The Constitutional Democratic Party – Party of Popular Freedom (Russian: Конституционно-демократическая партия - Партия народной свободы) was a political party in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. It followed a path of development similar to that of the

Democratic Party of Russia The Democratic Party of Russia or DPR (russian: link=no, Демократическая Партия России, ''Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii'') is a conservative Russian political party that was founded in 1990. Under the leadership ...

in early 1990s, developing from pro-reform/pro-democracy positions (as a member of the Democratic Russia coalition until late 1991) to nationalist opposition to Yeltsin and successive governments. The party was founded in 1990 by disenchanted 'fundamentalist' members of the Union of Constitutional Democrats. The party leaders adopted the 1917 program of the

Cadet party ) , newspaper = ''Rech'' , ideology = ConstitutionalismConstitutional monarchism Liberal democracyParliamentarism Political pluralism Social liberalism , position = Centre to centre-left , international = , colou ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. Mikhail Astafyev, people's deputy of RSFSR defected to the new organization in August 1990. In June 1991 the 'XI Refoundation Congress' of the Cadet party took place (the last congress of the historical cadet party was held in 1920). Astafyev was elected as the chairman of the re-established party. The party was initially strongly pro-reform and joined the Democratic Russia coalition, but moved to the opposition following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Whereas in 1991 they advocated 'dis-establishing the

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

communist regime', in early 1992, Astafyev in effect joined the radical communist-nationalist opposition to Yeltsin's government, which led a number of party members to resign. From that time on, the party called for resignation of the 'government of Yeltsin-Gaidar', putting end to privatization of state enterprises and 'collapse of

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...

es', 'veto to territorial concessions' etc. Astafyev concentrated his efforts on the National Salvation Front activities. The party could not participate in the 1993 legislative election due to failing to gather necessary number of signatures. In 1994, the Cadet party split, as internal opposition led by N.Kulikov accused Astafyev of having moved to 'left-wing extremist positions'. In 1995, Astafyev joined

Alexander Rutskoy Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy (russian: Александр Владимирович Руцкой; born 16 September 1947) is a Russian politician and a former Soviet military officer, Major General of Aviation (1991). He served as the only vic ...

's Derzhava movement, but the two soon parted ways due to a dispute in dividing positions in electoral list. Later in 1995, the Cadet party of Astafyev joined Zemsky sobor ('All-National Congress'), another minor nationalist coalition.

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20090302090254/http://www.partinform.ru/ros_mn/rm_6.htm
Constitution of the Russian Federation
proposed by the party. 1990 establishments in Russia Defunct nationalist parties in Russia Political parties established in 1990 Political parties in the Soviet Union Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Russian democracy movements Soviet opposition groups Anti-communist parties {{Russia-party-stub

See also

References