The fear of “red-brown” communist-fascists was not abstract, especially with the violence of the 1993 constitutional crisis still fresh in the mind. Stalin had not yet been rehabilitated and made fashionable again. Boris Yeltsin won and Russia made the inglorious transition from oligarchic capitalism to the state capitalism, authoritarianism, and resource nationalism of the Putin era.īack in 1996, the Communists did not appear “velvet” or safe. If that had happened, today’s Russia might more closely resemble the Czech Republic, or perhaps Hungary or Poland with their right-wing populism.īut what happened happened. And Putin-the-Politician would never have stepped onto the Russian political stage. No doubt President Zyuganov would have flopped in the 2000 elections-if, of course, he himself had allowed them to take place.
He is certainly not one of the “pink Communists” who came to power in Central and Eastern Europe at that time, such as Poland’s Aleksander Kwasniewski, who abandoned their previous ideological positions. Zyuganov, the peaceable grumpy Stalinist, probably would have become, at best, a second version of Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko. We cannot know how “velvet” a 1996 Communist regime would have been. Both of these outcomes were distinct possibilities-so much so that in the spring of 1996 Yeltsin’s close adviser Anatoly Chubais cautioned the president against banning the Communist Party.īut let us imagine for a moment. That might have resulted in a fresh outbreak of the civil violence that wracked Moscow in October 1993.
If defeat looked likely, the government might have canceled the elections or banned the Communist Party altogether. A conservative-backed Yeltsin might have lost his popular appeal, in which case he wouldn’t have won at all. Of course these counterfactual questions only beg more questions. What would have happened to Russia if Zyuganov had won in 1996? And how would things have been different if Yeltsin, the incumbent, had won not with a liberal mandate but with the conservative one of some of his backers in the Kremlin, such as his chief bodyguard Alexander Korzhakov. Yeltsin eventually won a contest that at the time was felt to be decisive in the country’s march toward democracy. All the important decisions will be taken here in the Place de la Revolution,” Zida told a crowd of tens of thousands of people, using the old name for the Place de la Nation that was changed by Compaore.Two decades ago this month, Boris Yeltsin faced Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov in the runoff of Russia’s presidential election. No one can take this victory away from you. “Power belongs the valiant people of Burkina Faso. Traore was named military chief in the wake of a failed 2011 uprising in which soldiers took part, with a mission to shake up the armed forces.Ĭapitalizing on the frustration among protesters, a group of junior officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Zida - who commands the army’s best trained and equipped force - quickly moved to challenge Traore’s authority, announcing curfew measures and the closure of borders. There was no immediate reaction from the leaders of the fragmented opposition but on the streets of Ouagadougou many protesters rejected a man regarded as a figurehead of Compaore’s regime. “I make a solemn pledge to proceed without delay to consultations with all parties to start the process of returning to the constitutional order as soon as possible.” The landlocked nation has become a key ally in Western operations against al Qaeda-linked groups in West Africa and the unfolding political crisis was being closely watched by the United States and France, which has a special forces base there.ĭiplomats voiced concern after military chief General Honore Traore’s announcement he was taking charge as head of state appeared to be challenged by presidential guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Issaac Zida, who announced his own set of emergency measures and deployed troops on the streets. Impoverished Burkina Faso had emerged under Compaore as a key mediator in the turbulent Sahel and his departure robs the region of a wily elder statesman - though one often criticized for his rights record and meddling in his neighbors’ affairs. Compaore, a taciturn former soldier in office since a 1987 military coup, had sought to defy popular pressure for him to step down after a day of violent unrest on Thursday in which demonstrators burned parliament and ransacked state television.
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