best candidate on a ballot with only one name. Now there were a lot of candidates, and this in and of itself seemed like a revolution. The candidates did not appear to be affiliated with any party, since there still were no other parties in the USSR beside the Communist one, at least officially.

True, social organizations were in a special position. They were able to just submit a list of their representatives to the Congress of People’s Deputies.

A wild infatuation with political life swept the country. There still was no true campaigning, and few actually read candidates’ platforms. But we were captivated by personalities who, coming out of nowhere, never (or hardly ever) having been mentioned on television or radio, previously known only to friends or a small circle of professional colleagues, were suddenly nominated at workplace meetings (or had simply nominated themselves). Communist activists suddenly became leaders of the opposition; scientists or athletes suddenly turned into politicians.

During the March elections, most of the fanfare surrounded two people. The first was Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, who by then had managed to gain notoriety, provoke the wrath of the authorities, and surround himself with liberals. He had served as first secretary of the Moscow Communist Party Committee, locked horns with Gorbachev, and been expelled from the Central Committee, bestowing on him tremendous popularity. He asked the forgiveness of the Communist Party, but did not receive it. Instead, in March 1989, he received 90% of Muscovites’ votes as a candidate for the Congress of People’s Deputies. But his eyes were on the Supreme Soviet, which was to be chosen by the Congress.

Deputies were elected to the Supreme Soviet by their colleagues, who were given a list of Congressional members and were asked to select a given quantity of candidates. Yeltsin fell just short of being elected, receiving the highest number of votes among those who did not make it into the Supreme Soviet. Then Omsk lawyer Alexei Kazannik voluntarily relinquished his seat on the Supreme Soviet to make way for Yeltsin. Kazannik cleared Yeltsin’s path to power and in so doing laid the foundations for his own career. In 1993, a grateful President Yeltsin appointed him prosecutor general. A year later, however, Kazannik was forced to step down. The State Duma had passed an outrageous, yet legal, resolution to pardon the perpetrators of the putsches of 1991 and 1993. Kazannik refused to comply with Yeltsin’s request to nullify the decision. For all intents and purposes, this decision marked the end of Kazannik’s political career. He now works on “the scientific organization of labor.”

The second person everyone was watching in March 1989 was Academician Andrei Sakharov. The great physicist, Nobel Peace laureate (1975) and defender of human rights – he had spent six years in internal exile for his active and public opposition to the war in Afghanistan and was freed by Gorbachev in December 1986 – was idolized by some and loathed by others.

It was now anticipated that the Academy of Sciences, which had shamelessly turned on their famous member, would try to make amends by nominating Sakharov to the Congress. But they did not, provoking demonstrations, protests by academics, and endless meetings. Finally, the Academy relented. Sakharov’s appearance at the Congress was both a triumph for him and the beginning of another round of indignities. Over the course of 1989, Gorbachev would publicly insult him and Afghan war veterans would accuse him of slander. The old winds were still blowing about. Yet Sakharov did not have to endure this for long. He died suddenly of a heart attack, on December 14, 1989.

I soon regretted not voting. Life was so exciting during those spring months that you just wanted to go everywhere and do everything. Then, finally, in late May, the long-awaited Congress was convened. At the time, it seemed like the most democratic institution in the world. Who would have suspected that within just four months it would turn into a senseless Communist shouting match?

Ever since 1989 I have not missed a single election. Actually, that is not quite true.  I did not vote last year. The authorities were a bit pushy trying to get everyone to the polls. Can we really have come full circle?