Instinct of democracy

Party lost, country won

Democracy instinct. Two decades ago, in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev's will to power arose the idea of ​​alternative elections. The one that is now profaned

At the end of January 1987, the Plenum of the Central Committee was held. The main issue on his agenda sounded habitually furious: "On perestroika and personnel policy." In fact, it was then that Mikhail Gorbachev, who was looking for mass support for his policy and did not find it, decided to remove the disloyal layer of the old nomenklatura. Convenient Stalinist surgical instruments - repression - he did not have in his hands. I had to look for others. The decision of the Plenum announced the idea of ​​elections to the Soviets and party bodies on an alternative basis.

On May 23, 1988, during the discussion at the Politburo of the draft theses of the Central Committee for the Party Conference, the Secretary General formulated what he had suffered and most importantly: “The core of our reform is the separation of the functions of the Party and the Soviets, and the separation is capital. This means what is meant - to transfer the entire complex of managerial functions to the Soviets.

In the summer of 1988, at the XIX Party Conference, Gorbachev actually moved the center of power from the party to representative structures: a decision was made to form the Congress of People's Deputies. Having shared power with the Soviets, that is, with the people, the Secretary General hoped to keep it, to receive an additional resource of support. But the very idea of ​​alternativeness, political competition immediately began to destroy the power of the party.

The 1988 party conference had a calming effect on Gorbachev. He believed that he was in control of the situation. “The party will cope,” he said with visible relief at the Politburo after the party forum. But he immediately shared his doubts: “The mood of the masses will grow against the authorities. Here is the key to restoring the power of the Soviets and reviving a truly vanguard party. We have to capture this concern, otherwise we can lose a lot.”

Gorbachev was afraid to rush, he was afraid to anger the party nomenklatura. But his political intuition told him: if you don't want to lose power, you need to start a political reform. He began to act.

The Plenum of the Central Committee of January 10, 1989 launched electoral democracy in the Soviet Union. They chose the "Red Hundred" to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. They chose carefully, carefully, calculating the consequences. But the first free elections in the history of the country brought a stunning defeat to the party.

About 30 secretaries of regional and city committees of the CPSU were not elected. In Leningrad, all party leaders and the commander of the military district were voted out. In Moscow, the situation was similar to that in Leningrad.

The party lost, the country won.

The ongoing processes were not just a change of institutions of power. Electoral democracy does not come alone. The congresses and free elections were followed by what was to follow. Rehabilitation of victims of political repressions, informal movements, "Democratic Platform", Interregional Deputy Group, withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, abolition of the 6th article, republican self-financing, "further everywhere."

The collapse of the CPSU, which was not just a party, but a party-state, which began with alternative elections, naturally meant the collapse of the country. The Soviet Union de facto ended when, on August 24, 1991, Gorbi resigned as Secretary General.

In his farewell televised address, Gorbachev said: “It seems vital to me to preserve the democratic gains of recent years. They have suffered through all our history…”

Thus ended the Gorbachev period. An epoch was coming when the people, having endured democracy, had to learn how to use freedom...