27 Politburo transcript for June 29, 1985, in APRF (Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, Moscow), fund 3, register 3194, file 22, 8–9. I do not know why Tikhonov should have been so unimpressed. In the first volume of his memoirs (Ispoved’, 54–55), Yeltsin states that as Sverdlovsk leader he had “normal, businesslike” relations with Tikhonov from 1980 to 1985. It could be that Tikhonov’s ire was directed at Gorbachev as much as at Yeltsin.
28 He was never anyone’s deputy and had no desire to be one now, Yeltsin wrote in Ispoved’, 70. The first assertion is only partly true. He had never carried the precise title of deputy (zamestitel’), but as head engineer of two construction concerns in the early 1960s he reported to the director. And from 1968 to 1975, as head of the construction department of the Sverdlovsk obkom, he answered to the first secretary through one of the secretaries—just as it was with Dolgikh in the Central Committee apparatus from April to July 1985. In ibid., 110, Yeltsin asserts that Dolgikh, finding him “sometimes too emotional,” tried to block his promotion to Central Committee secretary at the Politburo meeting of June 29. The transcript of the meeting, however, shows Dolgikh as supporting the decision. Yeltsin also reports that he and Dolgikh served together amicably after that, which does seem to have been the case. Dolgikh was ousted from the Politburo and Secretariat in September 1988.
29 Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy,1:292.
30 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 82–83.
31 Manyukhin, Pryzhok, 59–60. On the other hand, Yakov Ryabov spoke to Yeltsin about the Moscow job and found him to be unenthusiastic. Ryabov interview (University of Glasgow).
32 Politburo transcript for December 23, 1985, in Volkogonov Archive (Project on Cold War Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University), 1–3.
33 The Politburo had nineteen full and candidate members as of February 1986. Yeltsin was one of only nine full-time party apparatchiks in the group. He continued to attend the Secretariat’s weekly meetings.
34 See Timothy J. Colton, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), 384–92, 428–29, 567–72; and Viktor Grishin, Ot Khrushcheva do Gorbacheva: memuary (From Khrushchev to Gorbachev: memoirs) (Moscow: ASPOL, 1996), 292–320.
35 Nikolai Ryzhkov, interview with the author (September 21, 2001). In Ispoved’, 54, Yeltsin says he and Ryzhkov were acquaintances (znakomyye) in Sverdlovsk and that when Ryzhkov was named prime minister he tried “not to abuse” their relationship. Naina Yeltsina was cool toward Ryzhkov and felt his rapid rise had gone to his head.
36 Ryzhkov interview. Most of these details are omitted in his published account: N. I. Ryzhkov, Desyat’ let velikikh potryasenii (Ten years of great shocks) (Moscow: Kniga, Prosveshcheniye, Miloserdiye, 1995), 139. Ryzhkov told me he was sure the Politburo would have ratified the appointment even if he had opposed it.
37 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 83.
38 Yurii Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS: pervyi sekretar’ MGK KPSS vspominayet (Before and after the ban on the CPSU: a first secretary of the Moscow gorkom remembers) (Moscow: Algoritm, 2005), 71.
39 Anatolii Luk’yanov, interview with the author (January 24, 2001).
40 Ye. I. Chazov, Rok (Fate) (Moscow: Geotar-Med, 2001), 86–88.
41 Luk’yanov interview.
42 Aleksei Shcherbinin, a professor at Tomsk State University, interview with the author (February 24, 2006).
43 Aleksandr Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin: ot rassveta do zakata (Boris Yeltsin: from dawn to dusk) (Moscow: Interbuk, 1997), 52. Korzhakov also writes that Yeltsin “worshiped” Gorbachev at the beginning, which is an exaggeration.
44 “Otchët Moskovskogo gorodskogo komiteta KPSS” (Report of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU), Moskovskaya pravda, January 25, 1986.
45 Grishin, Ot Khrushcheva do Gorbacheva, 298–99.
46 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 84.
47 A. S. Chernyayev, Shest’ let s Gorbachevym (Six years with Gorbachev) (Moscow: Progress, 1993), 63–64. This valuable memoir is available in English as Anatoly S. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, trans. Robert D. English and Elizabeth Tucker (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
