Gennady Eduardovich Burbulis

Born on August 4, 1945 in the city of Pervouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region.

Grandfather (Burbulis Kazimir Antonovich) until 1915 worked in the Baltic States at an arms factory. The grandfather and grandmother (Elizabeth) of Gennady Burbulis were members of the "revolutionary circles" of Riga, and later members of the Communist Party. In 1935, Elizaveta Burbulis was expelled from the party ranks for "losing contact with the party."

Father (Burbulis Eduard Kazimirovich) came to the Urals from the Baltic States at the age of four in 1915, was a military pilot, and after being retired, he worked at the Per-vouralsky Chrompik Plant (PA Khrompik) in the party committee of the enterprise.

Mother (Belonogova Valentina Vasilievna) came to the Urals from Ukraine during the Second World War, worked as an economist-rate-setter at the Khrompik PA.

Gennady Burbulis's uncle (Vladislav Kazimirovich) and Gennady's older brother Vladislav lived in Pervouralsk. In the town of Rezha, Sverdlovsk region, another uncle of Gennady Burbulis, Leonid, was the editor of the Bolshevik newspaper, secretary of the Rezhevsky district party committee, was repressed in 1934, and subsequently rehabilitated.

In 1962, Gennady Burbulis graduated from high school in Pervouralsk.

From 1962 to 1964 he worked as a mechanic at the Pervouralsk chromopik plant (PA Khrompik) and the Pervouralsk new pipe plant (PNTZ).

In 1964-1967 he served in the strategic missile forces of the USSR Armed Forces in the Kirov region. He was the deputy secretary of the Komsomol committee of the regi-ment.

After serving in the army, he worked in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), according to some information, as an electrician and pipelayer in the Sverdlovskspetscontrol, in the Bolshoi Ural hotel, in Sverdgorremstroy, according to other sources as a pipelayer in the Mechanization Department of the Gorzhil Administration Trust in Sverdlovsk.

He entered the university on the second attempt.

From 1969 to 1974 he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Ural State University. A.M. Gorky (Sverdlovsk).

In the first year, he became the Komsomol organizer of his study group. In the second year - a member of the Komsomol bureau of the faculty, deputy secretary for organizational work.

In 1971 he became a member of the CPSU.

In the fifth year of the university, he married a fellow student Kirsanova Natalya Nikolaevna.

In 1974 he received a diploma in dialectical materialism.

From 1974 to 1981 he worked as an assistant at the Department of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI) named after V.I. S.M. Kirov (Sverdlovsk).

While working at UPI Gennady Burbulis was active in social activities. He was a member of the Council for the moral and aesthetic education of students and the head of the methodological seminar for young scientists. Conducted classes at the evening University of Marxism-Leninism at the City Committee of the CPSU, spoke in student hostels. He often visited the Kirovsky district committee of the Komsomol, where he was responsible for ideological work in the council of young scientists and specialists. The party and Komsomol bodies of the Kirovsky district of Sverdlovsk oversaw the relevant organizations of the UPI (the largest university in Sverdlovsk) and the Ural Scientific Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences and were of key importance in the formation of the political elite of the Sverdlovsk Region, some of which subsequently played an important role in the formation of the upper echelons of the political elite of Russia.

At the council of young scientists, Burbulis met the lawyer Vladimir Isakov, who in 1990 вheaded one of the chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

From 1975 to 1978 he studied at the graduate school of UPI.

In 1980, son Anton was born.

In 1981 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic “Knowledge and belief as integral phenomena of consciousness”.

From 1981 to 1982 he worked as a senior lecturer at the Department of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy of the UPI.

In 1982 he became an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy of the UPI.

From 1983 to 1986 he headed the department of social sciences at the Sverdlovsk branch of the All-Union Institute for Advanced Training of Specialists of the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy.

From 1986 to 1989 he served as Deputy Director for Scientific and Methodological Work of the Sverdlovsk Branch of this Institute.

In 1987 , the Sverdlovsk City Committee of the CPSU was concerned about the activities of the Historical-Patriotic Association "Fatherland", created at the end of 1986 , the first informal organization in Sverdlovsk pursuing political goals and the opposition official ideological line of the CPSU. "Fatherland" organized protest actions, held public discussions, revealing secret Jewish conspiracies in the highest echelons of the party nomenklatura and criticizing the chief ideologist of the CPSU Central Committee, Alexander Yakovlev.

In connection with the declared era of glasnost, it was impossible to simply disperse these gatherings with the help of the militia. It was necessary to beat the enemy with his own weapon - to argue in a public discussion. According to Vladimir Isakov, the Sverdlovsk City Committee of the CPSU invited him to enter into a discussion with the "opposition patriots", but Isakov refused. But Gennady Burbulis agreed. However, the first experience of the discussion battle ended in defeat for Burbulis: an attempt to argue with the representatives of "Fatherland" at an event organized by them did not find support from the audience. From this it was concluded that such events should be organized by ourselves in order to establish the rules of the game and be the masters of the situation.

As a result, in 1987 in Sverdlovsk the "Discussion Tribune" was created - an informal organization directly outside the control of the CPSU, which was engaged in conducting public discussions in Sverdlovsk. The creation of the "Discussion Tribune" was supported by Konstantin Lyubutin, a member of the counter-propaganda group of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, USU (recall that Burbulis studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of USU). And in the department of agitation and propaganda of the Sverdlovsk City Committee, which provided organizational support to the "Discussion Tribune", worked a former classmate and friend of Gennady Burbulis - Sergei Starodubtsev. At that time, such a format of public events as a public discussion was in demand, and thanks to the organizational support of the city committee of the CPSU (allocation of specially equipped rooms, press coverage), the "Discussion Tribune" became the organizer of the most popular public discussions. The initial goal was achieved - the representatives of "Fatherland" lost their leading positions at these events. However, this did not lead to an increase in the popularity of the CPSU. Another opposition movement, the Democratic Union, began to take hold of the audience at events organized by the Discussion Tribune.

"Fatherland" and "Democratic Union" represented opposite poles of opposition to the ruling party of the CPSU, which, however, did not prevent high-ranking members of the CPSU Central Committee from supporting these opposition movements. These movements advocated radical reform of the country, but due to ideological differences with different goals and different means. If "Fatherland" had a Russophile-patriotic orientation with an Orthodox-monarchist and anti-Semitic bias, then the "Democratic Union" was Western-liberal with significant Jewish influence. One of the main spiritual leaders of the first movement was the writer Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, and of the second movement was the public figure Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. Most of the opposition-minded intelligentsia at that time did not go into the intricacies of the confrontation between these warring camps and was surprised to learn that in Sakharov's house, for example, it was not customary to even mention the name of Solzhenitsyn.

The confrontation between these camps became especially fierce among representatives of the authorities, where belonging to a certain ideological camp meant the support of a certain power clan. For example, in 1985 , after Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Boris Stukalin, a representative of the "patriotic" clan, was removed from his post as head of the ideological department of the CPSU Central Committee and sent into "honorable exile" by the USSR Ambassador to Hungary. The place of the chief ideologist of the CPSU was taken by the representative of the "liberal" camp, Alexander Yakovlev. In the ranks of the all-Russian Pamyat movement, which headed the “patriotic” movement in the country, a rabid anti-Semite with signs of fascism, Dmitry Vasiliev, appeared, who, in the opinion of more adequate members of the movement, began to destroy Pamyat from the inside. It is quite possible that the actual collapse of the Pamyat movement in Moscow and the organization of the Discussion Tribune in Sverdlovsk were links of one chain, forged in the depths of the ideological department of the CPSU Central Committee, controlled by the "liberal wing" of the reformist part of the CPSU.

It is possible, however, that the ideas of the "liberal" camp prevailed over the ideas of the "patriotic" camp not because of the latent and explicit influence of the "fifth column" of the CPSU, and even less because of the global plan implemented by some foreign organizations like the CIA or masons. The ideas of the "liberal" camp could win because they were simpler than the ideas of the "patriotic" camp. The main proposal of the "liberal" camp was to transfer the "advanced" experience of the political and economic organization of Western European countries to Russian soil. The "patriotic" camp offered to go "its own way", without giving a clear answer, what this "own way" is. Copying some-one else's is easier than creating a new one. And the further, the more the minds of people took possession of the idea that it is easy and simple to achieve the Western Euro-pean level of material well-being - you just need to translate the European code of laws (or even better the American one) into Russian, adopt it, and tomorrow the store shelves will be filled with previously inaccessible consumer goods.

Physicist, UPI teacher Alexander Rifatovich Urmanov took part in the creation of the "Discussion Tribune" with Gennady Burbulis. Alexander Urmanov was the chairman of the Council of Young Scientists under the Kirov District Committee of the Komsomol, , where he probably met Gennady Burbulis, who was responsible for ideology in this Council. Subsequently, Urmanov will become a well-known political strategist, will take part in the election campaigns of Boris Yeltsin in 1990, 1991 and 1996. However, Urmanov himself preferred to call himself not a political strategist, but a “social technologist,” emphasizing that his activities are not limited to political PR.

It is quite possible that Alexander Urmanov's “social technologies” were carried away by his wife Zarinskaya (Neiman) Irina Zinovievna. Irina Zarinskaya's father was Zi-novy Borisovich Neiman - laureate of the Stalin Prize for outstanding inventions, chief designer of the Uralelectrotyazhmash plant, who taught the design of electrical machines at UPI.

Irina Zarinskaya was a candidate of art history, majored in design. Presumably, her activities were associated with the Ural branch of the All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE). The work of the philosopher-methodologist Georgy Petrovich Shchedrovitsky was associated with the activities of this research institute in Moscow. In 1979, Irina Zarinskaya took part in the preparation of the first organizational-activity game (ODG), conducted by Georgy Shchedrovitsky. This game, held in the village of Novaya Utka, Pervouralsky district of the Sverdlovsk region, was the beginning of the birth of the ODI movement in the country. ODI assumed a certain organization of group interaction for solving various intellectual problems, as well as the personal development of the participants in the games. One of the objectives of the first game was to develop an assortment of consumer goods for the Ural region.

One of the followers of Georgy Shchedrovitsky, Valery Lebedev, suggested that Georgy Shchedrovitsky's goal was to conquer political power with the help of a group of people who had passed the game, who would become so indispensable as advisers to top politicians and generators of basic state ideas that gradually, at first, real, and then legally political power will pass to them. During the 1980s, many games were held for the political and economic elite of the USSR at various levels. This did not bring Shchedrovitsky himself closer to real power, but prepared massive support for Gorbachev's perestroika, since during the games that were not censored, the participants simulated the conditions of a market economy and political liberalism.

In 2000, the son of Georgy Shchedrovitsky, Peter, officially held the position of advisor to the general director of the state corporation "Rosatom" Sergei Kiriyenko, and some media mentioned him as an advisor on economics to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and one of the developers of reforms to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There remains a controversial question: were the ODIs really effective for solving intellectual problems or were they only effectively throwing dust in the eyes of the elite, creating the appearance of useful activity?

Irina Zarinskaya in 1999, as a political strategist, took part in the "unwinding" of the "Unity" movement, from which the United Russia party subsequently grew. Her longtime colleague and, probably, friend Rozin Yakov Aleksandrovich was one of the ideologists of the Unity movement. According to information for 2012, Irina Zarinskaya, as executive director of the Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Research Foundation, took part in a meeting of the Social Platform of the United Russia party to discuss the Strategy for the long-term development of the pension system of the Russian Federation. According to information for 2010, Alexander Urmanov was an assistant to the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Pavel Krasheninnikov and headed the press service of the State Duma committee on civil, criminal, arbitration and procedural legislation headed by Krasheninnikov.

It should be noted that the wife of Gennady Burbulis Natalya Kirsanova, while studying at the university, specialized in aesthetics, which is close to the activities of Irina Zarinskaya. However, information about whether Kirsanova interacted with Zarinskaya and whether Kirsanova was fond of Shchedrovitsky's ideas was not found.

In addition to Gennady Burbulis and Alexander Urmanov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of History of the Ural State University, a member of the Ural State University Party Committee Tsalkovsky Ivan Tsezarevich and Yuri Kiryanov took an active part in organizing the activities of the "Discussion Tribune".

In 1987, after a critical speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Boris Yeltsin became the most popular politician in the Sverdlovsk region, despite the fact that he had already worked and lived in Moscow for almost 2 years. At that time, Yeltsin was openly supported by all Sverdlovsk informal organizations, regardless of ideological orientation. The leadership of the Discussion Tribune, headed by Gennady Burbulis, also focused on Yeltsin , which was necessary to maintain its popularity.

The leadership of the "Discussion Tribune" made Gennady Burbulis a fairly well-known person in Sverdlovsk, which served as a "start-up capital" for him in the new conditions of the political life of the country (alternative elections of people's deputies of the USSR).

In November 1988 (after the publication of the draft Law on the Elections of People's Deputies of the USSR), on the initiative of Gennady Burbulis, the For Democratic Choice Movement was founded in Sverdlovsk to participate in the 1989 elections of People's Deputies of the USSR. During the election campaign, a friend of Burbulis, Sergei Starodubtsev, who worked in the ideological department of the Sverdlovsk city committee of the CPSU, wrote to the regional committee of the CPSU an analytical note about Burbulis with a proposal to support him in the elections of people's deputies of the USSR. During the election campaign, Burbulis spoke out for the renewal of socialism. According to the results of the elections, 2 candidates who were supported by the DCM became the people's deputies of the USSR from the Sverdlovsk region: Gennady Burbulis and Vladimir Volkov.

Financial and informational support to the DCMwas probably provided by the Sverdlovsk NTTM Center, which was created, in turn, with the support of the leadership of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI).

According to Gennady Burbulis, during these elections he participated in supporting the election campaign of Boris Yeltsin in Moscow - Yeltsin's campaign materials were printed in Sverdlovsk and sent to Moscow for distribution. Burbulis met Yeltsin personally during Yeltsin's visit to Sverdlovsk during the election campaign.

It was reported that Burbulis was one of the initiators of the creation of the Interregional Deputy Group (MDG) of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, which advocated a multi-party system, the elimination of the ruling role of the CPSU, the supremacy of republican laws over union laws, and accelerated privatization of state property. The MDG, in fact, became an oppositional CPSU faction in the highest representative body of the USSR.

Burbulis joined the MDG at the time of its creation at the 1st Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and was elected a member of its Coordinating Council. It was argued that it was only by sheer coincidence that Burbulis was not included in the group's co-chairs - his place was allegedly taken by Andrei Sakharov, who initially did not appear as co-chair, but whose authority in the liberal circles of Soviet society was so high that the "democrats" could not do not satisfy his wish. It is possible, however, that this information does not correspond to reality and was disseminated by Burbulis himself in order to give himself significance in the eyes of voters and descendants.

Boris Yeltsin was among the co-chairs of the MDG, who served as a locomotive for many Sverdlovsk citizens who wanted to succeed in political activity. Gennady Burbulis became one of them.

It was reported that Burbulis began to work closely with Yeltsin only during the work of the MDG, after Burbulis was introduced to Yeltsin by Vladimir Volkov. However, had it not been for this cooperation, Burbulis and Yeltsin would still inevitably become comrades-in-arms due to the fact that Yeltsin was actively supported by the party committee of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI), whose representative was Gennady Burbulis. Burbulis was one of the leading members of the UPI party-political club, created with the active participation of the Kirov district committee of the CPSU. This club served as the nucleus of the UPI party committee.

During the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, Burbulis recommended Boris Yeltsin for the post of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (at the behest of voters). But Yeltsin recused himself, since the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee recommended Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, for this post, and Yeltsin , as a party member, had to submit to this decision. However, if Yeltsin had a chance to win, it is unlikely that membership in the CPSU would have stopped him, but MDG was in the minority at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.

In September 1989 , on the initiative of Gennady Burbulis, the Ural Deputy Center was created, uniting the people's deputies of the USSR of the "democratic" orientation of the regions and republics of the Urals. Andrei Sakharov came from Moscow to the opening of the deputy center.

From October 1989 to August 1990 , Gennady Burbulis was chairman of the subcommittee on the methodology and practice of Soviet work of the Committee of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the work of the Soviets of People's Deputies, the development of management and self-government. As a member of the Committee, he actively participated in the preparation of the Law "On Local Self-Government".

In January 1990 , Gennady Burbulis was elected to the Coordinating Council of the Democratic Platform of the CPSU as a representative of the UPI party-political club.

In March 1990 , Gennady Burbulis was elected a deputy of the Sverdlovsk Regional Council of People's Deputies (at that time it was possible to simultaneously be a deputy in representative bodies of power at different levels). Burbulis was nominated for the position of Chairman of the Regional Council, but lost to the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee Vladimir Vlasov with a small difference in votes.

But much more important, of course, were the elections of people's deputies of the RSFSR, which were held at the same time. If at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR the opposition MDG was in the minority due to the large number of deputies loyal to Gorbachev from the union republics, then at the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR the MDG could hope for greater representation and support.

If Boris Yeltsin was elected People's Deputy of the USSR from the electoral district in Moscow, then the People's Deputy of the RSFSR it was decided to be elected in Sverdlovsk, where Yeltsin could count on the maximum possible support of the population, which was important for the subsequent elections of the governing bodies of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

The party committee of the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI) organized the election headquarters of Boris Yeltsin in Sverdlovsk, respectively, activists of the UPI party committee became members of Yeltsin's election headquarters: sociologist Lyudmila Pikhoya, physicist Alexander Urmanov and historian Gennady Kharin (head of the party-political club UPI). In addition to them, at the invitation of Lyudmila Pikhoya, philosopher Alexander Ilyin, who was not a member of the CPSU, but worked with Pikhoya at the Department of Scientific Communism of the UPI, entered Yeltsin's election headquarters. Urmanov and Kharin were close associates of Gennady Burbulis. It was Urmanov, who created the "Discussion Tribune" with Burbulis, who became the head of Yeltsin's electoral headquarters.

As a result of the elections, Yeltsin Yeltsin received 84.4% of the vote.

Subsequently, Kharin, Pikhoya and Ilyin began to write texts of Boris Yeltsin'sspeeches on a permanent basis when he became President of Russia. In 1990 , Gennady Burbulis himself took part in the preparation of the texts of Yeltsin's speeches. Alexander Urmanov, as a political strategist, took part in Yeltsin'selection campaigns.

In April 1990 , at the initiative of Gennady Burbulis, seven American political scientists, employees of the research independent center of the US Congress (Paul Wayridge, Harry Lawrence, Robert Cribble, Paul Ogle, Martin Connors, Wendy Wilson, Jeffrey Batsky) arrived in Sverdlovsk on a visit. Prior to this, American political scientists visited Moscow and Leningrad. The initiator of the invitation of these political scientists to the USSR was the secretary of the interregional deputy group (MDG) Arkady Murashov. American political scientists conducted training seminars for the MDG and Boris Yeltsin's political strategists.

Subsequently, some researchers of the period of perestroika in the USSR will attach great importance to the activities of these political scientists, claiming that it was they who put the idea of the inevitability of the collapse of the USSR into the minds of people from Boris Yeltsin's entourage.

In April 1990 , Gennady Burbulis left the CPSU and took part in the creation of the Democratic Party of Russia. Burbulis became one of the deputy chairmen of this party, but did not take an active part in the activities of the party, presumably due to the fact that he was in the DPR on the sidelines.

In May 1990 Boris Yeltsin was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, becoming the highest official in the republic. Gennady Burbulis in August 1990 became the plenipotentiary of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

Gennady Burbulis became one of Boris Yeltsin's closest aides along with Viktor Ilyushin, Lev Sukhanov and Sergei Shakhrai, but unlike the rest of Boris Yeltsin's aides, Burbulis wanted to become an independent politician. Oratorical abilities of Gennady Burbulis were very mediocre, so the only way to the top of the political Olympus for Burbulis was the path of apparatus intrigues.

Burbulis's ambitions became the reason for his conflict with his former comrade-in-arms from Sverdlovsk, Vladimir Isakov, who was elected chairman of the Council of the Republic - one of the two chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Legally, Isakov was significantly higher than Burbulis in the power hierarchy of the RSFSR, but Burbulis, being Yeltsin's, Yeltsin's “authorized representative”, considered himself “second after God” and did not accept other interpretations. The conflict with Burbulis probably played a catalytic role in Vladimir Isakov's disappointment with Boris Yeltsin'sactions. Isakov took part in organizing opposition to Yeltsin within the "democratic" movement, which was presented by his opponents as a betrayal of this movement. As a result, a campaign was initiated to recall Vladimir Isakov by voters, which was successful thanks to the huge credit of the population's confidence in Boris Yeltsin.

From January to July 1991, Burbulis headed the working group of the Coordination and Consultative Council under the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Yeltsin. The Council, among other things, was engaged in the development of the concept of presidential power in Russia.

Gennady Burbulis was the head of the election campaign of the presidential candidate Boris Yeltsin, who was elected in June 1991. The possibility of Burbulis 'participation in the election campaign as a candidate for the post of vice-president of Russia was discussed, but the candidacy of Burbulis, actively promoted by himself, was rejected by members of Yeltsin's team Lyudmila Pikhoya and Gennady Kharin (a friend of Burbulis) because of Burbulis' low qualities as a public politician. The nomination of Burbulis, in their opinion, could lead to a decrease in Yeltsin's popularity.

After the successful election of Yeltsin as President of Russia, Burbulis was appointed State Secretary of Russia - Secretary of the State Council under the President of Russia. This position was created specifically for Burbulis and was invented, most likely, by himself.

As Secretary of State, Burbulis was responsible for the development of Russia's domestic and foreign policy, organized coordinated actions between the Congress of Deputies, the Council of Ministers and the President of Russia, took part in the conciliation process between the Union and Russian leadership in connection with the 500 Days program, and after its rejection I selected a working group for the implementation of a program of economic reforms in Russia, participated in the development of Russia's position in the Novoogarevsky process.

The State Council was supposed to become a structure for organizing the interaction of experts to develop important government decisions. However, just like the “Discussion Tribune” in Sverdlovsk, the State Council became a structure where, presumably, the appearance of intellectual work was created to promote the ideas that the organizers of the discussion professed. Thus, the State Council became a structure where decisions developed by a narrow group of specialists from the Administration of the President of Russia or Burbulis' associates took the form of decisions taken by a wide expert community, which created conditions for the adoption of these decisions by the legislative and executive bodies of the Russian government, which have not yet succumbed to direct control by Boris Yeltsin.

The position of Gennady Burbulis was significantly weakened by the appointment in August 1991 of Boris Yeltsin, a longtime associate of Boris Yeltsin, as head of the presidential administration, an experienced apparatchik Yuri Petrov. Petrov did not have the breadth of Burbulis' thinking, but he enjoyed Yeltsin's greater confidence than Burbulis, and, using the techniques of the apparatus game developed for decades, began to gradually push Burbulis away from Yeltsin.

During the coup on August 19-21, 1991, according to the assurances of some of the participants in the events, Gennady Burbulis was unusually calm and prophetically as-sured that the crisis would last no more than 2 days. There is little information about Burbulis's activities during the putsch.

But after the defeat of the State Emergency Committee, Gennady Burbulis launched an active, although not public activity, taking part in new appointments to the vacant posts in the leadership of the USSR. Despite the fact that Mikhail Gorbachev formally remained the president of the USSR, it was generally accepted that Boris Yeltsin won the victory over the State Emergency Committee, which put him at least on a par with Gorbachev, if not higher. Therefore, Gorbachev had to agree with Yeltsin on the appointment of the heads of key power structures - the former ones tainted themselves with participation in the Emergency Committee. According to Yeltsin's bodyguard Alexander Korzhakov, Gennady Burbulis's recommendations to Yeltsin on these appointments often played a decisive role. Who, in turn, directed Burbulis himself is unknown.

During the coup, the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic supported the actions of the State Emergency Committee. In September 1991, the leader of the Chechen national movement, Dzhokhar Dudayev, with armed supporters seized the building of the Supreme Soviet and forced the deputies to cease their activities. Gennady Burbulis arrived at the scene to understand the situation. Dudayev convinced Burbulis of his loyalty to Boris Yeltsin, and, presumably, at the suggestion of Burbulis, Yeltsin allowed Dudayev to seize power in Chechnya. It was alleged that the instruction to the local KGB headquarters in Chechnya not to resist Dudayev's troops came from Moscow. Already in November 1991, Dudayev announced the independence of Chechnya from Russia, initiating the bloodiest conflict in Russia.

Gennady Burbulis initiated the adoption by the 5th Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR of the Resolution granting additional powers to President Boris Yeltsin to carry out economic reforms.

In November 1991, Gennady Burbulis was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Boris Yeltsin himself took the post of prime minister, given the importance of the upcoming economic reforms.

Prior to that, the Russian government was headed by moderate conservatives Ivan Silaev and Oleg Lobov. But the path of gradual transformation they proposed was too similar to Gorbachev's policy and did not meet Russians' hopes for a quick improvement in their financial situation. It was argued that the country was on the verge of starvation, which, however, was a rather controversial statement. In these conditions, Yeltsin made a choice in favor of radical reforms - "shock therapy".

The rather radical economic program of Sergei Shatalin and Grigory Yavlinsky "500 days" was rejected due to the fact that, according to Gennady Burbulis, Yavlinsky hoped to the last that the structures of the USSR would be efficient. At the same time, Burbulis was probably already convinced that economic reforms should be carried out only in Russia without involving the union republics in this process, since it was no longer possible to control the situation in the republics from Moscow.

Gaidar Yegor Timurovich, a 35-year-old theoretical economist, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Finance, who proposed a concrete plan for radical economic reform, implemented in Russia independently of the union republics. According to Burbulis, he met Yegor Gaidar during the putsch. They were introduced by the adviser to Burbulis, Aleksey Leonardovich Golovkov. In September 1991, Gaidar headed the group for the development of economic reforms at the State Council of Russia. The plan developed by this group was approved by the State Council under the leadership of Burbulis and proposed by Burbulis to Yeltsin.

Alexey Golovkov is referred to as an economist in most sources on the grounds that he worked for a long time in economic institutions, where he met Yegor Gaidar. However, by education and initial specialty, Golovkov was an engineer-mathematician. Surrounded by theoretical economists, Golovkov could be considered an intelligent technician and, for sure, was much more pragmatic than his colleagues. Probably thanks to these qualities, Golovkov stood out for his organizational skills. In 1989, Golovkov took part in the creation of the Voters' Club of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, was an active member of the support group for "non-nominal" candidates in the elections of People's Deputies of the USSR, in particular, Andrei Sakharov. After the formation of the Interregional Deputy Group (MDG), Golovkov entered its secretariat, which operated under the leadership of Arkady Murashev. In early 1990, the MDG secretariat actually became the electoral headquarters of the pre-election bloc of democratic candidates in the elections of people's deputies of the RSFSR. Thus, Alexei Golovkov in Moscow played the same role as the aforementioned Alexander Urmanov in Sverdlovsk, who, by the way, also being a physicist, was a “black sheep” surrounded by humanitarians (philosophers, sociologists and historians) who made up the electoral headquarters of the “democrats” "In Sverdlovsk. Golovkov and Urmanov were political strategists during the election campaigns, and they gained fame precisely for this, but on the whole they considered themselves “social technologists” - mediators between the government and society.

In the fall of 1990, Golovkov began working in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, becoming one of the closest assistants of Gennady Burbulis. Golovkov accompanied Burbulis until November 1991. When Yegor Gaidar, under the influence of Golovkov, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Golovkov became his assistant, and later - the head of the government apparatus.

In the fall of 1991, speaking before the people's deputies of the RSFSR, Gennady Burbulis voiced the thesis that Russia should become the legal successor of the USSR, thereby indicating that the USSR will soon cease to exist.

In December 1991, Burbulis took part in the organization of the Belovezhskaya meeting of the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the development of the final document. Burbulis signed the Agreement on the creation of the CIS among 6 representatives of these republics. Russia was represented by Boris Yeltsin and Gennady Burbulis. According to Burbulis, the Belovezhskaya agreements made it possible to prevent a civil war, which could have led to the uncontrolled disintegration of the USSR.

Gennady Burbulis argued that the main reason for the signing of the Agreement on the creation of the CIS exactly then in December 1991 was the presidential elections in Ukraine and the holding of a referendum on independence by Ukraine, which became the basis for the newly elected President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk to demand withdrawal from the USSR, despite Boris Yeltsin's attempts to dissuade him. However, information was published that Gennady Burbulis's team took part in the election campaign of Leonid Kravchuk, so Kravchuk's victory was the work of Burbulis, among others.

One of the primary measures of radical economic reforms developed by Yegor Gaidar's group and supported by Gennady Burbulis was the abandonment of state regulation of retail prices. As expected, this provoked a sharp rise in prices in 1992, but previously scarce products and essential goods appeared on store shelves. According to the initiators of the reforms, this happened due to the emergence of a mass of "shuttle traders" who were profitable to sell goods imported from abroad at free prices. However, at the same time, the Gaidar government initiated large-scale barter operations "raw materials for food", which had nothing to do with the release of prices, but could play a significant role in solving the food problem.

Subsequently, Gennady Burbulis, along with Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, became the object of harsh criticism, and sometimes even hatred for the actions that led to the collapse of the USSR, the rise in prices and the transfer of the most profitable state enterprises under the control of a small group of persons nicknamed oligarchs. The ac-cusers of Burbulis accused him not so much of possible mistakes that were made, but of malicious intent - deliberate work to undermine the economic and military-political might of the state by order of some foreign forces. It should be noted that Gennady Burbulis was not an expert in the field of economic theory and, hardly, could competently judge the advantages of the economic program of Yegor Gaidar or Grigory Yavlinsky. It is doubtful that he could independently predict the consequences of the decision to first liberalize prices and then privatize, as proposed by Gaidar, and not vice versa, as suggested by Yavlinsky. Moreover, Boris Yeltsin, who was intellectually inferior to Burbulis, could not figure it out either. Both Yeltsin, Yeltsin and Burbulis, when choosing a model for reforming the economy, were most likely guided not by economic considerations in the long term, but by momentary political demands and personal preferences. As mentioned above, Yeltsin needed a decisive action plan that would bring radical changes in the economy over the next few months, in accordance with the aspirations of the population, irritated by the empty shelves in stores. In addition, the power-hungry Yeltsin was impressed by the proposal to dissolve the USSR, thanks to which he became the first person in the state, although on a smaller scale than the USSR, but still large enough for Yeltsin to formally stand on the same level with the leaders of the most powerful states in the world. Gennady Burbulis, as Yeltsin's confidant, had to meet the expectations of the patron and provide Yeltsin with a reform plan that suited him. In assessing the consequences of these reforms for the economy, Burbulis most likely relied on the opinion of his closest circle, in which the aforementioned Aleksey Golovkov played a significant role. What guided Golovkov when recommending Yegor Gaidar to Burbulis, having the available information, it is difficult to say. In theory, he could be influenced by some foreign forces. Recall that it was Golovkov's friend and colleague, Arkady Murashev, under whom Golovkov worked in the MDG secretariat, who initiated the invitation to the USSR of political consultants from the United States, who trained MDG political strategists to ensure the victory of candidates in the elections. The effectiveness of this training, however, is in question, just as the influence on Murashev and Golovkov from abroad remains in question.

In April 1992, Gennady Burbulis resigned as deputy chairman of the Russian government. This happened on the eve of the next Congress of People's Deputies of Russia. According to one version, in this way Boris Yeltsin took Burbulis out from under the fire of criticism of the people's deputies for the government's economic policy, which led to a sharp rise in prices. More plausible is the version that in this way Yeltsin satisfied the anger of the deputies, and Burbulis played the role of a ritual victim. It should be noted that the media actively inflated the role of Burbulis in carrying out economic reforms, which, most likely, did not correspond to his real level of influence.

Having resigned from the government, Gennady Burbulis retained the post of State Secretary of the Russian Federation.

In November 1992, Gennady Burbulis was dismissed from the post of Secretary of State of the Russian Federation as part of Boris Yeltsin's agreements with the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of Russia, who in exchange promised not to demand Yegor Gaidar's resignation. However, in December 1992, Gaidar resigned anyway.

Burbulis was appointed head of the group of advisers to the President of Russia.

In January 1993, Gennady Burbulis was dismissed from this position.

In February 1993, Gennady Burbulis was among the founders and headed the Humanitarian and Political Science Center "Strategy". It should be noted that Alexey Golovkov, who actively worked with Burbulis in 1990-1991, did not take part in the activities of the Strategy Center. Golovkov, together with Arkady Murashev, were engaged in the development of their own brainchild - the Center for liberal-conservative politics.

The Strategy Center took part in the preparation and conduct of a referendum on the adoption of a new Constitution, which, in fact, was a referendum on people's confidence in Boris Yeltsin in a situation of political crisis.

The political crisis of 1993 (the confrontation between the Supreme Soviet of Russia headed by Ruslan Khasbulatov and Vice-President of the Russian Federation Alexander Rutskoy on the one hand and President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin on the other) was due to the elections, which Russia had to make: follow the path of a parliamentary republic or a presidential one, deviate into paternalistic national-patriotism or bourgeois liberalism. However, the course of this crisis, which resulted in a violent confrontation with numerous human casualties, was largely due to the personal qualities of the key participants in these events. Gennady Burbulis also contributed to the development of events in a not very constructive way. If in 1990 the lust for power and pride of Burbulis led to a conflict with one of the leaders of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Vladimir Isakov, then in 1992 a conflict with the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia Ruslan Khasbulatov developed according to a similar scenario.

The main result of the confrontation was that the slogan "All power to the Soviets" was finally buried. The tendency towards the formation of an autocratic centralized state prevailed.

On the eve of the elections to the new parliament, Gennady Burbulis was one of the founders of the Russia's Choice movement, which was supposed to become a pro-government party and consolidate Boris Yeltsin's supporters. However, despite the persuasions of Burbulis, Yeltsin refused to lead this party, like any other, by the way, preferring the paternalistic position of the leader of the nation, who is above the clash of political forces. Burbulis headed the executive committee of the "Russia's Choice" movement. Among the founders of the movement were Arkady Murashev, Alexei Golovkov, Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais.

In December 1993, Gennady Burbulis was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which replaced the Supreme Soviet of Russia. Burbulis ran for deputy on the federal electoral list of the Russia's Choice bloc. The Strategy Center headed by Burbulis took part in the development of the election program of the Russia's Choice bloc. The result of the bloc in the elections could be considered a failure - 15.5% of the vote (second place after the Liberal Democratic Party). The Choice of Russia movement failed to cope with the role of the "party in power".

In March 1994, Burbulis left the Russian Choice faction, sharply cutting back on cooperation with his former associates. The reason for this sharp break is unknown.

In April 1994, the Strategy Bank was created in Moscow, in which, as the media wrote, Gennady Burbulis had interests. The bank was headed by a friend of Yegor Gaidar, Alexander Urinson, who from 1978 to 1992 headed the Main Computing Center of the State Statistics Committee of the USSR and Russia.

In 1994, an association of deputies "Parliamentary Club" was created in the State Duma, which was declared as an inter-factional association of deputies, aiming at in-creasing the professionalism in the activities of deputies. Gennady Burbulis was elected chairman of the Parliamentary Club. It was suggested that the Parliamentary Club was created by Burbulis to coordinate the work of the democratic factions in the State Duma (Russia's Choice, Yabloko and PRES), which were unable to unite into a single party before the elections. However, this inter-factional alliance was not realized. As a result, the Parliamentary Club began to be regarded as an informal lever of the behind-the-scenes influence of Gennady Burbulis on decision-making by the State Duma. In addition, the single-mandate deputies belonging to the club were supposed to become a regional basis for the creation of an all-Russian political movement or a party controlled by Burbulis.

In May 1995, the Parliamentary Club and the Center "Strategy" created the public organization "Russian Union" People of Business ", probably with an eye on the forthcom-ing elections of deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in December 1995. The union was represented in half of the regions of the Russian Federation. It should be noted that the development of the "Strategy" center, which became the ideological basis of the "People of Business" union, was widely used by representatives of the movement "Our Home - Russia" (NDR) - another attempt to create a "party of power". Most likely, this was not plagiarism, but an agreement: Burbulis distanced himself from Viktor Cherno-myrdin and the NDR headed by him, so as not to transfer his negative image to them, but in fact Burbulis worked for the NDR, and in this sense he continued to remain the team of the President of Russia, albeit was not as close to Yeltsin as before. Probably, in order not to create competition with the NDR, the People of Deeds union decided to participate in the elections of deputies to the State Duma of the Russian Federation only in single-mandate constituencies.

In August 1995, elections were held for the governor of the Sverdlovsk region. The main contenders were the "rebellious" Eduard Rossel, whom Boris Yeltsin Yeltsin dismissed in 1993 as head of the administration of the Sverdlovsk region, and the official "Kremlin protege" Alexei Strakhov. Despite Gennady Burbulis' public distancing from Yeltsin, the Strategy Center took part in the election campaign on Strakhov's side. However, Strakhov lost the election, and Rossel became the governor, who, presumably, was supported by the former rival of Burbulis in influence on Boris Yeltsin, Yuri Petrov.

In December 1995, Gennady Burbulis was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the Pervouralsky constituency of the Sverdlovsk region, where he was born and raised. In the State Duma, Burbulis took the position of chairman of the subcommittee on the concept of national security and the geopolitical position of Russia of the Committee on Geopolitics. The term of parliamentary powers ended in 1999.

From November 1998 to January 1999, Gennady Burbulis was the chairman of the supervisory board of Novotrubny Zavod JSC (Pervouralsk). He was nominated for this position by Vostochnaya Financial Company CJSC, the main owner of which was the economist Andrey Mikhailovich Godzinsky, who worked as a financial consultant at RAO UES of Russia.

It was a difficult period in the history of the Pervouralsk Novotrubny Plant, which was in a pre-bankruptcy state thanks to the efforts of the famous Ural raider Pavel Fedulev. It was at this time that Zelimkhan Alikoevich Mutsoev gained control over the enterprise. Whether Burbulis played any role in this is unknown.

At the elections of deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in 1999, Gennady Burbulis was defeated. Burbulis ran in the Novgorod region.

The Governor of the Novgorod Region Mikhail Prusak, together with Burbulis in 1989-1990, was a member of the Interregional Deputy Group of People's Deputies of the USSR. Probably, Prusak and Burbulis interacted with each other within the framework of the MDG. It is possible that it was Burbulis, who in 1991 was Boris Yeltsin's assistant, who contributed to Yeltsin's appointment of Mikhail Prusak as head of the Novgorod region administration. Presumably, this provided Burbulis with the support of the grateful Prusak in 1999.

In addition, information was published that Gennady Burbulis's connection in the Novgorod region was entrepreneur Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Kantor, whom Burbulis allegedly helped to establish control over the large mineral fertilizer producer Azot in Veliky Novgorod in the early 1990s. On the basis of this enterprise, Kantor established the Akron holding. In 2005-2009, Vyacheslav Kantor was the president of the Russian Jewish Congress.

In July 2000, the Governor of the Novgorod Region Mikhail Prusak appointed Gennady Burbulis Vice-Governor for Cooperation with the Chambers of the Federal Assembly.

In 2001, Burbulis was appointed a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation from the administration of the Novgorod region.

In January 2002, he was elected Chairman of the Federation Council Commission on the Methodology for Implementing the Constitutional Powers of the Federation Council.

Since 2005, Gennady Burbulis has been developing the concept of political philosophy. Political wisdom, according to Burbulis, lies in the combination of effective politics and humane pedagogy in the 21st century, when politics penetrates into all spheres of life and becomes the business of every person. Ultimately, the government must become spiritualized and act in accordance with the highest universal values. The most important value Burbulis called freedom, which is the measure of all other values (truth, goodness, beauty and benefit). That is, an act can be regarded as truly good only if it increases the degree of freedom. Thus, the main goal of politics is to ensure social conditions for achieving freedom. Freedom is defined as the ability to choose.

From this point of view, Gennady Burbulis assessed the collapse of the USSR in 1991 as an unconditional blessing, since this collapse, according to him, led to a broad liberation movement.

In September 2006, Burbulis founded and became the head of the Department of Political Science and Philosophical Sciences at the International University in Moscow.

In 2007, in connection with the resignation of the governor of the Novgorod region, Mikhail Prusak, Burbulis relieved the post of a member of the Federation Council from the Novgorod region.

From 2007 to 2010, Gennady Burbulis was an advisor to the Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov.

Since October 2010, Gennady Burbulis has been Vice-Rector for Innovative Development at the International University in Moscow. The head of the university was Gavriil Popov, a former colleague of Burbulis in MDG.

In 2015, under the Yeltsin Center (Yekaterinburg), on the initiative of Gennady Burbulis, the People's University of Russian Constitutionalism was created. Perhaps this university is intended to become a center of humane pedagogy, teaching the Russian people political wisdom in accordance with the concept of political philosophy developed by Burbulis.

Date of information update: 2016.