People Power The recent Soviet elections marked a decisive moment in the process of reform. It is no longer a revolution simply from above. The people are now the actors. Monty Johnstone reports

Boris Yeltsin: Keeping a cool head at the centre of controversy

ith this spring's elections be subject to the people's support or in the USSR rejection, depending on whether or not has entered a new stage. it succeeds in bringing about the impro- For the first time since vements in their lives to which it is WGorbachev in 1985 launched the drive to committed. An increasingly active restructure Soviet society, the people public opinion is concerned to ensure have made an independent entry into that the power of the people, long pro- the political arena. They have sought to claimed in the constitution, becomes a speed up the sluggish pace of promised reality. changes by voting against Communist All this makes a reversal of pere- Party and state officials identified with stroika by conservative forces much conservative policies and bureaucratic more difficult. At the same time it in- practices. The unexpected defeat of 34 troduces new and unpredictable ele- out of 157 regional party secretaries ments into a situation where the tradi- represents a vote of no confidence in tional hegemony of the Communist Par- important sections of the party apparat. ty, whose ranks are now deeply divided, It would be wrong to see this as essen- is badly dented, although no counter- tially a vote against the party itself, hegemonic force has emerged seriously since most of those who beat them are to challenge it. themselves members of the party, Over the past three years or so an which comprises 87.6% of those elected independent civil society has been (as against 71.5% in 1984). However, it developing in the . Its main is a warning to the party that its leader- expression has been through the creat- ship of Soviet society can no longer be ive intelligentsia, in the media and the taken for granted. Increasingly it will arts, and through a mushrooming of

30 MARXISM TODAY MAY 1989 'informal associations', particularly meeting of the party there on April 4, as and local Soviets. On Gorbachev's pro- among young people. A major worry 'a serious political lesson'. Among the posal, last summer's party conference has been the inadequate degree to casualties was the city secretary, decided that the first secretaries of par- which it has extended to the bulk of the Anatoly Gerasimov, who received only ty organisations should stand for their traditional working class, among whom 15% of the votes against 74% for a local Soviets in order that they could go the contrast between promise and per- 28-year old Communist engineer. on to be chosen as their chairpersons. formance over decades has fostered Widespread satisfaction has been ex- Now there must be some doubt as to alienation and political apathy. pressed at the defeat in of whether electors will actually elect The elections mark an important the well-known representative of the many of these first secretaries to these change in this respect. Attending elec- conservative trend in the Russian liter- Soviets. Such a prospect must already tion meetings in working-class districts ary establishment, Yuri Bondarev, by be leading quite a few party organisa- of , I was struck by the many the second secretary of the local Young tions to consider changing their secre- 'It is a hundreds who would pack into their Communist League. taries and finding ways of radically warning to local community centre ('Palace of Cul- mong the all-too-few improving their public work. the party ture') from seven till sometimes past women elected - only that its 11pm for no-holds-barred discussions 17.1% of the total-pride of All eyes will be on the 2,210 members of with their candidates on all aspects of place should probably go the Congress of People's Deputies when leadership of Soviet society. Indeed the level of ques- Ato journalist Alia Yaroshinskaya, they gather in Moscow later this month. Soviet tions and debate, not to speak of the elected with 90% of the votes in the It will, I believe, very soon become society can attendance, was considerably higher Ukrainian city of Zhitomir, where the apparent how differently things are go- than most election meetings that I have officials she had criticised had tried to ing to shape up there compared with the no longer be attended in this country. Nonetheless, stop her standing. In the Baltic days of the former Supreme Soviets, taken for the fact that only 18.6% of those elected republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithua- which met only four or five days a year granted' are workers shows that much more nia) representatives of the national and served as rubber stamps. The needs to be done to make the official fronts championing autonomy for their newly-elected Congress will first have description of the working class as the republics within the USSR won most of the job of choosing a president with leading force in Soviet society a reality. the seats. Although a number of promi- considerable executive powers. All the orking-class support for nent party and government leaders indications are that Gorbachev will be and involvement in Boris were defeated, the Communist first elected unopposed, although some of Yeltsin's election cam- secretaries in all three republics were the new deputies have expressed dis- paign was particularly elected because they had played a part agreement with one man combining the Wstrong. In a two-cornered fight for the in working for these national demands. posts of Communist Party general seat covering the whole of Moscow, the The Latvian party leader defeated a secretary and head of state. Before party's former secretary in the capital candidate from an organisation cam- leaving Moscow I was told that Yeltsin received over 5m votes - nearly 90% of paigning for the republic's secession was under pressure from some of his the total. Although lacking a worked-out from the USSR. supporters to stand against Gorbachev. economic programme, Yeltsin rallied Run-offs held in 64 territorial consti- While he clearly has the right to do so, it enthusiastic support as 'the candidate tuences on April 9 led to the return of is most probable that he will recognise of the people', taking a stand against a other progressive and independent- the inadvisability of such a step. The privileged apparatus. Meetings and minded candidates. Notable among success of perestroika will demand co- demonstrations supporting him culmi- them is the marxist historian and poli- operation on major issues between Gor- nated in an eve-of-poll open-air rally, tical theorist Roy Medvedev, whose bachev and the popular forces that Yelt- permitted by the authorities, bringing writings are at last being allowed to sin represents against the main danger together crowds variously estimated at appear in his own country; Vilem Tol- which comes from still well-entrenched between 10,000 and 35,000.I found it a pezhnikov, elected in Riga, who was bureaucratic forces. highly-impressive demonstration of arrested in 1968 when he opposed the he Congress itself is due to working people independently and Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia; hold only one regular session spontaneously voicing their grievances and Wello Pakhlo, the leader of the a year. It will have the task of against bureaucratic 'mafias', as their Estonian Greens. electing 542 of its members to posters described them. The dramatic development of an inde- Ta much smaller Supreme Soviet, which They were demanding social justice pendent public opinion is also reflected will serve as a parliamentary body sitt- and an improvement in their often- in the need to hold new elections on May ing for six to eight months every year. miserable material conditions, to which 14 in 199 territorial constituencies - Gorbachev is in favour of rotation, whe- they felt they were entitled more than 12% of the total. In these only one or two reby every member of the Congress 70 years after the October Revolution. candidates stood on March 26 and none will spend a period in the Supreme So- Moves against Yeltsin for allegedly received more than 50% of the votes as viet - but this is not specified in the overstepping the bounds as a member required for election. Many of these constitution. The question of who the of the Communist Party's central com- electoral districts were among the 25% Congress will elect at its first meeting mittee only galvanised support for him where only one candidate was standing. will be very important. Controversy against what was seen to be a witch Most prominent among quite a number will no doubt centre around whether hunt, and served to contribute to his of party leaders whose attempts to se- representatives of particular trends, landslide victory. 'Why', asked Pravda cure election by excluding other can- such as Yeltsin, will be among them. on April 1, but without essaying a reply, didates backfired was Leningrad re- Yeltsin intends to form a parliamentary 'did a party committee's reluctance to gional secretary Yuri Solovyov, a can- group of like-minded deputies to cam- see elected a candidate who enjoyed no didate member of the party's top polit- paign for radical perestroika demands. sympathy from the party apparat pro- buro. A majority of voters prevented The 80-90 deputies supporting the na- voke powerful popular support (as in their election by crossing their names tional fronts of the Baltic republics may the case of )?' off the ballot paper. also form their own group. It is on the Time is now pressing. New candidates cards that such groups will make their In Moscow, as in other parts of the country, need to be found quickly to mount some own nominations to the Supreme So- many candidates deemed to represent a sort of campaign leading up to the May viet. hidebound and conservative apparatus 14 polling day in the 199 constituencies. As the body responsible for constitu- were defeated by others seen to repre- The new mood of independence among tional changes, the Congress of People's sent a more sincere, energetic and rad- the people is likely to grow stronger and Deputies will have to consider pro- ical approach to perestroika. In extend to parts of the country which it posals for changes in the system of Leningrad the defeat of five of its top has so far barely reached. In the autumn election adopted last December and im- leaders was described by a special new elections are due for the republican plemented in this spring's election. At

31 MARXISM TODAY MAY 1989 one election meeting after another I Although this spring's elections have taken This contradicts traditional concepts of heard criticisms of the arrangement place within the framework of a one- democratic centralism and party unity. whereby one-third of the deputies are party system, the hitherto-existing Sta- On the other hand, if a multi-party elected from public organisations, linist practice of allowing only one can- system is not admitted, there is no alter- including 100 seats each reserved for didate ('elections without choice') was native to this if the electorate is to be the Communist Party, trade unions and abandoned in three-quarters of the con- offered a genuine choice of political co-operative organisations, and 75 each stituencies. Candidates issued and ar- options. Hence the resentment felt for the Young Communist League and gued for their particular platforms. In when the party's central committee set women's councils. Firstly, people object the Baltic republics they campaigned as up a commission at its last meeting to to the plural voting which enables some representatives of particular trends investigate the political positions taken people to have one, two, three or more with their own programmes. Elsewhere by Yeltsin in the campaign. Such resent- additional votes through the various or- it was often possible to identify a ment would also be strongly voiced 'Working- ganisations to which they belong. number of common demands in candi- against any attempt to control what he class support (Plural voting, in the form of separate dates' election platforms which were and other party members said or how for Boris university MPs was ended in Britain seen as distinguishing progressive they voted in the representative after the election of the 1945 Labour perestroika candidates from conservat- assemblies to which they have been Yeltsin's government). Secondly, it is seen as ive ones. On this basis 'informal asso- elected. election undemocratic that some leaders should ciations' like the Moscow People's Front learly, as Gorbachev stated campaign become deputies in this way without and Leningrad's Elections '89 cam- on polling day, 'Alternative was having to face the ordinary electors in paigned for particular groups of can- parties are by themselves not particularly the basic territorial constituencies and didates and against others in their cit- a panacea for solving pro- submit to their verdict. Yeltsin and ies. In Moscow 15 candidates, at least 11 Cblems' (my emphasis). But this does not strong' others included in their election pro- of whom were subsequently elected, mean that they may not come, in con- grammes the demand that all delegates signed a telegram of support for Yeltsin temporary Soviet conditions, to play an should in future be elected by universal, and identified themselves with his cam- important role in helping to crystalise equal, direct and competitive voting, paign. The period ahead will show political choices, including the possibil- and may call for a referendum to be whether these groups, some of which ity of changing governments advocated held to decide the issue. might be regarded as embryonic par- by Lenin in 1918 under the multi-party The new Supreme Soviet will comprise ties, will develop in such a way as to system then existing in Soviet . two chambers: a Soviet of the Union and bring about some sort of de facto multi- Yeltsin has received wide support, as a Soviet of Nationalities. The latter will party system. well as sharp opposition, for his call for have a special responsibility for work- At present in the Soviet Union the only a public discussion on the question of a ing on the complicated and often-tense recognised party, the CPSU, is in a cu- multi-party system, for which some ethnic problems, which have so long rious position. Members of the party candidates were arguing in the election. existed under the surface but are now stand against each other on program- It is an issue which is likely to assume coming increasingly and sometimes (as mes which, in the case of the Baltic growing relevance and importance with in the recent case of Georgia) violently republics, are diametrically opposed to the rapid changes now taking place in into the open. each other on crucial national issues. the Soviet political system. •

33 MARXISM TODAY MAY 1989