The controversy of Russian political parties and movements on national policy (1990-1992)

Abstract

This article analyzes the ideological components of Russian national policy in the early 1990s. Based on the work with program documents it highlights the parties and movements on the national and state structure of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the preservation and reformation of the Union State and the provisions for the Russianspeaking populations in the republics in 1991. It considers the attempts to address these ideological tenets after the conclusion of the Belovesh agreements, in particular, during the Sixth Congress of the People’s Deputies (6-21 April 1992). The study shows that political parties and movements that formed in Russia in 1990-1992, represented a wide ideological spectrum including among the various aspects of national policy within the boundaries of both the USSR and the Russian Federation. Despite the diversity of opinions it is possible to allocate some ideological consensus that existed in the socio-political life in 1991. First and foremost, no single organization had denied the presence of the historic ties between the peoples inhabiting the territory of the Soviet Union, which involved the integration of sovereign states in one form or another. Secondly, all the key roles were evident in the RSFSR processes taking place in the Soviet Union as the largest and most economically developed part of the Soviet Union as a country inhabited by many Russian people with the highest potential for integration and finally, as a state, assume any obligations so as to protect Russian interests abroad. Thirdly, by recognizing the need for democratization of political life as a whole, and the application of democratic principles (the self-determination of peoples, the development of the institute of national cultural autonomy, and the support and rehabilitation of minority and repressed peoples).