Yeltsinism

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Yeltsinism refers to the political and economic policies of Boris Yeltsin, after he became the effective ruler of Russia following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The term "Yeltsinism" is most often used with a negative connotation. Some blame him for the collapse of the USSR, which was called "The geopolitical catastrophe of the century", by Russian President Vladimir Putin [1]. Others imply that Yeltsinism involves the outward appearance of democracy, while actually concentrating power in a form of authoritarianism and consider the current political system in Russia (often called Putinism) as "continuation and rejection of Yeltsinism" [2]. Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, for example, described it as "observing the minimum requirements necessary to appease western sensibilities and stave off accusations of openly violating the rules of democracy in terms of form, while actually violating those rules in terms of substance."^[1]

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• Yeltsinism as a Phenomenon of the Russian Sociopolitical Life
• Chechen terrorism is being caused by Yeltsinism
• Reformers With Clean Hands: A Challenge To Yeltsinism
• Quote from Putin's Russia by Lilia Shevtsova
• "Putin's impossible equation" by Mohamed Sid-Ahmed from Al-Ahram Magazine -- "It thus seems that the 'constitutional coup' brought about a 'Yeltsinism without Yeltsin'"
• "Crisis Management" from The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer -- "Yeltsinism as a set of policies has no legitimacy."
• "Different Presidents, Different Hobbies: Clinton Changes His Women, Yeltsin His Prime Ministers" by Aleksandr Buzgalin from The Jamestown Foundation's Prisim -- "Nevertheless, the effects of Yeltsinism as a form of social order will continue to be felt for a long time to come; it may simply adopt a new body into which it will transplant its criminal-capitalist soul--if such a phenomenon as Yeltsinism actually has a soul."
• "135 Days of Putin" Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -- "She argued that the president's grand approach, based on fear and compliance, is doomed to fail and that most likely Putin would construct something resembling 'disciplined Yeltsinism' -- an elected monarchy with authoritarian symbols or impulses."
• "The Legacy of Boris Yeltsin - Corruption, crony capitalism, and Russia's near-demise" by Justin Raimondo -- "Communism wounded Russia, grievously, almost irreparably – and Yeltsinism delivered the death blow."
• Russia's Workers in Transition:Labor, Management, and the State under Gorbachev and Yeltsin by Paul T. Christensen (ISBN 0-87580-253-2) Published by Northern Illinois University Press. "Chapter 6: Laboring under Illusions -- Russian Workers and the Political Economy of Yeltsinism"
• "With Friends Like These, Putin Needs a Smarter Strategy" by Dimitri K. Simes, from The Washington Post, July 16, 2000, p. B5. -- "At the time of Putin's election, the elites saw him as the person best able to preserve the status quo; in essence, they sought Yeltsinism without Yeltsin."
• "Aleksandr Prokhanov" by Charles Rougle and Elisabeth Rich. From South Central Review, Vol. 12, No. 3/4, Russian Literature after Perestroika (Autumn - Winter, 1995) -- "There are monarchists and moderate Communists, nationalists and liberal patriots, because as Yeltsinism develops into an increasingly authoritarian stratum ..."
• "Course Outline:PO579 Postcommunist Russia" University of Kent Department of political Science. -- "Objectives .... 5. Yeltsin and Yeltsinism"
• "Does President Putin Represent 'Yeltsinism Without Yeltsin'?" Talk given Tuesday 8th April 2003 in the University of London Union by Professor Peter Reddaway.
• Farewell Perestroika: A Soviet Chronicle by Boris Kagarlitsky (ISBN 0860915085) published by Verso (September 1990) -- "Paradoxically, Yeltsinism was able to revive old ideological chiches and turn them against the system." (page 129)