Enabling Environments for Civic Movements and the Dynamics of Democratic Transition - Russia

Period of democratic transition: 1988–1990
Pro-democracy civic movement: not present

Since the takeover of Russia by the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, Russia never recovered from the brutal rule of Josef Stalin between 1924 and 1964; Stalin maintained complete control amid forced collectivization, political purges, and a harsh penal and labor system. Subsequent Soviet leaders followed where Stalin had led.

After Mikhail Gorbachev became (the last) general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1985, he instituted glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reform), which resulted in a general political relaxation across the USSR. At the same time, news of protests and opposition movements in other Soviet republics leaked in, resulting in heightened public pressure to institute further reforms. Gorbachev also called for multicandidate elections for regional legislatures and the separation of the government apparatus from the party, leading to a loss of controlling power for the Secretariat. In December 1988, the Supreme Soviet approved the formation of a Congress of People's Deputies and dissolved itself. Deputy elections in 1989 shocked the CPSU as voters rejected the nominated Communist candidates. Nevertheless, the CPSU won 87 percent of the seats. In further shocks to the tightly controlled Soviet system, the newly elected deputies railed on national television against every detail of Soviet failings, including Gorbachev. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Russian Federation emerged as an independent state under the leadership of President Boris Yeltsin. Although Yeltsin won elections again in 1996, three years later he handed over power to his successor, Vladimir Putin, who easily won elections in 2000 and 2004. Putin has consolidated power and has slowly strengthened the centrality of the state. Corruption, government influence, and state-controlled media have combined to make continued democracy challenging.