1990

The idea of the primacy of republican interests in determining the economic, social, cultural policy before the union, which was identified in 1989 by the Baltic republics, in 1990 became dominant not only for the "peripheral" republics, but also for the structure-forming republics of the USSR, in primarily for the RSFSR.

Explaining his decision to run for People's Deputies of the RSFSR from the Sverdlovsk Region, Boris Yeltsin said that the "aggressively obedient majority" of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR did not allow radical changes in the life of society. According to Yeltsin, he hoped that by the results of the elections of People's Deputies of the RSFSR it would be possible to form at least 50% of the composition of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, which would be "progressively democratic" inclined. Then it would be possible to take more radical measures to establish order in Russia, make it a truly independent republic, and not an appendage of the center, and then push the center from below. Yeltsin proposed establishing a presidential republic in Russia, where the president would be elected in alternative elections by direct universal secret ballot.

The Communist Party of the RSFSR was created by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Oleg Lobov, nominated by the Sverdlovsk delegation, who worked for a long time in the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU with Boris Yeltsin, claimed the role of party leader, but by a majority of votes, the first secretary of the Krasnodar regional committee of the CPSU, Ivan Polozkov, was elected leader, who, presumably, was supported by Mikhail Gorbachev, although he publicly did not declare it. However, another version has a right to exist: the struggle for supremacy in the Communist Party of the RSFSR unfolded between two conservative groups of the party elite, relying on the military-industrial complex. The "superconservative" group was represented by Polozkov, and the "moderately conservative" - by Lobov. A significant event in the struggle of these two "factions" was the story of the state-cooperative concern "AST".

In January 1990, the newspaper "Soviet Russia" published an article "Octopus under a semaphore", in which it was written about a possible attempt to illegally sell tanks abroad from the Uralvagonzavod (Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk region) by the concern "AST". The article acquired a great all-Union resonance. The scandal, presumably, was caused by the struggle for control over the emerging Communist Party of the RSFSR between two groups of influence within the military-industrial complex: the "superconservative" one, represented by the USSR Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Yegor Ligachev, chairman of the All-Union Association of Industrial Enterprises Alexander Tizyakov , and "moderately conservative", whose members, presumably, were the generals of the KGB of the USSR Leonid Shebarshin, Alexander Sterligov, Nikolai Sham and the former first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU Yakov Ryabov, who in 1976-1979 oversaw the military-industrial complex in the Central Committee of the CPSU. The founders of the concern "AST" were representatives of the "moderately conservative" group, and the representatives of the "superconservatives" fanned the scandal. As a result, Ivan Polozkov, the repre-sentative of the "superconservatives", defeated the representative of the "moderate conservatives" Oleg Lobov in the elections for the chairman of the RSFSR Communist Party. But the deepening confrontation between these groups led to support from the "moderate conservatives" of Boris Yeltsin, in particular, this group took part in financing Yeltsin's election campaign for the post of People's Deputy of the RSFSR in 1990 and, with his support, took part in the formation of the new government of the RSFSR, which he headed the representative of this group is Ivan Silaev. During the coup in 1991, some of the members of this group took a neutral position, and some openly pro-Yeltsin, which largely determined the failure of the putschists.

At the extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in March 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR. The opposition criticized Gorbachev for not making up his mind to direct elections. It was noted that even at the Congress, the minimum required number of deputies voted for Gorbachev's election as President, which indicated a decline in Gorbachev's popularity and influence. Gorbachev's long-term maneuvering between "conservatives" and "democrats" ultimately deprived him of the support of both. Those structures of the country that were previously directly subordinate to the Central Committee of the CPSU fell into the management of the President of the USSR: the ministries of defense, internal affairs, the state security committee, the ministry of foreign affairs. It was assumed that the President would be able to quickly implement the laws adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Gorbachev's first trip to the regions as President of the USSR was a trip to the Sverdlovsk region. Earlier, claims were made to Gorbachev that, being the first person of the state, he never visited the Sverdlovsk region. In addition, it was important for Gorbachev to demonstrate through the media that he has support even in the homeland of one of his main opponents, Boris Yeltsin. During the visit, Igor Stroganov, general director of Uralmash (the largest machine-building enterprise in the region), told Gorbachev that the transition to new economic relations could ruin machine-building.

In March 1990, the Supreme Council of Lithuania adopted legislative acts that actually proclaimed Lithuania's secession from the USSR.

Several officers of the Sverdlovsk garrison refused to go to Baku in order to carry out a government mission to maintain public order. This was explained by the fact that the servicemen were morally not ready to perform this task due to the negative assessments given by the government to the participation of the USSR Armed Forces in the events in Tbilisi and Afghanistan. Criminal cases against the officers were dropped for lack of corpus delicti, since the order to leave for Baku was not issued, but only an “offer” was made (probably not to be held responsible for the consequences). The officers' court of honor recommended the dismissal of the refused officers from the ranks of the armed forces.

The hero of the "Afghan" war, General Boris Gromov, in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty, spoke extremely negatively about the possibility of using the army in crisis situations within the country, if they are connected with interethnic relations.

In November 1990, a group of employees of the KGB Directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region sent a letter of the 64s to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR about the need for fundamental changes in the state security agencies.

The rehabilitation of victims of political repressions was actively carried out, for which the KGB opened its archives. It should be noted that the emphasis was on political repression under Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that the country's top leadership voiced the slogan of a return to true Leninist socialism, which was distorted by Stalin. The recognition that the repressions began not under Stalin, but under Lenin, would discredit this slogan. In addition, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in his book The Gulag Archipelago, in the 1930s, those whose voice could be well heard were repressed - not only ordinary citizens suspected of disloyalty to the govern-ment, but also representatives of this government itself, who yesterday themselves issued arrest warrants. This is where the myth of the rampant repression in the 1930s arose, al-though repression of no less scale had taken place before that.

In 1990, in public speeches of politicians of various orientations, often diametrically opposed, similar slogans were heard about the need to shift decision-making powers from top to bottom: to primary party organizations, local councils, councils of labor collectives. In particular, Boris Yeltsin said that the most important Council of People's Deputies should be the regional council - the one that is closest to the people. And the district council itself must determine what share of power it transfers to the region, which, in turn, gives its share of power to Russia. This idea was most consistently presented in the article by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "How we can equip Russia" (download), widely circulated in the press. The article proposed to build a vertical of power from the bottom up, so that the deputies of higher power bodies are elected by the assembly of deputies of lower power bodies, and the population directly elects only the deputies of local power bodies. It was assumed that as a result, a vertical of power could be built that would preserve the integrity of the country, but this vertical would be oriented not upward toward the “almighty” (general secretary, president or monarch), but downward toward the people. However, this idea remained at the level of declarative statements, bringing political dividends to those who voiced it, but did not intend to implement it when they came to power. So, for example, at the end of 1990 in the RSFSR, after Yeltsin became the highest official in the republic, the subordination of the lower Soviets of People's Deputies to the higher ones began to be practiced, which directly contradicted Yeltsin's own statements at the beginning of 1990.

In January 1990, a conference of party clubs and other party organizations was held in Moscow, at which a decision was made to create a Democratic Platform in the CPSU. High-ranking party functionaries (members of the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPSU) did not take part in the conference. People's Deputies of the USSR, who were members of the Interregional Deputy Group, played a significant role at the conference. The initiators of the creation of the Democratic Platform expressed their intention to reform the CPSU in the direction of a democratic parliamentary party operating in a multi-party system. Boris Yeltsin spoke at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee with the main provisions of the Democratic Platform.

A branch of the Democratic Party of the Soviet Union, which advocates a multi-party system and all forms of ownership, began work in Sverdlovsk.

In early 1990, conferences and meetings of members of the CPSU were held in Sverdlovsk and a number of other cities, at which distrust was expressed to the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU and the regional committee's bureau, proposals and demands were made to hold a regional party conference. At a meeting of the regional committee bureau in February 1990, the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU, Leonid Bobykin, resigned.

In February, the city's first interuniversity party conference was held in Sverdlovsk, which was convened with the aim of assessing the political situation in the region. Representatives of the regional committee of the CPSU stated that at the moment there is no party crisis, but there is a crisis of the apparatus in the person of Yegor Ligachev, Leonid Bobykin Bobykin and the like. However, other representatives of the regional party elite were also criticized by the party activists of the Sverdlovsk universities, in particular, the secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU V. Andrianov and the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk city committee of the CPSU Vladimir Kadochnikov. The conference adopted a resolution in which a majority of votes expressed no confidence in the regional committee of the CPSU and its bureau and demanded their resignation. The most significant among the university party organizations was the UPI party organization. In turn, the core of the institute's party organization was the party-political club, created with the active participation of the Kirovsky district committee of the CPSU in Sverdlovsk. Among the leading members of the club was the People's Deputy of the USSR Gennady Burbulis.

On February 25, an all-Russian rally "for the unification of democratic forces" took place. In Sverdlovsk, about 12 thousand people took part in a citywide rally, in Krasnoturyinsk - 4 thousand people, in Asbest - 3 thousand people. There were also rallies in Serov, Alapaevsk and Kamensk-Uralsky, but they were less massive. The Democratic Choice Movement, created with the active participation of Gennady Burbulis, took an active part in organizing the Sverdlovsk rally. The rally was largely campaigning ahead of the elections to the Soviets of People's Deputies from local to republican levels.

The "informal" organizations in opposition to the Democratic Choice Movement were the Ural People's Front, the Fatherland and Rabochy movements.

Before the elections of the Soviets of People's Deputies, representatives of the "democratic wing" of the regional elite noted that the real threat to the transfer of power from party bureaucratic structures to real people's representatives could be the administrative and economic apparatus of large industrial monopoly enterprises, striving to strengthen their economic power. political and legal guarantees. First of all, Igor Stroganov, General Director of PA Uralmash, and Alexander Tizyakov, General Director of the Kalinin Machine-Building Plant, were mentioned. It was argued that previously the administrative and economic elite defended their interests through membership in the CPSU, and now, in connection with the transfer of the center of power to the Soviets, it will win a dominant position in the Soviets through the employees of enterprises controlled by this elite. It was assumed that this group of people would be interested in preserving the old administrative-command system, where in the economic sphere the producer dominated the consumer.

The most common point of view on the alignment of political forces before the elections of the Soviets of People's Deputies was the idea that there are two camps: on the one hand, the "conservative" power elite represented by the party apparatus, heads of state authorities and large industrial enterprises, and on the other hand, representatives "Democratic" public, mainly represented by the scientific, technical and creative intelligentsia. Naturally, one side demonized the other. The "Democrats" accused the "conservatives" of resisting any change in order to maintain power. The "conservatives" accused the "democrats" of being ready for any crime, up to the sale of their homeland in order to seize power.

НIn our opinion, in reality the competition was not between the bureaucratic apparatus and the public, but between various groups within the bureaucratic apparatus. The alignment of forces in the Sverdlovsk region can be described as follows - follow the link.

Elections of people's deputies to local and republican Soviets were held in several stages from March to May 1990. The voter turnout at the first (main) stage in the Sverdlovsk region was about 72%.

In the elections of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, the Sverdlovsk Regional Council and the Sverdlovsk City Council in 1990, there were no quotas from public organizations that were in the elections of People's Deputies of the USSR in 1989. Confidence in the state authorities and the governing bodies of the CPSU continued to decline. As a result, following the election results in 1990, at all levels, the number of deputies who were in opposition to the union leadership increased significantly. The most organized opposition force in the region was the Democratic Choice Movement.

The Democratic Choice Movement received the largest representation in the Sverdlovsk City Council of People's Deputies due to the high concentration of the intelligentsia in the city, where universities and research centers were located, which had not only regional, but also macro-regional significance. Yuri Samarin was elected Chairman of the Sverdlovsk City Council of People's Deputies. Although he was not a member of the Democratic Choice Movement, he was elected a member of the City Council from the Democratic Choice Movement and declared that he shares many of the Movement'sviews. The main candidates for the post of chairman of the Sverdlovsk city executive committee were Yury Novikov, chairman of the last convocation of the city executive committee, and Valery Skripchenko, director of the Sverdlovsk STCY center, who actively supported the Democratic Choice Movement. The city council deputies considered that Skripchenko was overloaded with work as a deputy of both the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the regional council, so Novikov was elected chairman of the city executive committee, and Skripchenko became his deputy.

In the regional Council of People's Deputies, the Democratic Choice Movement did not receive such a significant representation, but was able to create a sufficiently large opposition, which on important issues was able to mobilize "neutral" deputies, blocking the decisions of the regional Council leadership. A number of representatives of the Democratic Choice Movement headed the commissions of the regional council. In March 1990, the chairman of the regional executive committee, Vladimir Vlasov, was elected chairman of the regional council, for whom 108 deputies voted. His rival was the representative of the Democratic Choice Movement Gennady Burbulis, for whom 94 deputies voted. The first two candidates proposed by Vlasov for the post of deputy chairman of the regional council were rejected by the deputies due to fear of excessive strengthening of the protégés of the command-administrative system in the regional council. Ultimately, Anatoly Grebenkin, head of the Department of Social and Economic Processes Management of the Ural State University, who was a supporter of Gennady Burbulis, was elected deputy chairman of the regional Council of People's Deputies.

Eduard Rossel , head of the Sreduralstroy TSO, was elected chairman of the regional executive committee instead of Vlasov in April 1990. Sergey Vozdvizhensky and Valery Trushnikov became the first deputy chairmen of the regional executive committee.

It was noted that some deputies of the regional Council of People's Deputies felt like pawns in someone else's game. Elections and appointments at sessions took place in a hurry. It was impossible to fully recognize the candidates. One got the impression that important personnel decisions were made behind the scenes, as a result of someone's agreements.

Elected People's Deputy of the RSFSR from the Sverdlovsk Region with the support of the Democratic Choice Movement, Boris Yeltsin, although on the third attempt, was nevertheless approved by the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in May 1990, thereby leading the state authorities of the RSFSR. One of the founders of the Democratic Choice Movement, Vladimir Isakov, who was also elected People's Deputy of the RSFSR from the Sverdlovsk Region, headed the Council of the Republic - one of the two chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

In April 1990, the first secretary of the Asbest city committee of the CPSU, A.P. Gusev, was elected the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU instead of the retired Leonid Bobykin, despite the fact that he tried to withdraw himself. It should be noted that at the same time Gusev served as chairman of the commission of the regional Council of People's Deputies on foreign economic activity, which for him was perhaps more important than the post of first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU. The first secretary of the Sverdlovsk city committee of the CPSU, Vladimir Kadochnikov, was elected second secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU.

Already in June 1990, Gusev appealed to the delegates of the regional party conference with a statement to release him from the duties of the first secretary of the re-gional committee of the CPSU in connection with his transfer to another job. Vladimir Kadochnikov was elected first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the "Declaration of Sovereignty." The sovereignty of Russia within the USSR was proclaimed. The Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR began to develop and conclude bilateral treaties with other republics of the USSR. In response to accusations of separatism, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin, stated that this activity was not aimed at destroying the USSR. In general, these actions were fully consistent with the policy of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev to transform the USSR into a Union of sovereign states. Nevertheless, the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Vladimir Kryuchkov, said in his secret report to the President of the USSR Gorbachev: “Under the influence of the well-known decisions of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the confrontation between the Center and the union republics received a powerful impetus. The head of the Russian parliament, together with certain forces, circles from the shadow business, clearly stated their claims to create a "second center" in opposition to the state political leadership of the USSR. ... the policy of appeasement of the aggressive wing of "democratic movements" is not able to prevent the growth of destructive processes, allows pseudo-democrats to freely implement their plans to seize power and change the nature of the social system."

In June 1990, a few days after the election of the leadership of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, at which the representative of the conservative wing of the CPSU Ivan Polozkov defeated Yeltsin's longtime ally Oleg Lobov, Boris Yeltsin expressed his intention to suspend his membership in the CPSU. Nevertheless, in July, as a delegate to the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU, Yeltsin took part in the work of the congress and during his speech stated that, having taken up defensive positions at the initial stage of perestroika, the conservative forces later went on the offensive. They began a struggle against economic reform, albeit timid and half-hearted, but creating a real threat to the sovereignty of the party. According to Yeltsin, this position created a security regime for the conservative forces of the CPSU, streng-thened their confidence that revenge can be taken, which was demonstrated by the Constituent Congress of the Communist Party of the RSFSR. By the decision of the Congress of the CPSU, Boris Yeltsin's powers as a delegate to the Congress were removed in connection with his statement about leaving the CPSU.

In June 1990, deputies of the Sverdlovsk Regional Council from the Democratic Choice Movement initiated the resignation of the Chairman of the Regional Council, Vladimir Vlasov, who publicly opposed the candidacy of Boris Yeltsin when he was approved as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in May 1990. By a majority of votes, the deputies of the regional council early terminated the powers of Vlasov as chairman of the council.

In July 1990, the regional Council of People's Deputies received a letter signed by the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin. Referring to information coming from a number of regions and large cities about the contradictions arising between the Soviets and the executive committees, about the duplication of the work of the executive committees by the Soviets, about the planned increase in the apparatus of the presidiums of the Council, the author of the letter expressed the idea of the advisability of implementing “in the order of ex- Periods in the Sverdlovsk region of combining the posts of the chairman of the regional council and the chairman of the executive committee. " This proposal obviously contradicted the principle of separation of powers, the violation of which, in the opinion of the "democrats", led to the omnipotence of the party-bureaucratic apparatus in the decaying USSR, on the wave of the struggle against which Yeltsin became so popular. This also contradicted the slogan "All power to the Soviets!" Thus, a little over a month has passed since Boris Yeltsin became the highest official in the RSFSR, and he began to act contrary to the fundamental principles of his election statements. It should be noted that at the same time, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a decision to prohibit combining the posts of chairman of the Council of People's Deputies of any level with leading posts in the CPSU.

The chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional executive committee, Eduard Rossel, said that Yeltsin's letter was born from his submission. Rossel spoke about the powerlessness of the newly formed government, about slippage in solving practical issues. He also expressed complaints against the regional council, which, according to him, tried to take away some structures from the executive committee, to reduce it to the level of the protocol department. Despite fears of a return to authoritarian rule, the regional council members nevertheless agreed with Boris Yeltsin's proposal that one person should head both the regional council of people's deputies and the regional executive committee. The semblance of the principle of separation of powers was preserved by introducing the posts of two deputy chairmen of the Council: one was to be responsible for the work of the Council, and the second - the regional executive committee.

During the elections of the chairman of the regional Council of People's Deputies, the most votes were received by the candidates for the chairman of the regional executive committee Eduard Rossel and the chairman of the Nizhneturinsk city council G.P. Chuprov. But none of the candidates received sufficient votes for the election of the deputies. The decision to elect the chairman of the regional council was postponed.

Meanwhile, the confrontation between the regional council and the regional executive committee continued. For example, the commission on foreign economic activity of the regional council canceled the decision of the regional executive committee, signed by the chairman of the regional executive committee, Eduard Rossel, which ordered that foreign guests of enterprises should be fed for foreign currency in specially equipped places. 70% of this currency was to be transferred to the regional executive committee. Thus, the regional executive committee was looking for ways to obtain currency. In addition, the commission agreed that a self-supporting association for external relations under the regional executive committee (created by combining a number of commercial firms) cannot have, in addition to commercial, legislative and control functions. This was to be the prerogative of the Council. The commission decided to consider the step of the regional executive committee to create a self-supporting association as insufficiently prepared and to propose to Eduard Rossel to cancel this decision within 10 days. Within ten days, Rossel did not cancel his decision and did not answer the commission.

According to the results of a poll among the deputies of the Regional Council, the most authoritative deputies were named: Eduard Rossel, Gennady Burbulis, A. Zaborov, Anatoly Grebenkin, A. Matrosov, Larisa Mishustina, A. Gusev, G. Chuprov, Galina Karelova, Vladimir Gaffner.

In 1990, the newspaper "For the Power of the Soviets!" Along with this, the newspaper Tribuna, whose editor Larisa Mishustina headed the regional council's publicity commission, claimed the role of the regional council's press organ. Ultimately, the newspaper For the Power of the Soviets became the press organ of the regional council, which was critical of both “radically conservative” and “radically democratic” groups of influence in the region. Apparently, the newspaper's management was guided by a group of "centrists" from the camp "near the scientific" bureaucracy, the structure-forming core of which were the authorities of the Kirovsky district of Sverdlovsk.

At a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 21, 1990, President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev made a proposal to grant him extraordinary powers, including the right to impose presidential rule in sovereign republics and dissolve their higher bodies of state power, in connection with the difficult economic and political situation in the country. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, headed by Boris Yeltsin, issued a statement that in the current situation, granting the President of the USSR the emergency powers requested by him is unacceptable, and if the President of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR grants such powers, the authorities of the RSFSR will take all the necessary measures to protect the sovereignty and constitutional order of the RSFSR.

In October 1990, a meeting of representatives of workers of the Bashkir, Udmurt ASSR, Kurgan, Orenburg, Perm, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk regions chaired by the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU Vladimir Kadochnikov sent a statement to the Supreme Soviets and Councils of Ministers The USSR and the RSFSR, the President of the USSR, in which, in particular, he pointed out that “in recent years, the leadership of the country, both in the center and in the localities, has shown incompetence, disorganization and irresponsibility. The diktat of the ministries is replaced by the diktat of the republics and Soviets of various levels. The sovereignties declared by the union republics do not create guaranteed conditions for strengthening the USSR as a single state."

The resolution of the XXVI regional party conference of the CPSU asserted that “the communists of the region note with anxiety the inactivity of the new members of the Politburo of the Central Committee and the Central Committee of the CPSU elected at the XXVIII Congress, personally the General Secretary of Comrade M.S. tia ". The activity of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was also negatively assessed. Such harsh assessments were probably intended to restore the confidence of the region's population in the regional party organization.

In October 1990, it was reported that Mikhail Gorbachev had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Plenipotentiary of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Gennady Burbulis accused the chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional executive committee Eduard Rossel of hypocrisy and "political flirting" with the union government, while the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR insisted on his resignation. Burbulis had in mind Rossel's trip to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Nikolai Ryzhkov with the aim of agreeing on the supply of food to the region. In response to this accusation, ERossel said that he had gone to Moscow on instructions from a session of the Regional Council of People's Deputies. Initially, Rossel appealed to the government of the RSFSR, but convinced that it was still too weak and in the stage of formation, he turned to Nikolai Ryzhkov, which, according to Rossel, allowed him to "knock out" the food. In reality, Rossel managed to achieve just another promises from Ryzhkov and formidable phone calls to the heads of agricultural regions. Ryzhkov's instructions were never followed.

In November 1990, during a regular vote of deputies of the regional Council of People's Deputies for candidates for the post of chairman of the Council, the chairman of the regional executive committee, Eduard Rossel, ultimately won. The closest rival was the head of the department of the Scientific Research Institute of Automation, the chairman of the control committee of the regional council A. Matrosov.

The question of the possibility of combining the posts of the chairman of the regional Council of People's Deputies and the chairman of the regional executive committee began to be actively discussed again. Rossel said that, in his opinion, the leaders of both the legislative and executive powers in the region should be elected by the population so that they are independent from each other. And the scheme of subordination of the regional executive committee to the Council, when the Council interferes in the work of the executive committee, in Rossel's opinion, is ineffective.

The Regional Council was divided on the issue under discussion approximately in half. On the side of Rossel was the "Consolidation" deputy group, which united the secretaries and members of the regional committee of the CPSU, the first leaders of cities, districts, and large industrial enterprises. According to opposition-minded deputies, Rossel, having become chairman of the regional council, ignored the demands of many deputies to put to a vote the issue of dismissing him from the post of chairman of the executive committee in order to retain both posts, despite the decision of the session not to combine them.

Rossel responded by saying that overcoming crises has always been accompanied in world history by some restriction of democratic freedoms. It is inevitable on the scale of a separate region. It is only important to guarantee the possibilities for deepening democracy in the future.

Eduard Rossel stated that he intends to "fight" with Boris Yeltsin (the leadership of the RSFSR) for the rights of the Sverdlovsk region, just as Yeltsin Yeltsin is "at war" with the union center for the rights of Russia. Since the end of 1989, the Ural Republic movement existed in the region, one of the main activists of which was Anton Bakov. The main goal of the movement was to create a sovereign Ural Union Republic within the RSFSR with the capital in Sverdlovsk, which could include the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Perm regions, as well as Komi, Udmurt and the Bashkir ASSR. Only within the framework of such an independent education, according to the activists of the movement, the economic, social and environmental problems of the region could be solved. This idea was consonant with the proposals made by Boris Yeltsin that the territory of the RSFSR should be divided into several regions not according to national, but according to economic criteria, and these regions should be granted rights similar to those of the union republics.

In October 1990, the "Corporation Big Ural K.A.O." (commercial joint stock company), which was declared as a financial and economic union of autonomous republics and regions of the Ural economic region. The founders of the corporation are:
- Council of Ministers of the Bashkir ASSR;
- News agency "Novosti" (Moscow);
- the executive committee of the Kurgan Regional Council of People's Deputies;
- the executive committee of the Orenburg Regional Council of People's Deputies;
- Executive Committee of the Perm Regional Council of People's Deputies;
- the executive committee of the Sverdlovsk Regional Council of People's Deputies;
- Council of Ministers of the Udmurt ASSR;
- Presidium of the Ural Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Sverdlovsk);
- Executive Committee of the Chelyabinsk Regional Council of People's Deputies.

Yuri Vershinin, deputy chairman of the Ural branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, became the president of the corporation.

The creation of the Big Ural corporation was supported at a meeting with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Ivan Silaev. It was announced that such corporations would be created in Siberia, the Volga region, and Central Russia.

In December 1990, at a meeting of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Vladimir Isakov said that when the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and its presidium made decisions, pressure was exerted on the deputies, accompanied by violation of the rules. This pressure was exerted both by Ruslan Khasbulatov, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, and by Chairman Boris Yeltsin himself. Isakov gave several examples, including the circumstances of the creation of the joint-stock company of the industrial and commercial company "Russian House", which was associated with the leadership of the scandalous concern "AST". Isakov hinted that these “pushed through” decisions could be corrupt. People's Deputy of the RSFSR Vitaly Mashkov said that "raising the organizational shortcomings in the work of the Supreme Soviet into political frames, when the congress is split, when voting on constitutional norms is coming, gives a clear advantage to the Communists of Russia bloc, those who want to block radical reform." The reason for the "rebellion" of Vladimir Isakov against Boris Yeltsin could have been a banal deterioration in relations between Isakov and Gennady Burbulis, who had a great influence on Yeltsin. But it is also possible that Isakov was sincerely outraged by the scale of the abuses of the newly formed "democratic" apparatus, which proclaimed that it was fighting the abuses of the old party apparatus.

According to Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in 1990 the economic situation in the country continued to deteriorate. The financial situation worsened due to the fact that more and more foreign currency had to be spent on the purchase of food abroad. Even a significant increase in world oil prices did not lead to an improvement in the financial situation, due to the fact that oil production in the USSR decreased. According to the leadership of the KGB of the USSR, the diversion of funds abroad through commercial banks played an important role in weakening the financial system. But there were also accusations against the KGB itself, which, presumably, organized the most significant flows of transferring funds abroad.

With a drop in production volumes, the population's monetary incomes increased, which intensified inflationary processes. The weakening of the ruble led to the develop-ment of in-kind exchange between enterprises, which further worsened the state of finances in the country. The leadership of a number of republics and regions began to encourage barter transactions between enterprises in order to solve the problem of shortages of goods. Despite the expansion of the rights of labor collectives and local authorities, an avalanche-like increase in demands and claims against the union center took place. Enterprises, regions, sometimes entire industries imposed on the government of the USSR an urgent solution to social issues, demands for resource supplies, additional capital investments, and in an ultimatum form, under the threat of strikes.

Economists, adhering to a "radically democratic" orientation, proposed to give complete freedom of entrepreneurial activity, completely abandoning state regulation of prices for goods. At the same time, it was proposed to avoid hyperinflation by limiting the money supply. The government of the USSR abandoned this path, pointing out that with such an approach, a sharp limitation of the mass of funds would seriously complicate the sale of products, entail the ruin of a large number of enterprises. As a result of the breakdown of many economic ties, production will fall significantly. An attempt to transition to a market with the existing monopolistic structures will immediately cause a rise in prices and inflation, and social support of the population due to severe financial constraints cannot be guaranteed at the proper level.

The leadership of the USSR made a decision to consistently, step by step, reduce the scale of direct tough state influence on the economy and expand the sphere of market relations.

In October 1990, the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev issued a decree "On priority measures for the transition to market relations", which in 1991 established the right of enterprises to sell products in bulk on the basis of contractual prices. In order to prevent a sharp rise in prices, the government determined the marginal level of profitability, in excess of which the profit had to be withdrawn to the union and republican budgets. Contract prices were not allowed to be set for all categories of goods and raw materials. A number of heads of large industrial enterprises spoke out against the planned increase in prices in the Sverdlovsk region, including the director of the Kalinin plant, chairman of the association of state enterprises of the USSR, Alexander Tizyakov, and general director of the Pnevmostroymashina production association, chairman of the regional association of directors, Vladimir Semyonov. The production workers explained their protest by concern for social protection of the population, as well as concern about the possible growth of social conflicts. The regional executive committee, guided by the order of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, banned the sale in commercial stores at prices exceeding the state ones, of goods for children, consumer goods of domestic production and food products.

For the republic's transition to the market, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted the "500 days" program as a basis, which contradicted the program of the transition to the market, which was guided by the leadership of the USSR. According to the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, the main efforts of the union leadership were aimed at preventing the economic basis of the sovereignty of the RSFSR: in the industry of the RSFSR, enterprises of union subordination accounted for 70% of the production volume, the main deductions from profits still went to the union budget, more More than 90% of the export of Russian enterprises was carried out by foreign economic organizations of the union ministries and departments, no deductions were made to the Russian budget from foreign exchange earnings for the supply of the main export products (oil, gas, oil products). The Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR made a decision to pass no confidence in the Council of Ministers of the USSR. At the same time, according to Yeltsin, , his disagreements with Gorbachev did not concern principled positions, but consisted only in "adherence to different rates of movement forward."

According to the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, Vladimir Kadochnikov, the law "On taxation of profits" adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1990 put state-owned enterprises in the worst possible conditions in comparison with other economic forms. The measures to restrict the money supply in circulation and stabilize finances, envisaged by the presidential program, left many regional enterprises, including such as Uralmash, Pnevmostroymashina, Sverdlovsk worsted plant and others, not only without funds for development in the coming years, but did not provide a minimum income to cover current expenses. Kadochnikov concluded that there is a great danger of destruction of enterprises that determine the level of development of the country and its technical potential.

Alexander Tizyakov, Chairman of the Association of State Enterprises of the USSR, General Director of the Sverdlovsk NPO Kalinin Machine-Building Plant, reported that the republics are closing borders, arranging customs and checkpoints on the roads, as a result of which economic ties are destroyed.

The chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Vladimir Kryuchkov, stated that under these conditions it was impossible to avoid the restoration of the lost ties in the country's economic life according to the old scheme, emphasizing that this was a temporary but inevitable measure.

In January 1990, a resolution was adopted by the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR "On the experimental development of the mechanism of management based on self-government and self-financing in the Sverdlovsk region in 1990". It was reported that carrying out such an experiment in the Sverdlovsk region in full became possible thanks to the active work of the Sverdlovsk people's deputies of the USSR headed by Vladimir Volkov, as well as due to the attentive attitude to the needs of the Sverdlovsk residents of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Ryzhkov, who was a native of the Sverdlovsk region and for a long time worked in the region.

Since 1990, the regional executive committee has received the right (and delegated it to the level of cities and districts) to independently determine the composition and structure of the management bodies of the subsidiary economy, the number of employees, the costs of maintaining these bodies within the earned funds. If before the experiment, out of 11 billion rubles of income generated in the territory of the Sverdlovsk region, only 1.1 billion fell into the regional consolidated budget, then since 1990 the regional budget began to have an amount of 2.7 billion rubles. The budgets of cities and districts have increased accordingly. Some expenses, which were previously financed from the republican and union budgets, since 1990 began to be provided from the funds of cities, districts, and regions. The importance of extra-budgetary funds, which could be created by the Soviets and their executive bodies, increased significantly. The production of consumer goods has become especially profitable without attracting centralized capital investments and centrally distributed material and technical resources. In this case, the entire volume of manufactured products remained at the disposal of local councils and labor collectives that showed such initiative. The Soviets began to receive 10% of the currency earned by the businesses they run. In August 1990, the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee obtained the right to independently sell abroad 5% of the products produced in the region (over 1 billion rubles). In September 1990, the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee was allowed to carry out barter exchange with foreign partners in 1990-1991 of products produced in excess of the state order and contractual obligations, and production waste in the amount of up to $ 2 billion, which was considered a huge amount at that time. The largest state associations engaged in foreign economic activity operated with smaller amounts (up to $ 1.5 billion). Trading through the representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations in the Sverdlovsk region, the enterprises had 15%. From barter transactions, enterprises were supposed to have 50%, and 50% - the territory. It was assumed that barter would be used to purchase not only and not so much consumer goods as advanced technologies. The licensing of enterprises that were granted the right to barter transactions was to be dealt with by the barter department of the regional executive committee.

But some negative aspects also remained. For example, the policy of state order for the production of goods by enterprises, including local industry, continued to be carried out by the central authorities. And this meant that in the case of additional production of consumer goods by Sverdlovsk enterprises on the initiative of local Soviets, this could not necessarily lead to a reduction in the shortage of goods on the market, since the central authorities could accordingly reduce the supply of these goods to the Sverdlovsk region from other regions in order to reduce the deficit where somewhere else where they did not work so well.

The chairman of the regional executive committee, Eduard Rossel, identified the unwillingness of regional enterprises to take into account the interests of the region as a significant problem. In their activities, the enterprises were guided only by the requests of their ministries. It was proposed, along with the state order, to introduce a territorial order for enterprises, failure to fulfill which would be punishable by penalties.

In 1990, food shortages persisted in the region, especially in terms of meat products. Despite the formidable instructions of the union center, the food supplying regions did not ship food to the Sverdlovsk region, or shipped it, but much less than the required volume. Many regions offered to ship food barter in exchange for other scarce goods. The Sverdlovsk City Council of People's Deputies sent an appeal to President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Ryzhkov and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Ivan Silaev, in which he declared that in case of continued inaction of the Union and republican governments in providing Sverdlovsk with stock supplies, the Council will be forced to take any measures, up to the termination of supplies by the city's enterprises of products under the state order. A few months later, in the same 1990, a similar statement was sent by the regional Council of People's Deputies.

By a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 11, 1989, for 1990, licensing was introduced for the export of consumer goods and basic types of raw materials for their production, carried out by all Soviet participants in foreign economic relations. The issuance of licenses was carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR (Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR), the Ural regional administration of which was located in Sverdlovsk. The export of these goods was allowed within the limits of quotas. The export of only its own products and the import of products only for their own needs were allowed. To carry out intermediary operations, it was necessary to obtain permission from the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR. It was stated that in this way the government seeks to encourage enterprises to actively develop their own production activities and not focus their efforts mainly on buying up various goods on the domestic market of the USSR for rubles with their subsequent resale abroad, which often brought super-profits only due to the difference in prices, and for the border left the raw materials that the Soviet industry needed. In reality, government restrictions often led to the fact that the right to intermediary foreign trade operations, bringing super profits, went to a limited number of people who had connections in government bodies.

In 1990, there were four joint ventures registered in the region in the Sverdlovsk region:
- Soviet-Chinese "Harbin";
- Soviet-Swiss "InterUral";
- Soviet-Swedish "Intermet";
- Soviet-British "Ural".

КIn addition, the foreign trade association PA "Uralmash" and the firm of the Ural branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences were actively working abroad.

In 1990, in Sverdlovsk, the Society of Soviet-Chinese Friendship was headed by the head of the Department of Graphics and Machine Parts of the Sverdlovsk Agricultural Institute Vasily Vasilyevich Blucher, the son of Marshal V.K. Blucher, who was the main military adviser in the Chinese Republic in the 1920s. The Soviet-Chinese joint venture Ural-Harbin (Urhar) was established under the Society. In addition, the Association for Business Cooperation with China and the Countries of Southeast Asia was registered in the region, and Alexei Strakhov, Deputy Chairman of Sverdlovskglavsnab, became its president.

In 1990, in the Sverdlovsk region, in addition to the branches of state banks of the USSR, which lent to large industrial enterprises, five commercial banks were actively operating, of which one cooperative, which lent to small enterprises and cooperatives:
- KUB-bank;
- Uralcombank;
- Start-bank;
- Sreduralbank;
- Polyarexbank (cooperative).

As of June 1, 1990, these banks, created in 1989, attracted funds of enterprises, organizations and the population to accounts for deposits and deposits of about 94 million rubles, loans from other banks amounted to 56 million. Commercial banks provided loans to enterprises, organizations and cooperatives by 136 million rubles.

The Sverdlovsk region had the largest branch network of the USSR Promstroybank in the USSR due to the fact that the region was the largest industrial hub in the country. The interest rate in state banks was much lower than in commercial banks, which issued loans at 18% per annum, but in commercial banks, loans could be obtained easier and faster. The transfer of funds through the state banks of the USSR took from 18 to 30 days, which was absolutely incomparable with Western banks, where the transfer of funds took 3 minutes. One of the main reasons for this is the insufficient computerization of the banking sector in the USSR, which was provided by computer technology almost least of all. In 1990, the branch of Promstroybank of the USSR in the Sverdlovsk region acquired a new status - the state-commercial Uralpromstroybank.

In June 1990, the regional committee of the KPSS was among the co-founders of a commercial bank called the European-Asian Commercial Bank (Euroaziyakombank). It was stated that party money should not lie dead, and the profit from their profitable turnover will go to strengthen party work.

In July 1990, the Sverdlovsk Commodity Exchange was registered by the Kirovsky district Executive Committee of Sverdlovsk. It was a limited liability company, the founders of which were the economic planning department of the regional executive committee, the territorial intersectoral administration of the regional executive committee, the Kirovsky district executive committee and the commercial firm "Kontur" of the regional intersectoral association of the regional executive committee. It was assumed that the exchange would be a place for establishing direct links between enterprises.

In October 1990, the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the RSFSR, Viktor Yaroshenko, held in Sverdlovsk a founding conference of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia, which was designed to promote the development of foreign economic relations of Russian enterprises.

To solve the problems of denationalization of the economy (privatization) in the sphere of public catering and trade, a regional committee for state property management was created under the regional Council of People's Deputies. Vladimir Sokolov, chairman of the Kirovsky district executive committee of Sverdlovsk, was elected its chairman.

In some areas of commercial activity, racketeering has become commonplace. According to the leadership of the KGB Directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region, if earlier racketeers grabbed a certain cooperative with a stranglehold, demanding a huge amount, then in 1990 they covered a large number of cooperatives, demanding from them a moderate payment of 1.5-2 thousand rubles a month ... Due to the increased number of cooperatives, the amount of income of criminals did not decrease. The difficulty was that many were happy with this situation. Cooperators came to the authorities only when racketeers overestimated their demands due to growing appetites.

Perhaps the reluctance of cooperators to apply to law enforcement agencies was due to the not entirely legal activities of the cooperators themselves, which was largely caused by the problem of total shortages. According to the leadership of the regional bodies of the BHSS, many novice businessmen tried to solve organizational and supply problems solely by bribing or buying stolen goods, which entailed a merger of general criminal and economic crime. In addition, cooperators often unwittingly went beyond the laws because of the "legal leapfrog", when the hastily adopted laws on cooperation, individual labor activity, and unearned income contradicted each other and the existing criminal legislation. At the same time, law enforcement officers and law enforcement officers interpreted these laws as they liked.

Law enforcement officers themselves were also actively involved in racketeering. The murder of his assistant by an officer of the BKHS department of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Leninsky District of Sverdlovsk was widely known because they did not share the things confiscated from speculators. A similar practice was observed in the judicial system, where judges stole confiscated deficits using bailiffs.

According to the leadership of the regional prosecutor's office, one of the reasons for the increase in crime was the stratification of society into rich and poor. Thieves, fraudsters and racketeers declared that they were restoring social justice - they were "pinching" traders, hucksters, and cooperators. A certain part of the population treated such statements almost sympathetically because of their own difficult financial situation. In addition, the Middle Urals was crammed with correctional labor institutions. Convicts were brought here from almost all over the country. After serving their sentences, many of them settled here.

Ultimately, the increase in crime was due to the general political and economic situation in the country and it was impossible to stop it by force.

In 1989-1990, under the leadership of Oleg Leonidovich Vagin, the organized criminal group "Center" was formed. This is the first large Sverdlovsk organized criminal group that was created outside the traditional criminal hierarchy. Having made the initial capital on robberies, racketeering, the sale of stolen cars, the economic interests of the "central" began to spread to the export of metals, precious stones, timber, imports of consumer goods and computers. One of the largest shadow entrepreneurs of the Sverdlovsk region, the Assyrian Igor Tarlanov and one of the most influential Russian crime bosses Yezidi Aslan Usoyan, took part in the creation of the OCG "Center".

In 1990, the Sverdlovsk regional branch of the Union of Afghan Veterans was created under the leadership of Vladimir Lebedev. This public organization was provided by the state with customs and tax incentives, as well as quotas for the export of natural resources in order to create an economic base to support the veterans of the war in Afghanistan. The leaders of the "Afghan" movement were former officers with combat experience, as a result of which the "Afghans", who actively used forceful methods of entrepreneurship, began to play the role of one of the largest organized criminal groups in the Sverdlovsk region. Among the leaders of the "Afghan" movement were not only army officers, but also former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, who could use their connections in state power structures.

By 1990, the Uralmash organized crime group was formed under the leadership of the brothers Grigory and Konstantin Tsyganov. Since the early 1980s. the Tsyganov brothers were engaged in extortion, large-scale burglaries and robberies against citizens. In the mid-1980s, under the leadership of criminals, they carried out fraudulent schemes when buying cars and by 1987 earning their credibility in the criminal environment. With the emergence of the cooperative movement, the Tsyganovs began to engage in racketeering, relying on former athletes. In 1990, the group consisted of about 50 people and began to influence criminal processes, and then to manage them in the Ordzhonikidze district of Sverdlovsk, where the machine-building giant Uralmashzavod was located.

Thus, by 1990, 4 large criminal communities were represented in the Sverdlovsk region: the “blues” (traditional criminals controlled by “thieves in law”), the Center OCG, the Afghans and the Uralmash OCG. In the beginning, these communities were characterized by one-man management. Subsequently, in the course of the criminal wars, when the most authoritative leaders were killed, the communities became more of a conglomerate of criminal groups subordinate to their local leaders.

In 1990, it was reported that the first AIDS carrier had been identified in the Sverdlovsk region - a “bohemian homosexual”.