Boris Yeltsin rally reveals deep ferment in Moscow

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March 5, 1989, anti-Stalin rally. Soviet people will no longer be intimidated by the bureaucracy.

An eyewitness account of the resentment—and new selt-contidence- ›sentment—and new self-confidence that burst out at an election rallv for the at burst out at an election rally for tl self-styled 'maverick' of the Soviet 14 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1989 ALLÀN..

When our delegation arrived in Moscow carrying a letter to the Soviet leadership from the family of Leon Trotsky, we were unprepared for the intensity of oppositional ferment and the readiness with which people spoke of the need to transform and even replace the regime.

No one was under any illusion that the limited elections on March 26 were intended by those in power to permit effective challenge to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and state machine. But all were prepared to seize the moment. The fervor with which people spoke of repression, endemic corruption, chronic shortages of the most basic necessities, endless lines, and the scale of privilege for party and state functionaries was matched by a sense of determination that this time there would be no turning back.

"Anything is possible in this dangerous country," said our 17-year-old interpreter, Artyom Artyomovich, "but if they try to shut down the opposition now, there will be civil The elections added urgency to the prevailing mood. Artyom was a member of the newly formed Moscow People's Front with whose leaders, notably Boris Kagarlitsky, we were in daily contact. The People's Front was preparing its founding conference and we were to attend. But for now, the nightly election meetings were an adventure.

Much interest centered on the fate of Boris Yeltsin, the former head of the Moscow CPSU and member of the Political Bureau who had been removed in November 1987.

Nominated in over a dozen districts by supporters who saw Yeltsin's fight within the bureaucracy as an opening for broader and deeper protest, Yeltsin was astonished by the support he found in a public hungry for an avenue of challenge to the regime. He decided to run in the most prestigious arena, the atlarge territorial Moscow district, a super district representing Moscow as a whole.

His opponent, Yevgeny Brakov, personified the Stalinist insider as a director of the factory making Zil limousines, the black chariots of bureaucracy the party elite. Yeltsin's successor as Moscow party chief, Lev N. Zaikov, regularly attacked Yeltsin as did party publications and functionaries. Each attack brought Yeltsin new support.

The regime sought to withhold permits for meetings, to cancel meeting halls previously booked for Yeltsin rallies, and to control the audience attending these events by issuing tickets to Yeltsin organizers at the last minute.

One consequence of this tactic was to prevent the general public from attending the meetings, as Yeltsin organizers made tickets available to those already known to them. But the people would learn of the meetings and show up in numbers larger than the seats available inside the meeting halls.

Soap-box rally

We drove to a Yeltsin meeting on a cold March night and found a crowd of several thousand milling around outside the hall. Spontaneous soap-box rallies were erupting everywhere. The People's Front candidates were addressing the crowd, who shouted questions and interrupted with lists of grievances and denunciations of the regime.

Sergei Stankievich, a member of the CPSU and a candidate for the People's Front, spoke spontaneously and engaged in heated debate with an enthusiastic crowd. "How can you fight this party mafia, Sergei, if you are a member of it," shouted a middle-aged woman.

"The press has awakened the people," he tells the crowd, "and the People's Front opposes bureaucratic privilege, arbitrary rule, and the old ways." Stankievich tells us it is necessary to work inside the party to win over sections of its youth and to give critical support to Yeltsin. He says that the attacks must be concentrated on the "conservatives"

In the party who oppose glasnost and the The crowd is sympathetic to Stankievich but quick to challenge his assumption that the party can be an instrument of change.

Using press cards, we are able to get into the Yeltsin meeting, running a gauntlet of guards checking for tickets. We manage to get into the main hall, an enormous auditorium with a balcony, which alone holds some 2500 people. In the middle of the stage is a table where the meeting's organizers are seated together with the chairperson.

Yeltsin feels his way Yeltsin is attacking Ligachev, the Stalinist member of the Political Bureau who opposes Gorbachev. Ligachev, Yeltsin tells the audience, is an unreconstructed opponent of glasnost, of popular participation in the pot sovietnise political process, of the awakening sweeping Yeltsin is surprisingly pedestrian as a speaker. Slow, methodical, unemotional and rather monotone, he seems to be feeling his way. The atmosphere in the audience is dramatically different. People are leaning forward in their seats, reacting with asides and shouting out comments to Yeltsin: "What newspapers are you reading, which ones do you favor?"

Yeltsin interrupts his prepared remarks to respond, citing Novy Mir, Yunost, Ogonyok, and Znamiya, but not Nash Sovremennik. He has mentioned publications that support glasnost and pointedly omitted a conventional party organ. Now a member of the audience shouts out "Ogonyok may be liberal but they won't publish you!"

Yeltsin finds himself in a give-and-take with his audience, and his set speech has instead become an attempt to respond to the aggressive but critical and irreverent support from the hall. He is becoming more personal, human, and relaxed-—and he proceeds:

"Korotich [the editor of Ogonyok] promised me he would publish their interview with me but later informed me there were 'personal problems.' When I asked what they were, I couldn't get an answer but I found out that it's because my wife uses the normal shops."

This gets a roar of approval from an audience familiar with the special shops for the party elite. The chairperson is getting restless and confers with Yeltsin. Yeltsin decides to walk from the podium to the table with his organizers and sit facing the audience to field their questions. This in itself is unusual as questions are normally required to be in writing, allowing the chair to pick and choose among them.

Microphone in the aisle A microphone is set up in the aisle. People crowd around it to fire questions. "You were Minister of Housing, comrade Yeltsin. How come the Ministry didn't carry out your orders?"

Yeltsin becomes animated: "Because my enemies are strong, because they pervade every ministry and drag their feet over every change for the better. If you knew how apparatus which supports him, you would be frightened. You can't imagine the mentality of these people."

"Yes, we can!" a voice booms out from the balcony. Yeltsin now speaks of the necessity for a five-year plan of reform that must be carried out if the system is to be workable. But before he can finish the thought a member of the audience takes the aisle microphone. "How do you expect to do that with one party? What about a multi-party system, comrade Yeltsin?"

"Society," says Yeltsin, "is not ready for the creation of a new party. This process is only now unfolding in our society. We must open the bureaucratic filter for this to happen."

There is silence in the hall. Yeltsin hesitates and then continues, "The possibility of many parties should be discussed in all the media and before the entire population. Society must be prepared to solve this problem." There is shouting and applause in the hall. Yeltsin adds, "I am not against a multi-party system." People now shout encouragement from all parts of the audience.

The flow between Yeltsin and the audience is clear. He improvises in response to them and is being pushed along by the intensity of feeling and a radical impulse he seeks both to contain and to represent.

People now speak about the national demands for self-rule, and Yeltsin is asked his opinion. He replies that he believes in working with the Republics. He states that he supports the People's Fronts in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia and sees no contradiction between national expression and the democratic demands of the People's Fronts. He says that supporting this will prevent people from turning to nationalism per se.

Yeltsin now declares that there are two wings to the state machinery—the bureaucrats and progressive thinking people"-and he urges the audience to support him and oppose the others. There is mild applause.

"Let us decide"

At this point the chairperson proposes that questions should be sent up in writing. The audience erupts, "Let us decide!" "We should speak directly, not through you."

Yeltsin intervenes to support people coming to the microphone. "The people should decide things," he says. He is asked about the prosecutor, Galyan, who has indicted corrupt officials. "What about the Mafia which runs our economy?" someone asks. Yeltsin speaks in general terms about the need to overcome corruption while people are yelling out that speculators run the real economy.

The meeting is rapidly becoming a public forum. Speaker after speaker takes the microphone, but now from the stage itself. One speaker attacks Yeltsin from the right. "Why do you attack our state and party?"

The audience begins a rhythmic applause, drowning out the speaker. Yeltsin holds up his hand, silencing the audience, and comments: "Because the highest machinery of control, the state bureaucracy sits on top of our people like a dead weight." Thunderous applause echoes through the hall.

Yeltsin now warns, "There are many Komsomol [CPSU youth organization] and party apparatchiks sent into our meetings. Expect provocations from them such as questions about my contradictions with Mikhail Gorbachev, my tactical differences. I am against such methods. Only our enemies avoid stating our views accurately."

Yeltsin tries to align himself with Gorbachev and to attribute presumptive differences to their mutual opponents. A speaker from the aisle asks Yeltsin about his attitude toward private property. He states, "Our attitude is wrong. We must discuss private property. If a farmer buys a tractor and uses it for public purposes, that does not make it private. Don't call it private property. I'm against exploitation by owners.

Asked about his differences with Brakov, his opponent in the elections, he calls Brakov his enemy and describes how when he gave a speech on division within the party, Brakov managed to cut his remarks from a Canadian broadcast. "We must have more democratic discussion in this society."

"We should meet in Red Square"

There is a line forming now to use the microphones, and the chairperson proposes that there should be no more comments from the floor. There is an outcry from the audience and someone yells out, "We should be having meetings like this in the Palace of Congresses and in Red Square."

People start to approach the stage. Yeltsin stands up now and seizes the microphone, intoning in a loud voice, "You are right to

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Sergei Stankievich speaking at spontaneous soapbox rally outside Yeltsin rally.

SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1989 15 speak from this platform. Stand up. People stand up. Don't be afraid of the bureaucrats. Speak openly. We must learn the culture of discussion!" The audience cheers him. His face is flushed.

One person yells out to Yeltsin, "Comrade Yeltsin, could Ligachev answer such questions?" "I hope so," Yeltsin answers. Now a person comes up to the stage and faces Yeltsin, asking, "Fifteen thousand people get 10 tickets. Who is isolating you from the people?" Yeltsin turns to the chairperson and says, "You must answer to them. You explain it."

A questioner now asks Yeltsin to tell the audience what the party budget is and Yeltsin replies that the party budget should be open to every member. "The CPSU must not be a collection of people paying dues but a group of individuals who have ideas and whose ideas are openly debated."

Another speaker asks Yeltsin sarcasticaliy if it is ethical for the highest echelons of power to be "living under conditions of communism while speaking of 'reforming' socialism?'' Yeltsin answers:

"The first action I took upon assuming the position of first secretary of the party in Moscow was to remove every placard proclaiming Moscow to be a communist city. Then I took away all chauffeured cars from the bureaucrats and closed the special shops. It lasted one week! Our first problem is to democratize the CPSU. The number of candidates alone shows there is no democracy in the CPSU. In many cities and districts there are 100 people nominated for 100 seats. The local party cells provided 3100 candidates. The Komsomols picked 102 candidates for 75 seats."

Yeltsin's entire demeanor and manner of speech have changed. There is a current flowing back and forth now between him and the audience, and one can feel that something is taking place that is surprising Yelstin himself. The audience feels it too, and the questions take on an almost intimate tone.

"Why did you leave the Political Bureau. Why didn't you fight to stay?" Yeltsin replies, "Things were so hard it was impossible for me to continue. I had to leave. I could not change my principles as Ligachev and others demanded of me. My name became taboo in the mass media for one year."

Many people now come to the microphone to express support for Yeltsin. "Bring more Yeltsins. Organize support for him. Let's control the counting of votes so they don't steal the election. The mere fact of a Yeltsin victory will mean the bureaucracy is losing control over our people." It is a theme repeated for the next half-hour. Yeltsin has broken through to people.

"Bring them all to justice!"

Now a speaker stands up and criticizes anarchy and chaos. There is anger in the hall. People try to drown out the speaker. But many others shout that they must answer the apologists, not silence them. The next speaker calls for putting party and state leaders on trial for their criminal repression of the people. "Bring them all to justice." There is thunderous applause.

The next speaker declares that he represents the city of nepopetrovsk where, he states, the Mafia is stronger than it is even in Moscow. The chairperson nervously states that only Moscovites should speak in the meeting. There is an explosion of anger the audience.

The speaker continues, "Ours remains the party of Brezhnev, Sholokov and Tcherbitsky (the latter is a Brezhnev holdover and party boss in the Ukraine; Sholokov was the corrupt Minister of the Militia who killed himself.] Comrades, we must create another party in order to control the CPSU." There is vast applause.

Now a worker takes the microphone and states, "Three years ago we Moscovites associated our hopes for change, for perestroika with Yeltsin. Do not make idols of our leaders," he shouts while facing Yeltsin. "If we do, we shall wind up with 1937, not 1991. We support you, Yeltsin, but critically and with our eyes open." There is prolonged applause, and Yeltsin nods his approval to the speaker.

An older man stands up and says, "The new Congress of Deputies should make regular evaluations of every minister. They should be graded. Any who don't work in the interest of One of the three rows of bur eat out of the Yeltsin meeting in a hutt.

the working people should be kicked out."

An elderly woman follows him to the microphone and states, "I am a common person. I want to tell you that Pravda equals prostitution. When people from this so-called government say We are giving you democracy, why don't you act,' it is like saying to people without legs, 'We have an orchestra, why don't you march?'" Laughter and cheers fill the hall.

"We have built a terror state"

The next speaker tells the audience, "The central issue is this. When someone earlier spoke about the Mafia running Moscow, the apparatchniks in the audience jumped. We know who you are and why you are in this hall. But you can't intimidate us anymore!"

"Ordinary communists," says the next speaker, "will not support the handpicked deputies of the party apparatus. The people decided on the political rehabilitation of Boris Yeltsin by nominating him."

"Our society," states the following speaker, "must be a constitutional society. We must Carl Finamore/Socialist Action remove from the constitution the words that in the Soviet Union we have developed socialism. We all know this isn't true. And remove the words of Article Six, which state that the CPSU plays the leading role in society. We have no Communist Party. We have 20 million people who pay dues and have no control."

The next speaker turns to Yeltsin and says, "Let's tell the plain truth. We haven't built a socialist society. We have built a terror state. If you speak out, Yeltsin, you will fulfill our hopes."

Now a young apparatchik takes the microphone and begins to attack Yeltsin for opening up the mass media. "The means of communication," he states, "must remain under the party's control. This should not be given to just anybody. That is dangerous for both the party and society."

The audience begins a rhythmic applause to drown him out. People yell out "provocateur!" Others protest the audience response, declaring, "Don't fall into their trap.

Carl Finamore/Socialist Action irai Let them speak. We must know the views of the enemies of perestroika. Others try drown out those criticizing the attempts to silence the former speaker.

One speaker now says, "When you act like this, you undermine the democratic views of Yeltsin." Another speaker, a member of the party, shouts into the microphone, "Silencing others is the provocation."

Now the chairperson appeals to the audience, "Allow people to speak in the spirit of glasnost and democracy." Yeltsin takes the microphone, "Let's listen to everyone-and answer them when necessary."

The next speaker says, "If there is any attempt to halt our campaign for democracy, we must organize a general strike. If Gorbachev is removed, we must act. We must make laws to prevent Gorbachev from being removed."

Artyom, our interpreter, yells from the audience, "What about when Gorbachev changes his mind and begins repression as he already did with the Karabakh Committee?" [The Karabakh Committee is the leadership body of the Armenian nationalist movement that is currently detained in a Moscow jail.] Many now support Artyom's remarks. A pensioner asks people who intend to vote for Yeltsin to raise their hands. Another speaker states, "If Yeltsin doesn't win, the People's Front is waiting for him to join."

"We shall expose you all"

The next speaker urges people to write in Yeltsin's name wherever there is only one candidate. Now a man in his thirties takes the microphone and informs the audience, "I am a former worker in the regional party committees. I was critical. I am now unemployed. Let's cut out the bullshit. I see the very KGB and apparatchik controllers of the regional party committees. I will name them for you."

He proceeds to reel off their names while pointing to rows 8, 9, and 10 in the audience There is cheering. The speaker concludes, "We shall expose you all," and raises a clenched fist.

At this point a man who describes himself as an artist whose work could not be shown in his own country takes the microphone. "We have in this society a ruling group of bureaucrats. I denounce you all and the power you have usurped, the power of feudal lords and kings and tsars. We must take the homes from the bureaucracy and give these palaces to the several million orphans in our country. The Central Committee is composed of thieves."

The artist faces Yeltsin, walks over to him, and says, "Comrade Yeltsin, I am critical of you too, but I support you against the feudal lords even though you are not really for their complete removal." He now turns to the audience, gives a clenched fist salute, and declaims, "Down with all the feudal lords. Remove them from our national life."

This is too much for rows 8, 9, and 10. In unison they stand up and attempt a hasty exit from the hall to wild applause, foot stamping, and cheers from the audience. A look of amazement crosses the face of Boris Yeltsin.

The chairperson seeks now to gain control of the meeting. He proposes to the audience a series of votes on the sense of the meeting. "In the U.S.S.R.," he states, "candidates for the position of deputy to Congress should be obliged to carry out a 'nekaz' [mandate]. Voters should impose specific duties which candidates perform. Such duties should be decided upon at meetings such as ours tonight.

"I propose that we demand of candidates that they call for a referendum on the government. Everyone in favor of demanding a referendum on the government, raise your hands in support."

As the entire hall is covered in raised hands, the chairperson continues his proposed demands: "Deputies must ensure that all people receive decent housing—flats, apartments that are adequate for their needs. Deputies must devote at least 15 percent of all profit from alcohol to building houses of culture for the youth. Deputies must support laws permitting freedom to the mass media to discuss any subject."

The hall rings with cheers of support. The chair now calls for hands in support of laws defending the rights of all citizens, not only against individual officials or functionaries but from abuse by state or collective institutions. There is unanimous support. The chair next proposes that laws should be passed permitting individual citizens to sue any functionary and governmental institutions as well. The audience responds with full support.

Yeltsin now takes the microphone and begins speaking at once, more confidently and in radical tones decidedly different from the tenor and hesistancy of his earlier remarks:

"Ours is a fight not for words but to engage in action against the bureaucratic enemy of the Soviet people. It is not just a fight for democracy but against an entrenched bureaucracy still very powerful. We have been too long traveling over roads not made by us. At long last we have reached a rupture, a break, a new direction. There can be no turning back."

The Soviet people swept Boris Yeltsin to victory with a majority of nearly 90 percent of the votes cast. It was a generalized repudiation of the party apparatus, of the ruling order. Even, as in Leningrad, where one candidate was on the ballot, voters defeated them by crossing out their names.

Boris Yeltsin is riding the tiger of their discontent and is powered for now by their passion for change. But both he and his bureaucratic opponents are increasingly aware that they have very little time in which to meet the needs, expectations, and determination of the mass of Soviet working people who "will never go back again."

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