Soyuz (Russian: Союз, translated as 'Union') was a faction in the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. The faction was critical of

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

and liberal reforms; it was opposed to de-centralization of the Soviet Union. The group was founded on 14 February 1990, and its leaders included Viktor Alksnis (from Latvian SSR),

Yegor Ligachev Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov (also transliterated as Ligachev; ; 29 November 1920 – 7 May 2021) was a Soviet and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and who continued an active po ...

, Nikolai Petrushenko, Yevgeny Kogan (Estonian SSR), and Anatoly Checkoyev (Georgian SSR, South Ossetian autonomous region). The faction claimed to have 500 members in the USSR Supreme Soviet. The group managed to oust Soviet foreign minister

Eduard Shevardnadze Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze ( ka, ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia (country), Georgi ...

for 'giving up' Eastern Europe. In February 1991, it asked for a 'state of emergency' to be introduced in the USSR. The Soyuz faction did not formally support the

August Coup The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Coup d'état, forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President ...

of 1991, an event that had devastating consequences for the faction. Many of the group leaders joined Sergei Baburin's movement Russian All-People's Union and the related Rossiya faction in the RSFSR parliament (sometimes called the sister faction of the Soyuz group). An organization with the same name continued to exist as a political movement in the post-Soviet Russia, featuring communist/ Neo-Stalinist views. That organisation took part in the 1995 legislative election within the bloc Power to the People, led by Baburin and

Nikolai Ryzhkov Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (; ; 28 September 1929 – 28 February 2024) was a Russian politician. He served as the last Premier of the Soviet Union, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and was succeeded b ...

. In the 1999 legislative election, the Soyuz movement, then led by Georgy Tikhonov, took part within the Stalin Bloc — For the USSR coalition.

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