Yeltsin's campaign for the Congress of People's Deputies

Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) had been in Soviet politics since the 1960s, but advanced to greater power under Gorbachev during perestroika. During that period, he honed the political skills that propelled him to the pinnacle of late-Soviet and post-Soviet politics in the elections for the First USSR Congress of People’s Deputies in 1989. Gorbachev announced the creation of this new parliamentary body on the final day of the All-Union Party Conference in summer 1988. That same fall, the Supreme Soviet issued the electoral law for the body, stipulating that 2,250 candidates would be elected via three channels: the Communist Party, social organizations, and territorial districts. Crucially, Party membership was not required to run for candidacy. The elections took place in spring 1989 and were regarded not only as generally fair, but as the most fair and democratic elections the Soviet Union had ever seen—and perhaps that Russia has seen since.

 

Though elections were commonplace throughout the Soviet period, taking place for municipal, local, and regional political offices as well as in workplaces and social organizations, campaigning was an almost entirely new phenomenon. All candidates for the Congress were novices, but Yeltsin was able to parlay his own campaign into widespread popularity throughout the Russian Federation. Yeltsin had first come to political prominence in 1985, when Gorbachev brought him to Moscow to helm the Construction Department at the Central Committee. From there, he became head of the Moscow City Party Committee, a position equivalent to mayor of the city. In February 1986, Yeltsin became a candidate (meaning, nonvoting) member of the Politburo, but by March, he was already a full member. In October 1987, however, he and Gorbachev had a public falling out. At a Central Committee plenum, the younger politician criticized the pace of perestroika and the conservative influences in the Party, and asked to be removed from his post. In February 1988, Gorbachev publicly dismissed Yeltsin from the Politburo and demoted him to First Deputy Commissioner of the Construction Department, though Yeltsin would keep his role as head of the Moscow City Party Committee.

 

Whereas most candidates for the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies ran amateurish campaigns, Yeltsin demonstrated real political savvy. Determined to make his way to the Congress, but unsure of the best means to get there, he campaigned in Sverdlovsk, Berezniki, and Kuntsevo, but ultimately accepted his nomination from the territorial district of Moscow— one of the most competitive elections, but also the one that secured Yeltsin’s place in politics. In Moscow, he led rallies with upwards of 10,000 people in attendance. Thousands of pro-Yeltsin leaflets blanketed the city, with the authorities ripping them off of walls only to see them replaced within hours. Marches in support of his candidacy attracted 5,000-plus participants. Despite his conflicts with Gorbachev, Yeltsin’s popularity with ordinary Russians seemed assured. He ran on a multipronged platform that, he claimed, was in line with perestroika and Gorbachev, though opposed to conservative forces in the Communist Party.