Domestic and foreign policy during the reign of b.n. Yeltsin. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin's reforms - economic and political: pros and cons, consequences

The days from 19 to 21 August 1991 were remembered throughout the country as the days of the victory of democracy in Russia. On August 19, the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) headed by G. Yanaev was organized by the country's top leaders. This attempt to reverse all reforms, an attempt to take a step into the past, forced thousands of Muscovites to take to the streets in protest. By order of the State Emergency Committee, tanks and troops were brought into the capital. On August 19, at 12 noon, Boris Yeltsin climbed onto one of the tanks that entered Moscow. Standing on the armor, he read out the appeal of the Russian leadership, in which he described the GKChP as "a right-wing, reactionary, anti-constitutional coup." Over 160,000 people gathered around the White House. They built a ring of barricades around the building and remained on the square for more than two days. In the evening, Boris Yeltsin signed an even more severe decree, which said about the members of the GKChP: "Having betrayed the people, the Fatherland and the Constitution, they put themselves outside the law." On the night of August 21, the blood of three people was shed. And in the early morning of August 21, the order was given to withdraw troops from the city.

After August 1991, Yeltsin gave preference to the previously unknown Yegor Gaidar, who promised quick successes. He assembled the youngest government in Russia, except for Lenin's. And this new government pushed Yeltsin onto the path of reforms - shock therapy in the economy, and the psychological motives of the president played a decisive role in their implementation.

The first area in which active privatization began was trade. On July 31, 1994, its first stage ended. According to statistical indicators, it could be considered successfully completed. But the economic "price" paid by society for the "leap into capitalism" was too high - there was a drop in industrial production by 43%. The economy of scarcity suddenly turned into an economy of abundance. However, expensive goods that appeared on the shelves were available only to 10% of the population. In principle, the idea of ​​privatization was correct and such a transition to a market economy is quite possible. But Boris Yeltsin made several mistakes when planning privatization. The most important thing was forgotten. No mechanism was created to manage and control privatization, and there was no analysis of the first months and first results of privatization. There were too many "holes" in the law. But despite the failure of privatization, the country was smoothly moving to a new economic system, where private property becomes the basis. Boris Yeltsin from the very beginning headed for a market economy, and even now it is difficult to imagine our life without the economic rights that we received as a result of the reforms. Thanks to economic reforms, everyone got the opportunity to engage in entrepreneurship. But the main result was that the market, whatever it was, replaced the state monopoly.

The next stage of the economic reform was the liberalization of prices, which began on January 2, 1992, while the main economic burden fell on the population: almost all savings were burned in the crucible of inflation, something unimaginable was happening to wages. The ruble gradually became a convertible currency within the country, although at a high level of five thousand rubles per dollar. The social shifts that took place in society had no precedents. Rising inflation, falling production, growing discontent among the population led to the crisis of the Gaidar government. In the second half of 1992, V.M. was appointed to the post of prime minister. Chernomyrdin. At the same time, Yeltsin played a decisive role in the choice, deciding in this way to throw Gaidar "like a ballast in order to save the ship of reforms." The choice of Chernomyrdin is one of Yeltsin's most successful decisions during his reign. Chernomyrdin continued the reforms, and, more importantly for Yeltsin, he proved to be an amazingly reliable person.

The new minister continued privatization. State property, as a rule, was not put up for free auctions, but was valued at a significantly lower price. The interests of the collectives of enterprises were guaranteed by selling them a controlling stake. The rights of the population were ensured by a system of bank tickets - vouchers worth 10 thousand rubles, which soon began to be sold at 6-8 thousand rubles.

One of the most important achievements of Boris Yeltsin is the adoption of a new democratic constitution. To develop a presidential project in the late spring of 1993, Boris Yeltsin convened a Constitutional Conference. The Conference was attended by more than 700 people representing the party, regional, local, economic and bureaucratic elites. Many of the participants had no professional knowledge of lawmaking. But despite such a diverse composition, in the end it was possible to agree.

This project consolidated a mixed form of presidential and parliamentary republic. In many ways, the presidential project was a compilation of Western norms, only the articles on the federal structure were written completely independently. Guarantees were created against the new cult and regime of personal power through a clear balance of power between the president and parliament. But at the last stage, the editorial commission made a number of changes that determined a strong bias towards presidential power. The final version of the project was signed by the participants in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

On September 21, 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin addressed the people of the Federation on television. He said that he signed a decree on the termination of the activities of the Supreme Soviet of Russia and called elections to the State Duma. The decree included amendments to the current Constitution. The president was aware that this act was unconstitutional, but he saw no other way out of the political crisis.

In response, the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation decided to remove Yeltsin from his post, and about 150 people's deputies refused to obey the decree and locked themselves in the parliament building. On October 4, after the shelling of the building by tanks, the exodus of the inhabitants of the parliament began.

So why did Yeltsin go this way? This can be explained by the fact that he fell into a parliamentary trap: blackmail by impeachment became the main weapon of Khasbulatov and the entire parliament as a whole in the fight against the president. Yeltsin “was not afraid of impeachment, but of the simple Russian word “removed.” Or something even worse." This quote from the book "Notes of the President" shows one of his qualities, thanks to which he fought so successfully for power - an intuitive understanding of the psychology of the Russian people. The decision to dissolve the parliament, according to F. Burlatsky, “was a purely personal decision, made in the depths of the heart, suffered through controversy, struggle, insults from the deputies”.

On December 12, 1993, a new Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted by popular vote. 58.4 percent of voters voted for the adoption of this Constitution. Perhaps, precisely because the resistance of the opponents of the new Constitution turned out to be truly bloody, the basic law turned out to be not without flaws, but still Yeltsin's merit in the adoption and creation, or at least an attempt to create a Constitution that would guarantee the basic democratic rights and freedoms of citizens, and would also provide a legislative basis for the continuation of democratic reforms is obvious. The new Constitution is a product of the struggle for power of that time, a product of the contradictions between reform supporters and their opponents, as well as the result of the will of the President of Russia.

Succumbing to the influence of his inner circle and believing the military command, which convinced the president of a quick and painless victory ("Grachev swore to the president to carry out an operation in Chechnya with lightning speed", "made the president a hostage of the Chechen adventure"), Yeltsin issues a decree on the deployment of troops into Chechnya, torn apart by internal problems , which turned into a huge number of grave consequences. But at the same time, I consider his decision to send troops into Chechnya after several terrorist attacks committed by Chechen fighters absolutely correct. Even under pressure from Western countries, Yeltsin once made a decision and did not change it. This marked the beginning of the first Chechen war, which ended only at the end of 1996. The peace agreement signed in November 1996 between the Russian and Chechen leadership provided for the withdrawal of federal armed forces from Chechnya and the holding of presidential elections in the republic.

Perhaps it is not worth mentioning all the vicissitudes of the first war in Chechnya. Such terrible and humiliating moments for the whole country and the ruling elite, primarily Yeltsin, are worth mentioning, such as the capture by terrorists of Kizlyar, and later Budenovsk.

In matters of the war in Chechnya, perhaps for the first time in his political career, B. Yeltsin was led by his close associates, for which he paid with a sharp decline in the people's confidence in himself.

In August 1998, something happened that many had been waiting for a long time: the "cardboard" (in fact, not a market) economy collapsed under its own weight. This happened despite B. Yeltsin's statements. Shortly thereafter, the so-called default was declared. The government decided to build a true market economy, the process of creating which is still ongoing.

This event showed that it is impossible to live in a "virtual" economy for too long, the market will always prevail.

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1931-2007) - Russian politician and statesman, chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, the first president of the Russian Federation, leader of the democratic movement in the USSR in the late 1980s, leader of the resistance during the August Putsch of 1991, one of the initiators of the documents on the liquidation of the USSR, the creation of the CIS and the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Boris Nikolayevich is known primarily for his activities in the 1990s. 20th century, when he led the resistance during the famous August putsch, when members of the State Emergency Committee tried to overthrow Gorbachev and seize power. Yeltsin was able to take control of the situation and end the coup. In the future, Yeltsin took an active part in the process of the collapse of the USSR and the creation of a new state. Known as the first president of the Russian Federation, who later voluntarily resigned from his post.

Short biography of Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931 in the village. Butka of the Sverdlovsk region in an ordinary peasant family. He studied well at school and entered the Ural Polytechnic Institute, which he successfully graduated in 1955. Immediately after graduation, he worked in various construction organizations, in 1963 he received the position of chief engineer, and then the head of the Sverdlovsk house-building plant.

Yeltsin's party and political activities began in 1968, when he joined the party and was engaged in various party work. In 1976, Yeltsin became the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee, and since 1981 - a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The outbreak not only did not stall Yeltsin's political career, but, on the contrary, accelerated it.

In 1985, he became the head of the construction department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, and already in 1986 - a candidate member of the Politburo. During his tenure as head of the capital's party, Yeltsin became famous as a democrat who rather rigidly defended his political ideals and often criticized the existing system.

So, in 1987, at the October Plenum of the CPSU, Yeltsin spoke sharply about the work of the Politburo and personally Mikhail Gorbachev. For his criticism, Yeltsin was removed from his post and dismissed from the Politburo, but he did not refuse political activity. Until the end of the 1980s, Yeltsin was in disgrace for his harsh criticism of the system.

However, it was precisely because of his desire for democracy that Yeltsin ended up at the head of the democratic movement in the late 1980s. In 1989 he was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, and later he became a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In March 1990, Yeltsin became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.

The collapse of the USSR and the political activities of Yeltsin

In the early 1990s, Yeltsin tried to implement a series of economic and political reforms that were long overdue to bring the country out of the crisis, but faced serious obstacles from the leadership of the USSR. Not only relations between the USSR and the RSFSR deteriorated, but also relations between Yeltsin and Gorbachev.

In 1990, Yeltsin left the party, and on June 12 he was elected president of the Russian Federation. The ensuing August coup and the collapse of the USSR only strengthened the position of Yeltsin, who became the head of a new state - the Russian Federation.

From 1992, Yeltsin again began to carry out political and economic reforms, this time without hindrance. However, a number of reforms did not bring the desired result, and an internal conflict between the legislative and executive branches matured in the government. The crisis in the country was aggravated, the government could not agree, the new Constitution was still in development and caused a lot of controversy. As a result, this led to the holding of the Council in 1993 on issues of confidence in the president and the Supreme Council, which ended in tragic events.

As a result of the Council, Yeltsin remained in power, the country continued to move along the course he had outlined, but all the Soviets were liquidated. The events to disperse the Council were named. In December 1993, a new Constitution was adopted, the RSFSR turned into a republic of the presidential type. Yeltsin was still credible, but separatist sentiment was growing inside the country.

The Chechen war, along with growing discontent within the state, hit Yeltsin's ratings hard, but this did not stop him from wanting to run for a second presidential term in 1996. Despite the growing split within the highest authorities and his own team, Yeltsin still became president. During his second term in office, Yeltsin's influence on the political and economic situation in the country weakened, he lost his positions. Another crisis and default occurred in the country, Yeltsin's rule no longer showed the stability that it had before. The president's rating was falling lower and lower, and with it the health of Boris Nikolayevich was deteriorating.

In 1999, Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin as acting prime minister and resigned at the end of the year during his New Year's address.

The results of Yeltsin's rule

One of the main achievements of Yeltsin in his political career was the separation of the RSFSR (Russia) from the Soviet Union and its transformation into a democratic state with a president at the head. As president, Yeltsin carried out a series of reforms to bring the country out of the crisis, but they were unsuccessful. The personality of Yeltsin and his activities today are assessed ambiguously.

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During his presidency, Boris Yeltsin was subjected to criticism, mainly related to the general negative trends in the country's development in the 1990s: a recession in the economy, a sharp decline in living standards, the state's rejection of social obligations, a decrease in the population and exacerbation of social problems.

In the real conditions of the end of 1991, Russia was faced with the need to urgently begin radical reforms in the economy. Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was invited to lead in this area.

“The first step was the release of prices on January 2, 1992. As a result, money in the accounts of enterprises and deposits in Sberbank of approximately 75 million Russian citizens were depreciated. However, these measures made it possible to completely legalize market relations, saturate the consumer market, begin the restructuring of industry, and save the country from economic paralysis.

The price for this beginning of the reform was inflation, which reached 15-20% in some months. As a result, neither Gaidar nor Chernomyrdin Viktor Stepanovich, who replaced him, managed to stabilize the ruble against the US dollar. *

By the end of 1992, the differentiation of residents into rich and poor increased sharply. Below the poverty line was 44% of the population. During 1992-1996, the decline in production amounted to more than 50%. The rupture of ties with the former republics of the USSR affected. The Russian Federation took upon itself the payment of the debt of the USSR to Western states. Since the end of 1992, Chernomyrdin has headed the government. In 1995, a course was pursued to stabilize the economy and reduce inflation. At the beginning of 1996, Chernomyrdin noted as one of the most important results of 1995 the creation of a gold and foreign exchange fund in the country. Import duties were increased, privileges for various structures involved in foreign trade operations were abolished.

Coming out of the "shadow" economy, market relations in Russia have acquired an openly criminal character. According to statistics, approximately 90% of entrepreneurs paid mafia organizations for protection from other criminal structures, "recovery" of debts, and more.

By 1996, industrial production was reduced by 50%, agricultural - by a third. GDP losses amounted to approximately 40%. The decline in industrial production was uneven. A relatively favorable situation was observed in the fuel and energy complex, ferrous metallurgy. In other words, the more raw materials the industry had, the smaller the decline in production. Machine building and high-tech industries were the hardest hit. The volume of light industry products decreased by 90%.

In almost all indicators, there was a reduction in tens, hundreds and even thousands of times, for example:

harvesters - 13 times

tractors - 14 times

metal-cutting machines - 14 times

VCRs - 87 times

Tape recorders - 1065 times

* History of Russia (IX - beginning of the XXI century): textbook under. ed. prof. A. Yu. Dvornichenko and prof. V.S. Izyumov str. 385

In 1996, the government promised to stabilize the economy. In fact, in most areas, especially in manufacturing, there was a decline. However, in the same year, the positions of the Russian ruble in the world market strengthened.

Foreign trade developed more successfully, and the influx of foreign capital increased somewhat.

Tensions intensified in the social sphere. Poor tax collection led to an increase in salary delays.

The year 1997, according to some politicians and economists, was the year of the revival of economic reforms. In March 1997, the Russian government was reorganized. On the whole, this year gave reason to talk about the instability of the economy.

So, during 1992-1997, the following changes took place in the Russian economy:

1. Managed to stop and significantly reduce inflation.

2. It was possible to restore and significantly increase the gold and foreign exchange funds of the Central Bank of Russia, so it was possible to strengthen the ruble and restore the confidence of the population and foreign banks in it. In this regard, reduce the nominal value of the ruble.

3. Russia stopped buying grain from other countries and started exporting it.

4. Structural restructuring of the economy was carried out, however, was not.

5. All this led to the aggravation of social conflicts, the loss of orientation for the future. Entire regions arose, devoid of a clear prospect for economic development, shaken by strikes of various categories of the population.

“The end of the temporary economic stabilization was August 17, 1998. On this day, the government and the Central Bank announced the impossibility of making regular payments on state short-term obligations and the refusal to maintain the dollar exchange rate within certain limits. This was followed by a sharp fall in the exchange rate of the ruble on currency exchanges, an increase in the cost of imports and the entire commodity market. (…) Inflation in 1998 was over 80%.*

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On April 23, 2007, Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, died. The author of the famous phrase, which is well remembered in Tatarstan: "Take as much sovereignty as you can swallow it."
The attitude towards Yeltsin in many people is far from unambiguous. And how do our local politicians feel about the activities of the former leader of the country? What place in history do they think he deserves?
Rimma Rizvanova, head of the executive committee of the Naberezhnye Chelny branch of the United Russia party:
- The time of Yeltsin's rule - the 1990s - was very difficult. And, of course, for many it is a very ambiguous figure. But for those who know how to assess trends, he first of all laid the foundation for democratic reforms. In the final situation, the Soviet system had no future since the mid-1970s. It was then that people appeared who understood that the prospect was for democracy. Among them was Boris Nikolaevich. From 1991 to 1996, the people still supported him, but later it was already more difficult for him. But he had the courage not only to admit his own mistakes. After analyzing the situation, he eventually renounced power and transferred his powers to another, Vladimir Putin.
Tatyana Gurieva, First Secretary of the Naberezhnye Chelny City Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation:
- He is the destroyer of the country, and will go down in its history as a traitor to its interests. On TV channels there is a very one-sided analysis of his reign. They make him almost a revolutionary, he supposedly turned the country into the mainstream of democracy. In fact, he just ruined everything. And today, many do not even understand that Putin is his successor, who at one time gave the former president an annual pension equal to 2.8 million rubles a year! People still hate Yeltsin. Why? Because it was he who robbed the people of labor savings earned over decades. Under his leadership, a fraudulent "grabbing" was organized. In his Yeltsin era, people were not paid wages for years. Russia was plunged into multi-billion dollar debts. Under the leadership of Yeltsin, national discord began to be sown in Russia. A war was unleashed in Chechnya. The time will come when the people will be able to give a fair assessment of all this.
Oleg Morozov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, in 1987-1989. head of the department of the Tatar Regional Committee of the CPSU, in 1989-1992. employee of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU:
- In my memory from personal meetings with Boris Nikolayevich, there was a feeling of some kind of absolute unpredictability. It was clear that it was not at all accidental what he did and said. And at the same time it took on the character of some kind of intuitive flash. He was a man of amazing intuition and instinct. Sometimes it turned into managerial failures, sometimes it turned into a brilliant insight. He was a man not afraid to show his political clumsiness. On the other hand, in four years he managed to drop from more than 90 percent of his rating to almost political zero. In connection with the figure of Yeltsin, I have an image of a monument to Ernst Neizvestny on Khrushchev's grave - a figure divided into black and white. No one today is able to say how the history of Russia would have turned if not for Yeltsin.

After the ideals of the Soviet Union had gone into the past along with the state itself, the question arose about the country's movement forward. Russia needed urgent economic and domestic policy reforms. It also needed a strong politician at the helm, capable of carrying out a series of controversial reforms with a firm hand. While the country was being rebuilt on a democratic model of government, lawlessness and racket flourished in Russia. After two economic crises, when most of the country's population was on the verge of poverty, it finally became clear to the world that the former superpower was gone. During two terms of government, the new president managed to destroy the iron curtain, bringing down the authority of the state in the international arena.

Now Yeltsin's reforms are viewed mainly in a negative light, noting the shortcomings of his policy. However, this article will also note the positive aspects of Yeltsin's transformative actions in the struggle for the creation of a country with extremely new ideological and political views. Was there a grain of truth in Yeltsin's reforms, and what guided the politician in the implementation of certain bills?

Pros and cons of Yeltsin's reforms in the 90s

The time Yeltsin was in power cannot be called unequivocal, because during this period the country was being restructured to new democratic guidelines. The following article summarizes the main advantages and disadvantages of Yeltsin's reforms.

In modern history textbooks, Yeltsin's political activity is assessed one-sidedly, while United Russia tries to present this historical period in a positive way. In fact, the state was in a terrible economic and political crisis. While seeking the collapse of the Soviet Union and the separation of the former republics, Yeltsin and his associates had little idea of ​​how to organize the activities of the state in the future. As a result, the country found itself on the ruins of its past, seeing poorly the prospect of a happy future.

However, it was during this difficult period, which included a lot of reformist mistakes, that the foundations of a democratic state were laid, which still cause a lot of claims and questions.

1. Olesya

   Very detailed, well written material. Only one question arises: was it possible to lead the country after the crisis to another area of ​​development? It is now clear that the course chosen by Yeltsin was unsuccessful and led to an even more severe economic crisis. Did the country have a different path of development? This is the question to which all scientific and historical works must be devoted.

2. vsvikt

   Unfortunately, Yeltsin's rule set the country back a long way. We buried our agriculture and industry, the consequences of his reforms are still being felt. Well done Chinese, they went the other way, taking into account all our mistakes.

3. Alex Kelevra

   History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. What has been, has already been, and this cannot be changed, no matter how much we would like to. And the Chinese, of course, well done. And we buried not only agriculture and industry, we stopped in development and threw back several decades both science and the defense industry and the army were driven into the very same .... But, survived it all and thank God.

4. Ludmila

   Forgive me, but I would not argue that the decline began from the time of Yeltsin. If you look at the statistics, the decline of agriculture and industry happened much later. And other people were already in power!

5. DDA90

   Today we will not be able to objectively assess the period of B.N. Yeltsin. In order to more or less objectively judge historical events, at least 50 years, and preferably 70, must pass. In essence, this is an objective law of historical science. Therefore, everything that happened after the Second World War is not yet history, but politics.

6. belonog-2016

   I do not agree that this is still politics, not history. Even yesterday is already history, and you are talking about the distant 90s. At the present time, not even every student will give a decoding of the word "default" and much has changed since then. Although, such things as corruption could not be eradicated, which is a pity ...

7. Michal Vanych

   It’s a shame to become because, in order for the “shadow companies” to be able to openly demonstrate their wealth, they strangled the unique communist project and at the same time the USSR.