Yeltsin полностью

48 XXVII s”ezd Kommunisticheskoi partii Sovetskogo Soyuza: stenograficheskii otchët (The 27th congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: stenographic record) (Moscow: Politizdat, 1986), 140–42. The references to officials’ privileges were purged from the chronicle in the next day’s Pravda but, as quoted here, appeared in the final transcript of the congress.

49 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya t. Yel’tsina B. N. 11 aprelya s. g. pered propagandistami g. Moskvy” (Extract from the statement of comrade B. N. Yeltsin on April 11, 1986, before Moscow propagandists), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Materialy samizdata, July 18, 1986, 3.

50 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 85; Valerii Saikin, interview with the author (June 15, 2001).

51 Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 64.

52 Lobbying the center is described in V. I. Vorotnikov, A bylo eto tak: iz dnevnika chlena Politbyuro TsK KPSS (But this is how it was: from the diary of a member of the Politburo of the CPSU) (Moscow: Sovet veteranov knigoizdaniya, 1995), 84; and “Kak reshalsya v Moskve prodovol’stvennyi vopros” (How the food question was resolved in Moscow), Izvestiya TsK KPSS, December 1990, 125.

53 On October 23, 1986, for example, the Politburo discussed Soviet bread shortages. Yeltsin observed that bakers—his mother’s occupation in Kazan in the 1930s—were not being trained in Moscow. Andrei Gromyko demanded to know why the Politburo was discussing so picayune a matter and asked rhetorically if it was supposed to answer for the supply of lapti (handwoven bast shoes). Gorbachev expostulated that, if such resolutions were to be adopted, at the urging of Yeltsin or anyone, the Soviet military would have to be engaged, “so as to deal with this at the point of the gun.” V Politbyuro TsK KPSS . . . (In the Politburo of the CPSU) (Moscow: Gorbachev-Fond, 2006), 92.

54 Saikin interview.

55 Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin, 54–58.

56 Vitalii Tret’yakov, “Fenomen Yel’tsina” (The Yeltsin phenomenon), Moskovskiye novosti, April 16, 1989.

57 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 7–8. George W. Breslauer, Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), detects similarities with the populism of Nikita Khrushchev a generation before. There were some commonalities, but Khrushchev was a much less radical agent of change than either Yeltsin or Gorbachev. The definitive study is William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (New York: Norton, 2003).

58 Vladimir Mezentsev, “Okruzhentsy” (Entourage), part 2, Rabochaya tribuna, March 25, 1995.

59 According to Jonathan Sanders, the Moscow-based staffer who worked with producer Susan Zirinsky, “I pointed out that we were sending one of our most respected correspondents to do the interview, someone who was a veteran of the Nixon White House and was personally quite interested in him [Yeltsin]. At this point, the ever clever Ms. Zirinsky pulled out a glossy eight-by-ten photo of Diane Sawyer and said this was the star who would be doing the interview. Now, remember what the Soviet anchorwoman looked like in the mid-1980s? Remember how much [Richard] Nixon was respected? And remember how much Boris Nikolayevich understood intuitively about the power of the media? So we did the interview.” Sanders, personal communication to the author (October 9, 2005).

60 “Pribavlyat’ oboroty perestroiki” (Quicken the pace of perestroika), Moskovskaya pravda, April 4, 1987.

61 Colton, Moscow, 576.

62 Gavriil Popov, interview with the author (June 1, 2001).

63 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 5; “Mera perestroiki—konkretnyye dela” (The measure of perestroika is concrete affairs), Moskovskaya pravda, March 30, 1986.

64 Andrei Karaulov, Vokrug Kremlya: kniga politicheskikh dialogov (Around the Kremlin: a book of political dialogues) (Moscow: Novosti, 1990), 96.

65 Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka,” part 3, 86–91. Aleksei Stakhanov was a miner in the Donbass area of Ukraine who in 1935 set a USSR record for digging coal on his shift. The Stakhanovite movement was organized to imitate his fervor. It experienced a revival in 1988, eleven years after Stakhanov’s death.

66 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 3.

67 The resolution was about services in one of Moscow’s municipal districts. Two deputies voted against it and three against proposed amendments. Press reports did not mention Yeltsin’s role, which I learned about in my interview with Arkadii Murashov (September 13, 2000).