The Eltsin Years

Politics and Poetry

Anatoly Chubais (1955-)

• 1980s formed group of young reformer economists

• 1991 becomes Eltsin’s privatization tsar

• 1996 organizes Eltsin’s bid for reelection

Privatization

Anatoly Chubais introduces “vouchers” exchangeable for shares; quickly sold by Russians to get money.

Result “Rent-seeking”: buy enterprise at a low price, strip it of assets, sell products abroad and put profits in offshore account.

Privatization of apartments means that those with an apartment have a tangible asset.

The SEVEN Oligarchs

1994 “Shares for loans”: private individuals lend the Russian government money in exchange for shares in major industries (esp. oil and gas).

Mikhail Khodorkovsky (right): Banking, Yukos, oil

Vladimir Potanin: Aluminium

Roman Abramovich: oil

The Oligarchs

Boris Berezovsky: Logovaz cars, Aeroflot, television

Vladimir Gusinsky: television

Both subsequently driven out of Russia by Vladimir Putin

The “New Russians”

Fabulously wealthy: usually paid cash in $100 bills

“In your face” lifestyle: Gucci, Versace, Mercedes, villas on the French Riviera

Trophy wivesBig country residences, yachts in St TropezFavourite city: LondonAbramovich buys British soccer team

Chelsea.

SurvivingGrow your own food, make your own

clothes.Barter.Become a security guard or even

contract killer (men) or prostitute (women).

Extreme solution: emigrate, find a husband in a Western country.

“Shuttle”: bring goods in from Turkey (usually) and sell at profit.

Pyramid schemes: Mavrodi’s MMM.

Politics in the 90s

• 1993 a new constitution approved• New parliament (the “Duma”), half from party lists,

half from single member constituencies• Powers of President strengthened• President appoints Prime Minister, cabinet• “Russia Votes” – analysis of Russian voting patterns• 1996 Eltsin makes a comeback as President from

certain defeat with the money of Boris Berezovsky• Eltsin dances during campaign• November 1996 – bypass operation

Political Parties: The Communist Party (KPRF)

• Leader: Gennady Ziuganov (b. 1944)

• Share of vote to Duma:

• 1993 11.6 %

• 1995 22.3% (34 % of seats in Duma)

• 1999 24.3%

Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)

(Right-wing nationalist party)

• Leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (b. 1946)

• Popular intemperate buffoon – took votes away from Communists

• Zhirinovsky in European Parliament

Democratic parties

• Yabloko – Led by Grigory Yavlinsky (right)

• Democratic Party of Russia

• In 1993 get about 10 % of the vote

The Battle of the Symbols

Moscow… the centre of it all

Throughout the Eltsin era – Moscow is the centre of Russia, sucking the resources out of the rest of the country.

Moscow becomes the focus of symbols of Russian identity.

Yury Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow, masterminds Moscow’s evolution.

1997 Invents a spurious anniversary to celebrate the city: 850 years from foundation of city.

The myth of Moscow, Russia, the USSR

•Oleg Gazmanov: official pop singer of Russian nationalism, tanks, battleships and Aeroflot

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_5AwYWBfoI&feature=related

Moscow (Oleg Gazmanov)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_5AwYWBfoI&feature=related

Through wars, fires, the ages,This scarlet sound flies through the airThis sound rings from afarIt is the heart of Russia ringing.In the bright gold of its holy domesThe face of the sun is proudly multipliedWith the return of the two-headed eagleThe Russian language lives on.

Moscow! The bells are ringing.Moscow! Golden domes.Moscow! In the gold of your iconsRuns the chronicle of the ages.

Across the palms of your squaresThe columns of warriors passedTo die in the name of their children,Passed into immortality, into the glory of

fathers.May the Red Square live endlessly,The steel of Moscow's parades is strong,If the capital stands,The river of Russia will not run dry.

I look down from the Sparrow hillsOn the night-time constellation of lights,Even though Moscow is 800 years old,We never will grow old with her.Spring pours onto the avenues,And again the capital has no time to sleep,Happy birthday, my Muscovites!

The New Nationalism

• Military Rock: Group Liubeh (created in 1987), songs glorify Russian military history, “Defenders of the Motherland”.

• Kombat (about World War II)• Admiral (about Admiral Kolchak, World War

I and Civil War hero)• Tam za tumanami (“There, beyond the fog…”)• Ne valyay duraka Amerika (“Don’t be stupid

America, give us back Alaska”)

Boris Ryzhy (1974-2001)

• Born in Cheliabinsk• Parents moved to

Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg)

• Graduated as geophysicist

• First poems published in 1994

• Committed suicide in 2001

Ryzhy’s poetry

• Gypsy woman

• In that flat lived ex-convicts

• Translations of poems

• Evgeny Mironov reading Boris Ryzhy