Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Demokraticheskai͡a Rossii͡a (Political party)
- Abstract:
- The records relate to politics in Russia and to the 1991 presidential campaign of Boris Yeltsin. They include minutes of meetings, resolutions, statements, appeals, stenographic records, press reviews, and video recordings.
- Extent:
- 11 manuscript boxes (4.4 Linear Feet)
- Language:
- Russian
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Demokraticheskaia Rossiia records, 1989-1993, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The records relate to politics in Russia and to the 1991 presidential campaign of Boris Yeltsin. Documents present minutes of meetings, resolutions, statements, appeals, stenographic records, press reviews, and video recordings.
The collection contains data on the formation of the movement, its internal affairs, social functions, organizing activities, and political activities from 1989, when organizations opposing the Communist party united, through 1993, when the movement dissolved.
Included in the collection are pre-union materials from regional and Moscow-based political groups such as appeals, statements, and leaflets calling for a coalition. Other materials document important political events in Russia, such as the Uchreditel'nyi S"ezd (1990), the first presidential election (Boris N. Yeltsin campaign, 1990-1991), and the "avgustovskii putch" (August coup) by the Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Chrezvychainomu Polozheniiu (GKChP) (19-21 August 1991).
Other events reflected in the documents are the first democratic mayoral election in Moscow in 1991, the military suppression of the resistance in Lithuania and Latvia in 1991, and forums, congresses, conferences, and referendums conducted between 1989 and 1993 that document the development of democracy in Russia.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The Demokraticheskaia Rossiia (DR) movement was founded in October 1990, toward the end of the Soviet era, when opposition to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party at the time, emerged. It united the anti-communist opposition parties in the USSR: the Sotsial-demokraticheskaia partiia Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Respublikanskaia partiia Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Partiia konstitutsionnykh demokratov, Svobodno-demokraticheskaia partiia Rossii, Rossiiskoe khristianskoe demokraticheskoe dvizhenie, Konstitutsionno-demokraticheskaia partiia, Partiia narodnoi svobody, Partiia svobodnogo truda, and other organizations. In January 1991 Demokraticheskaia partiia Rossii also joined the movement.
The participants supported the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) president Boris Yeltsin in his struggle against the CPSU leadership and the CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
In June 1991 the Russian Republic held its first presidential election. Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the RSFSR with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president.
Yeltsin offered to cooperate with the Baltic republics, which were seeking freedom from the USSR. This contributed to Gorbachev's decision to start negotiations with 15 Soviet republics on enhancing their self government. A draft treaty was scheduled for signing at the end of August 1991. However, on August 19, 1991, eight conservative party and governmental leaders attempted to take control of the country from Gorbachev while he was on vacation. Yeltsin headed the dramatic opposition to the coup and secured Gorbachev's return to Moscow.
After the coup Boris Yeltsin consolidated his own power and led the movement to dissolve the Soviet parliament and outlaw the Communist Party. In the fall of 1991 Yeltsin and other leaders of Soviet republics declared independence for their respective republics. Yeltsin became the head of the post-Soviet Russian Federation.
The DR was one of the most consistent pro-Yeltsin organizations in 1992-1993, although the meetings in support of Yeltsin attracted fewer and fewer participants. This was due to the failure of his ambitious economic reforms known as "shock therapy," which caused inflation and currency devaluation without increasing industrial and agricultural production.
At that time two groups struggled within the DR movement, one favoring a coalition of parties and organizations, and the other, a single organization. As a result, at the end of 1994 many organizations resigned their membership.
Given the absence of a comprehensive program, other than opposition to the CPSU and support of Yeltsin, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent dissolution of the CPSU, the split in the DR became unavoidable.
As a result, Demokraticheskii Vybor, a hybrid of social movements and governmental organizations, was created. The remaining segments of the Democraticheskaia Rossiia movement either disappeared from the public scene or became part of the democratic opposition party Yabloko.
- Acquisition information:
- Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 1993.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged as originally received from Demokraticheskaia Rossiia.
- Physical location:
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
- Terms of access:
-
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Demokraticheskaia Rossiia records, 1989-1993, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Location of this collection:
-
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6003, US
- Contact:
- (650) 723-3563