In 1989, elections were held for the
Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union
The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union (russian: Съезд народных депутатов СССР, ''Sʺezd narodnykh deputatov SSSR'') was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.
Backg ...
. The main elections were held on 26 March and a second round on 9 April. They were the first partially
free nationwide elections held in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, and would prove to be the final national elections held as the country
dissolved in 1991. The elections were followed by
regional elections in 1990, the last legislative elections to take place in the country.
Background
In January 1987,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derive ...
of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), announced the new policy of
demokratizatsiya (
democratization). Under this concept the electorate would have a choice between multiple candidates per constituency, although all candidates would still have to be members of the CPSU. The concept was introduced by Gorbachev to enable him to circumvent the CPSU hardliners who resisted his
perestroika and
glasnost
''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...
reform campaigns, while still maintaining the Soviet Union as a
one-party communist state
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet U ...
.
In December 1988, the
1977 Soviet Constitution
The 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union, officially the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the constitution of the Soviet Union adopted on 7 October 1977 until its dissolution on 21 December 1991 ...
was
amended
Amend as a verb means to change or modify something, as in:
*Constitutional amendment, a change to the constitution of a nation or a state
* Amend (motion), a motion to modify a pending main motion in parliamentary procedure
Amend as a surname may ...
to create a new legislative body, the
Congress of People's Deputies (CPD), to replace the old
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Верховный Совет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, r=Verkhovnyy Sovet Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respubl ...
. The Congress of People's Deputies consisted of 2,250
deputies
A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for e ...
. 750 deputies (one third) were reserved for the CPSU and its affiliated organizations, however, the remaining two-thirds would be elected under the principles of demokratizatsiya, with 750 under the system of the old
Soviet of the Union
The Soviet of the Union (russian: Сове́т Сою́за - ''Sovet Soyuza'') was the lower chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret bal ...
(one deputy per 300,000 citizens) and 750 under the system of the old
Soviet of Nationalities
The Soviet of Nationalities (russian: Совет Национальностей, ''Sovyet Natsionalnostey'') was the upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, elected on the basis of universal, equal an ...
(an equal number of deputies for each of the fifteen
Union Republics
The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics ( rus, Сою́зные Респу́блики, r=Soyúznye Respúbliki) were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( ...
). Elections for the new legislature were set for March 1989.
The elections

While the majority of CPSU-endorsed candidates were elected (84 percent of the Congress consisted of the CPSU candidates by Gorbachev's estimate), over 300 candidates won out over the endorsed candidates. Among them were
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
, who won over the CPSU-endorsed candidate to represent Moscow's district with 89% of the vote. It was Yeltsin's first return to political power after resigning from the
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states.
Names
The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contractio ...
in 1987. On a union republic level Yeltsin was also later
elected to the RSFSR's
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
and then,
indirectly, to its
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet (russian: Верховный Совет, Verkhovny Sovet, Supreme Council) was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USS ...
. Anti-corruption prosecutor
Telman Gdlyan, trapeze artist
Valentin Dikul
Valentin Ivanovich Dikul (russian: Валентин Иванович Дикуль; born 3 April 1948) is a circus artist and rehabilitation specialist. He is a People's Artist of Russia (1999) and the head of the Russian medical and rehabilitatio ...
, ethnographer
Galina Starovoytova, lawyer
Anatoly Sobchak
Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak ( rus, Анатолий Александрович Собчак, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ sɐpˈtɕak; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Soviet and Russian politician, a co-author of the ...
, physicist
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
, weightlifter
Yury Vlasov
Yury Petrovich Vlasov (russian: Юрий Петрович Власов; 5 December 1935 – 13 February 2021) was a Russian heavyweight weightlifter, writer and politician. He competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won a gold medal in 1960 a ...
, and hockey player
Anatoli Firsov were among the other non-endorsed candidates who were elected to the CPD.
All in all, while the majority of seats were won by endorsed candidates, one Politburo member, five
Central Committee members, and thirty five regional CPSU chiefs lost re-election to non-endorsed candidates. Gorbachev hailed the elections as a victory for perestroika and the election was praised in state media such as
TASS
The Russian News Agency TASS (russian: Информацио́нное аге́нтство Росси́и ТАСС, translit=Informatsionnoye agentstvo Rossii, or Information agency of Russia), abbreviated TASS (russian: ТАСС, label=none) ...
and ''
Izvestia
''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...
'', despite the strong opposition of hardliners within the Politburo and Central Committee.
Aftermath
The first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies opened in late May 1989. Although hardliners retained control of the chamber, the reformers used the legislature as a platform to debate and criticize the Soviet system, with the state media broadcasting their comments live and uncensored on television. Yeltsin managed to secure a seat on the reconstituted Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and in the summer formed the first
opposition, the
Inter-Regional Deputies Group, formed of
Russian nationalists
Russian nationalism is a form of nationalism that promotes Russian cultural identity and unity. Russian nationalism first rose to prominence in the early 19th century, and from its origin in the Russian Empire, to its repression during early B ...
and
liberals. As it was the final legislative group in the Soviet Union, those elected in 1989 played a vital part in continuing reforms and the eventual
fall of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
two years later.
References
* �
Russia*
White, Stephen and Gordon Wightman. "Gorbachev's Reforms: The Soviet Elections of 1989." ''
Parliamentary Affairs'', 42 (1989): 560–581.
*Tedin, Kent L. "Popular Support for Competitive Elections in the Soviet Union." ''Comparative Political Studies'', 47 (July 1994): 241–271.
*
Remnick, David. 1994. ''
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire''. New York:
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...
, pp. 216–223.
External links
On This Day: 1989: Millions of Russians go to the pollson
BBCGorbachev on 1989in ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's ''The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
''
Yeltsin and the Soviet Electionsin ''
Workers World
The Workers World Party (WWP) is a revolutionary Marxist–Leninist communist party founded in 1959 by a group led by Sam Marcy of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Marcy and his followers split from the SWP in 1958 over a series of long-sta ...
''
{{Soviet elections
1989 elections in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Legislative elections in the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
One-party elections
Perestroika
March 1989 events in Europe
Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yeltsin