POLS 071 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Glasnost
19 Mar 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Authoritarian Reversal in Russia
March 19th
− Continued from Part 1
Struggle for reform between Gorbachev and entrenched interests with power
(1) Changes were threatening to people who were benefiting from the system (i.e.
people with power in the bureaucracy and communist party
(a) Gorbachev gave increasing autonomy to the republics of the Soviet Union to
bolster his hand
(i) This meant the Republic of Russia was given more power—the Soviet
Union’s largest republic—and its Prime Minister, Boris Yeltsin
Conservatives resisting change staged a coup in August of 1991, placing Gorbachev
under house arrest and attempting to undo perestroika and glasnost
(1) Those in favor of reform took to the streets, largely led by Yeltsin
(a) The military defected to the resistors, ending the coup
(2) Stagers of the coup lost power, but so did Gorbachev as power and authority
shifted to Yeltsin with the end to Soviet rule
(a) Republics began declaring independence and by December 1991 the Soviet
Union ceased to exist, reemerging as the Confederation of Independent States
(CIS)
• Russia’s Institutional Development: Russia was a new, independent sovereign state
There was an old Soviet era constitution, a president and a parliament but they were
all given power under the old Soviet system
(1) Parliament granted Yeltsin decree power to implement economic reforms in 1992,
meaning he could act without their approval
(a) Goal was to transition from a command economy to a capitalist one
(2) Key reform was shock therapy, which implemented fast, jolting reforms that were
intended to transition Russia to a capitalist economy more quickly (5-10 years)
(a) Russian people suffered terribly
In 1993, Yeltsin and parliament were at odds with the former wanting his decree
power extended and both claiming to hold legitimate authority
(1) Parliament members were largely from the old Soviet Union and didn’t like the
changes occurring
(2) Yeltsin and parliament were competing for control of the bureaucracy, so in
September of 1993 he disbanded parliament
(a) The Constitutional Court said he could not do that, and parliament voted to
impeach him
(3) Yeltsin ordered the military to attack parliament in October of 1993, shelling
them with tanks
Yeltsin drafted a new constitution and put it on a referendum along with new
legislative elections
(1) It passed with 58% and Russia’s Second Republic was born
(2) The new constitution established a semi-presidential system with the executive
referenced as the Kremlin, a bicameral legislature—the Duma and the Federation
