68 On the flavor of these hothouse organizations, see Judith B. Sedaitis and Jim Butterfield, eds., Neformaly: Civil Society in the USSR (New York: U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee, 1990). A then-deputy of Saikin’s reports that Yeltsin telephoned Gorbachev for advice before meeting the Pamyat group. Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 186–88.
69 Speech to Central Committee, January 27, 1987, in RGANI, fund 2, register 5, file 34, 73.
70 Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy, 1:310, 371 (italics added).
71 Korzhakov writes (Boris Yel’tsin, 61) that during the Georgia visit Yeltsin played with his security detail and staff every day, starting the first morning at five A.M. They then invited the local champions, who for one of their matches engaged a professional athlete. The Muscovites still won.
72 Boris Yel’tsin, Zapiski prezidenta (Notes of a president) (Moscow: Ogonëk, 1994), 270.
73 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 95.
74 Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin, 58.
75 Ibid., 55. Korzhakov, though of proletarian origin, exemplified Muscovite condescension when describing in his book (50) Yeltsin’s musical activities: “Yeltsin was born in the village of Butka, and there it was a prestigious thing to play on the spoons.” In an interview in 1989 (Karaulov, Vokrug Kremlya, 100), Yeltsin was still thin-skinned about Sverdlovsk, saying it was “not on the periphery” and that it had more to teach the rest of Russia than to learn from it.
76 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 5; Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 90; “Deputaty predlagayut, kritikuyut, sovetuyut” (The deputies recommend, criticize, and advise), Moskovskaya pravda, March 15, 1987.
77 Tret’yakov claims to have heard from former subordinates of Yeltsin that some of the questions at encounters like this were planted by organizers and that Yeltsin prepared his answers in advance. Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka,” part 4, Politicheskii klass, May 2006, 103.
78 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 7, 9–10. Yeltsin instituted the changes in the workday immediately after taking office. Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 63.
79 Erik H. Erikson, Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (New York: Norton, 1962), 155–56.
CHAPTER SIX
1 Boris Yel’tsin, Ispoved’ na zadannuyu temu (Confession on an assigned theme) (Moscow: PIK, 1990), 116. Gorbachev, too, reports in his memoirs being unhappy with the unsociability of official Moscow. But he was much better acquainted than Yeltsin with its ways. He spent five years at university in Moscow, and general secretaries and Politburo members often holidayed or took the cure at the mineral-springs resorts of Stavropol Province.
2 Ibid., 69, 115–16, 119. The inconsistencies in Yeltsin’s discussion of his housing and perks are brought out in Vitalii Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka” (Sverdlovsk upstart), part 3, Politicheskii klass, April 2006, 82–84, 88–90. Tret’yakov maintains that Gorbachev’s former dacha was posher than what Yeltsin had the right to and this created nervousness on his part. There may be some exaggeration in the Yeltsin account. A former chief of Kremlin protocol notes, for example, that candidate members of the Politburo were entitled to two cooks, not three, and that their monthly food allowance was half that of full members. Vladimir Shevchenko, Povsednevnaya zhizn’ Kremlya pri prezidentakh (The everyday life of the Kremlin under the presidents) (Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 2004), 124.
3 Den’ v sem’e prezidenta (A day in the president’s family), interview with El’dar Ryazanov on REN-TV, April 20, 1993 (videotape supplied by Irena Lesnevskaya).
4 Tret’yakov, “Sverdlovskii vyskochka,” part 3, 90.
5 Vladimir Voronin, a city hall functionary at the time, interview with the author (June 15, 2001).
6 Boris Yeltsin, third interview with the author (September 12, 2002).
7 Author’s first interview with Aleksandr Yakovlev (June 9, 2000) and interviews with Arkadii Vol’skii (June 13, 2000) and Anatolii Luk’yanov (January 24, 2001). Several individuals who attended the October 1987 plenum of the Central Committee told me Yeltsin mentioned Raisa there, and the claim is made in Aleksandr Yakovlev, Sumerki (Dusk) (Moscow: Materik, 2003), 405. Aside from Yeltsin’s memory, the published transcript and unpublished archival materials, which I have examined, confute this.
