Parallels drawn with tsarist
Russia as PM debated
10:02 a.m. May 19, 1999 Eastern
By Andrei Khalip
MOSCOW, May 19 (Reuters) -
The appointment on Wednesday of
Russia's fourth prime minister in just
over a year drew parallels with the
dying days of tsarist rule.
Centrist deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov
told the State Duma, the lower
house of parliament, there were
many similarities between the
political situation in Russia now and
early this century.
Shortly before the Duma confirmed
President Boris Yeltsin's choice of
Sergei Stepashin as prime minister,
Ryzhkov warned deputies not to
allow the mistakes of the past to be
repeated.
''The essence of the present fourth
republic is too similar to that of the
last days of the monarchy,''
Ryzhkov said.
''There is the autocratic rule of the
tsar or the president, parliament is
helpless and lacks responsibility,
and the government is totally
defenceless against the tsar or
president and against public opinion
as represented by parliament.''
Russia's latest political crisis was
prompted by Yeltsin's dismissal of
Yevgeny Primakov as premier last
week -- following the sackings of
Viktor Chernomyrdin and Sergei
Kiriyenko last year -- and by
attempts by the Duma to impeach
the president.
Deputies have said they fear the
situation could end in violence. That
is less likely after Stepashin's
appointment but there are
similarities with the turbulence in
Russia between 1906 and 1917,
which led to a revolution and civil
war.
The State Duma is involved now, as
it was then. It appeared in 1905, as
did a modern-style government with
a cabinet headed by a prime
minister, under reforms by Tsar
Nicholas II.
Russia's governments earlier this
decade brought in liberal reformers
who eventually fell from grace.
Russia's first two prime ministers,
Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin,
also tried to lure liberals into
government but the opposition
Constitutional Democrats buried the
idea by demanding one-party
government.
From that point on, Russia had only
tsarist non-coalition governments
until 1917.
Just as Primakov, Chernomyrdin
and Kiriyenko had to deal with
Yeltsin and his close aides over
appointing ministers, Stolypin faced
conflicts with the tsar's court and
especially with Empress Alexandra
and her adviser, Grigory Rasputin.
On September 1, 1911, Stolypin
was shot in a Kiev theatre and died
in hospital. The two and a half year
term of his successor, Vladimir
Kokovtsov, was dominated by
manoeuvring between the tsarina,
the Duma, the tsar and others.
Ivan Goremykin's two-year term
was marked by constant sackings,
Boris Shtyurmer was fired after 10
months in office amid mass protests
in 1916, and Alexander Trepov
lasted just one and a half months
before he gave way to Prince
Golitsyn.
In December 1916, the Duma was
disbanded for trying to oust the
government -- a threat that hangs
over the Duma now whenever it
takes on Yeltsin.
In February 1917, when the tsar
was away, the government was
disbanded by revolutionaries and a
provisional government was
installed. Eight months later the
Bolshevik revolutionaries took
power and the Communist Party
ruled for 70 years.
''As we see, history miraculously
repeats itself,'' Ryzhkov told the
Duma.
As in 1917, he said, parliament had
no role in appointing ministers other
than the premier, the government
had become a toy in the hands of
the president or tsar, and the
ultimate ruler jealously guarded his
influence over the cabinet.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited |
