Anatoly Sobchak
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Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak ( rus, Анатолий Александрович Собчак, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ sɐpˈtɕak; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Russian politician and legal scholar, a co-author of the
Constitution of the Russian Federation The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 and enacted on 25 December 1993. The latest significant reform occurred in 2020, marked by extensive amendments that altered various sections ...
, and the first democratically elected
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
.


Biography


Soviet legal scholar

Anatoly Sobchak was born in Chita,
Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
,
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, on 10 August 1937. His father, Aleksander Antonovich, was a
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
of Polish and Czech origin, and his mother, Nadezhda Andreyevna Litvinova, was an accountant of Russian and Ukrainian origin. Anatoly was one of four brothers. In 1939, the family moved to
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, where Anatoly lived until 1953 before entering Stavropol Law College. In 1954, he transferred to Leningrad State University. In 1958, he married Nonna Gandzyuk, a student of Hertzen Teacher's College. They had a daughter called Maria Sobchak, born in 1965, who is currently a St. Petersburg lawyer, while her son Gleb Sobchak, born in 1983, graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. After graduating from Leningrad State University, he worked for three years as a lawyer in Stavropol, then returned to Leningrad State University for graduate studies (1962–1965). After obtaining his Ph.D., he taught law at the Leningrad Police School and the Leningrad Institute for Cellulose and Paper Industries' Technology (1965–1973), and between 1973 and 1990 he taught at Leningrad State University. In 1980, he married Lyudmila Narusova, at that time a history student at the Leningrad Academy of Soviet Culture and later a prominent MP. They had a daughter, Ksenia Sobchak. After obtaining his D.Sc. in 1982, he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Common Law in Socialist Economics. He was very popular among law students, especially for his mildly anti-government comments. During his work at Leningrad State University, he met
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
.


Legislator

In 1989, after election laws changed during
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, he was elected as an independent candidate to the
Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union () was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. Background The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union was created as part of Mikhail Gorbachev ...
. He was one of only a few deputies who had a legal background, so he contributed enormously to most of the laws created from 1989 to 1991. He became one of the founders and a co-chairman of the Inter-Regional Deputies Group along with Andrei Sakharov and
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...
. He also was a chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the Investigation of the events of 9 April 1989 in
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. The Commission condemned the military, which was blamed for many deaths when dispersing demonstrators. The Commission's report made it more difficult to use military force against civil demonstrations in the Soviet Union and Russia. He was a member of the President's Consultative Council during
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's tenure and contributed to legislation that originated from the presidential administration. After the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, Sobchak was not a member of the central Parliament but was a member of Yeltsin's Presidential Council and the chairman of the Constitutional Assembly that prepared the
Constitution of the Russian Federation The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 and enacted on 25 December 1993. The latest significant reform occurred in 2020, marked by extensive amendments that altered various sections ...
in 1993. The constitution is often informally called ''Sobchak's constitution'', although its real authors have been somewhat less known.


Mayor of Saint Petersburg

In April 1990, Sobchak was elected a deputy of the Leningrad City Council, and in May he became the chairman of the Council. From the beginning, his leadership was marked by a strongly authoritarian bent. The Council decided to change the structure of the city governance so as to have a Mayor elected by direct elections. The first of such elections in June 1991 were combined with the
referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
on the city name. Sobchak won the elections, and the city voted to return to its historical name of Saint Petersburg. The name change was established in one of the last sessions of the
Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union () was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. Background The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union was created as part of Mikhail Gorbachev ...
, held on 12 September 1991. The change needed an amendment of the Constitution of the Soviet Union and its passage required much effort by Sobchak. During his tenure, a Kissinger-Sobchak commission was formed in order to attract western investment into St. Petersburg. According to Putin who had met with Kissinger a couple of times, when Kissinger stated that the Soviet Union had pulled out of Eastern Europe too quickly under Gorbachev and that Kissinger was being blamed but Kissinger had thought it was impossible, Putin had agreed with Kissinger because so many problems would have been avoided if the pullout had not been so hasty. A deputy of the Saint Petersburg Legislative Assembly Yury Shutov, claimed that
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
got hold of a file with compromising
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
materials on Sobchak at the time when Putin worked as the KGB's overseer at Leningrad State University. Putin used this materials to
blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...
Sobchak and secure his own appointment in the city administration, according to Shutov. Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky ''The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin'', Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, , pages 273-277. Sobchak was Mayor of Saint Petersburg from 1991 to 1996. During his tenure, the city became a place of glamorous cultural and sporting events. Most of the everyday control of the city structure was handled by two Mayor's deputies – Vladimir Yakovlev and Vladimir Putin; critics alleged deterioration of city infrastructure, growing corruption, and crime during this time. In the 1996 mayoral election, Sobchak was opposed by his former first deputy Vladimir Yakovlev and lost by a margin of 1.2%. The major pitch of Yakovlev's campaign was that Sobchak's patronage of the arts (with city money) and involvement in federal politics prevented him from solving the real problems of the city.


Emigration and return

In 1997, a criminal investigation started against Sobchak. He was accused of irregularities in the
privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...
of his own apartment, his elder daughter's apartment, and his wife's art studio. By the standards of the 1990s in Russia, the allegations were relatively minor (although the alleged losses for city finances were still in the tens of thousands of dollars). Thus, Sobchak's supporters saw the criminal proceedings as a political repression. According to Ksenia Sobchak, this campaign was started in 1995 from Moscow to prevent her father from running in future presidential elections. On 7 November 1997, Sobchak flew to
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on a private plane without passport processing on the Russian side. The formal reason for his departure was medical treatment in a Paris hospital for his heart condition, but Sobchak never checked in at the hospital. Between 1997 and 1999, he lived the typical life of a political
émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...
in Paris. In June 1999, his friend Vladimir Putin became much stronger politically (in a few weeks he became the Prime Minister of Russia), and he was able to make the prosecutors drop the charges against Sobchak. On 12 June 1999, Sobchak returned to Russia. After his return, Sobchak became a very active supporter of Putin in his quest for the Russian presidency.


Death

On 17 February 2000, Putin met with Sobchak and urged him to travel to Kaliningrad to support his election campaign. Sobchak travelled there, accompanied by two assistants who also served as his bodyguards. On 20 February 2000, Sobchak died suddenly in the town of Svetlogorsk in
Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast () is the westernmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of the Russian Federation. It is a Enclave and exclave, semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the Baltic region of Prussia (region), Prussia, surrounded by Pola ...
. The initial suspected cause of death was a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
, but the findings of two medical experts were contradictory. Gessen, Masha (2012). '' The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin'', pages 134-144, London: Granta. . A criminal investigation of Sobchak's death as a possible "premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances" was opened only on 6 May 2000, more than two months later. After three months, the investigation was closed without a finding.The best theory for explaining the mysterious death of Putin's mentor
by Masha Gessen,
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, 2015
The Democratic Union party led by Valeria Novodvorskaya made an official statement that not only Sobchak, but also two of his aides had heart attacks simultaneously, which indicated
poisoning Poisoning is the harmful effect which occurs when Toxicity, toxic substances are introduced into the body. The term "poisoning" is a derivative of poison, a term describing any chemical substance that may harm or kill a living organism upon ...
. Two other men were present with Sobchak during his death, but their names were not publicly disclosed. According to an independent investigation by Arkady Vaksberg, both
bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ...
s of Sobchak were treated for symptoms of poisoning after Sobchak's death, indicating a probable contract killing by
poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...
ing. Sobchak's widow Lyudmila had her own autopsy done on her husband's body, but never made the results public; she told the
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that she keeps the findings in a secure location outside Russia. The exact circumstances of Sobchak's death remain a matter of speculation. He was interred in Nikolskoe Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, near the grave of Galina Starovoitova.


Honours and awards

* Jubilee Medal "300 Years of the Russian Navy" (1996) * Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow, 1st class * Silver medal of the
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(1995) * Honorary citizen of St. Petersburg (2010, posthumous), Tbilisi (Georgia, 1991), Indianapolis (USA, 1992), Maryland (USA, 1993), Oklahoma (USA, 1994),
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(1995) * Honorary Doctor of Law at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (1991), University of Macerata (Italy, 1992), St. Petersburg Law Institute of the Russian Interior Ministry * Honorary Doctor of Political Science, University of Genoa (Italy, 1992) * Honorary Doctor of the University of Arts in
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(1993) * Honorary Doctor of Humanities, Towson University (
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, USA, 1993) * Professor Emeritus of the University of Bordeaux (France), East European Institute of Psychoanalysis (St. Petersburg, Russia) * Mitterrand awarded the Foundation "Memoria" (France, 1991) * Prize winner of the National Democratic Institute of the A. Garrimana (USA, Washington, 1992) * Prize winner J. Fulbright National Law Center at
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(Washington, USA, 1992) * International Leonardo Prize (1996) * Prize winners Starovoitova (2000, posthumously) * Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize (2001, posthumously) * Winner of the International Prize for the development and strengthening of cultural ties in the Baltic Sea Region "Baltic Star" (2005, posthumously) * Gold Medal of the city of Dubrovnik (Croatia, 1991) * Gold Medal of the city of Florence (Italy, 1991) * Full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Engineering (Department of economic and legal sciences) (1992) * Member of the International Informatization Academy (Moscow, 1995) * Honorary member of the St. Petersburg Union of Engineering Societies (1992) * Gagarin Medal (1996) * Medal Admiral MP Lazarev (1996) * "Gratitude" medal of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (2002, posthumously) * Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (2002, posthumously)


See also

* Saint Petersburg City Administration


Notes


References


External links

*
Official site of Anatoly Sobchak
(Russian)

(Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sobchak, Anatoly 1937 births 2000 deaths People from Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai Saint Petersburg State University alumni Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Academic staff of the University of Paris Soviet jurists Russian jurists Russian legal scholars Recipients of the Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow Russian people of Czech descent Russian people of Polish descent Russian people of Ukrainian descent Russian emigrants to France Members of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union Resigned Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Our Home – Russia politicians Members of the Federation Council of Russia (1996–2000) Russian monarchists Governors of Saint Petersburg Burials at Nikolskoe Cemetery Soviet reformers