The political crisis in the Chelyabinsk region (1993)

In October 1991, Democrat Vadim Solovyov was appointed head of the administration of the Chelyabinsk region, despite the fact that the regional council proposed that its chairman, Peter Sumin, be appointed to this post.

In March 1993, the regional council expressed distrust in Solovyov and appointed an election for the head of the administration. 133 deputies voted for the elections. Shortly before the elections, the prosecutor of the Chelyabinsk region, Gennady Likhachev, declared that the election of the head of the administration had been declared illegal by the regional court. However, the regional Council confirmed the decision to hold elections.

The first round took place on April 11 . To the post of head of administration were nominated:

• Buravlev Valentin Ivanovich - the head of the Leninsky district of Chelyabinsk
• Golovlev Vladimir Ivanovich - Chairman of the Regional Committee on State Property Management
• Yury Ivanovich Gorozhaninov - General Director of UralAZ
• Grigoriadi Vladimir Stillianovich - Mayor of Miass
• N. Kalachev - Co-Chairman of the Democratic Green Party
• Knyaginichev Vitaly Vladimirovich - Deputy Director of the Chelyabinsk Production Enterprise of the All-Russian Society of the Blind in Commercial Issues
• Oleg Knyazev - Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Regional Russian National Council
• Kostrozhin S. V. - publisher of the newspaper "On the Eve"
• Moderau Pavel - Senior Researcher, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Nacharov Anatoly Alexandrovich - First Deputy Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Regional Council of People's Deputies
• Gennady Nikolayevich Petukhov - Member of the Russian Federation
• Radionov V. G. - Chairman of the Standing Committee on Local Self-Government of the Chelyabinsk City Council of People's Deputies
• Sumin Petr Ivanovich - Chairman of the Regional Council of People's Deputies
• Utkin Vladimir Petrovich - Mayor of Kopeisk

The election commission registered 6 candidates. In the first round, no one scored more than 50%, and therefore the second round was announced, which took place on April 25th . Pyotr Sumin and Vladimir Grigoriadi entered the second round. Sumin won 48.2% of the vote, Grigoriadi - 35.4%.

Governor Solovyov, who was appointed by the president, immediately announced the elections as illegal; he had previously refused to participate in them.

Immediately began the confrontation of two governors: the appointed and elected. The second did not take up his duties, and the first did not want to leave his post. Solovyov was supported by the President, the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation recognized the powers of Sumin (at the same time, the constitutional crisis unfolded at the federal level ).

On June 8, the Constitutional Court recognized the elections of the head of administration as legitimate.

On June 10, at the 17th session of the regional council, the registration of the elected head of the administration, Peter Sumin, took place. After that, he resigned his parliamentary powers, as required by law. Vadim Solovyov did not obey the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the session of the regional council. The security of the administration building was strengthened. At the press conference, the first deputy head of the administration, Andrei Belishko, stated that since the Constitutional Court did not cancel the decision of the regional court, it remains in force, the administration recognizes the head of Solovyov and will only carry out his instructions.

On June 11 , according to Belishko, the Presidential Administration declared illegal the decision to approve Sumin as the head of the administration.

On June 18, a local Cossack letter was published in the local newspaper, where they recognized Sumin’s authority and declared submission to him as head of the administration.

On July 6, in a local newspaper, Vadim Solovyov announced the creation of a Coordination Council on intra-regional politics, public relations and the media, where he expressed ideas for cooperation or dialogue with various parties and movements. However, he refused to leave his post.

At the end of July, the Judicial Collegium for Civil Affairs of the Supreme Court rejected the protest of the Prosecutor General’s Office against the decision of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court on the illegality of the election of the head of the regional administration.

On August 6, Sumin announced that his administration was developing a course of action. At the meeting, an agreement was reached on the creation of a new administration system of interaction with commercial structures.

On August 9, Sumin, the deputies appointed by them Rabchenok and Molodetsky together with the acting chairman of the regional Council Nacharov and his deputy Solomatkin held a meeting with the leaders of the Soviets and the heads of cities and districts where reassignment was required. On this day, Solovyov and his deputy Belishko also demanded the heads of district administrations.

On August 11, the decision of the regional Council of People's Deputies No. 157 was adopted “On measures to implement the decisions of the XVII session of the regional Council of People's Deputies”. Its essence was to call for Sumin to act more decisively.

Chelyabinsk confrontation is reflected in the federal media. If the government newspaper Rossiyskiye Vesti in its article on the Chelyabinsk conflict expressed support for Solovyov, in the parliamentary Rossiyskaya Gazeta, on the contrary.

On August 18, the regional council held a press conference of 6 out of 52 heads of district administrations. The head of the Leninsky district of Chelyabinsk, V. Buravlev, the mayor of Kopeisk, V. Utkin, the mayor of Miass, V. Grigoriadi, and the head of the Bredinsky district, D. Peters, sided with Sumin.

On August 27, a rally was held in Chelyabinsk, where accusations were addressed to the president, the government, and the administration of Vadim Solovyov for the collapse of the regional economy. At the same time, on the same day, a rally was held in support of democratic reforms, where the transfer of power to Sumin was called the "coup d'état".

On September 1, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned the decisions of the Civil Affairs Board of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court of April 8, in which the decisions of the regional election commission to register candidates for the post of head of the regional administration were declared illegal.

On September 6, a meeting of Sumin was held with the heads of administrations of cities and regions. It was about economic issues. The meeting was attended by 36 heads of administration, where the question of subordination was again resolved.

On September 7, a special commission from the presidential administration arrived in Chelyabinsk.

On September 17, an extraordinary 18th session of the regional Council of People's Deputies was held. Solovyov, who was present at the session, again refused to leave the post. The regional council made a decision where the president was asked to speed up the publication of the decree on the release of Solovyov. Also, elections were held for the chairman of the regional council - he elected Anatoly Nacharov (139 - for, 31 - against).

On September 21, Presidential Decree 1400 was issued on the dissolution of the Supreme Council , which was recognized by the Constitutional Court to be contrary to the Constitution ^[1] , and the legislature (the Supreme Council ^[2] and the Congress of People's Deputies ^[3] ) was declared a coup d'état.

On September 22, the Chelyabinsk regional and city councils decided to consider the presidential decree unconstitutional and not enforceable in the region.

Definitely supported by the decision of the President Vadim Solovyov and the mayor of Chelyabinsk Vyacheslav Tarasov. At this time, Peter Sumin, who is also a people's deputy of Russia, went to Moscow for the opening Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies.

Of the 23 deputies from the Chelyabinsk region, 12 were in Moscow in the Supreme Soviet. 9 deputies were either sick or were on vacation. Only the people's deputies, the representative of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Seleznev, and the mayor of Magnitogorsk, Vadim Klyuvgant, remained in their places in the region. Another deputy from the Chelyabinsk region, Alexander Pochinok, supported the president’s side, after which he was appointed deputy finance minister. Pochinok and Seleznev at the congress were deprived of the powers of people's deputies for supporting the president of Russia.

After the execution of the White House, the small regional council decided to submit to the regular session the issue of early elections to the representative body of the Chelyabinsk region. Began the elimination of all levels of Soviets. On October 11, Vadim Solovyov, by his decree, suspended the activities of the regional council and set elections for the local representative power on December 12 . On the same day, all 7 district councils of people's deputies ceased their activities in Chelyabinsk.

October 22 issued a decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On confirmation of the authority of the head of the administration of the Chelyabinsk region V. Solovyov", which marked the end of the confrontation.

On July 8, 1993, the Deputy Chairman of the Regional Council of People's Deputies, Alexander Salomatkin, the right hand of Peter Sumin , signed a decree "On the state-legal status of the Chelyabinsk Region and its transformation into the South Ural Republic . " This decree orders the local councils of people's deputies to conduct a survey of the population and submit their proposals to the regional council before October 15. The regional council did not have time to analyze the proposals, in October the councils were dissolved after the dispersal of the Supreme Soviet of Russia ^{[4] [5]} .

On August 23, 1993, Sergey Kostromin, without the “permission” of Salomatkin, declared himself and. about. "President" of the planned South Ural Republic. Sergei Kostromin is already a well-known novice politician, deputy of the city assembly of Zlatoust, leader of the national-patriotic association “Russia of a New Generation”, previously: “Kostromin was running for governor, sitting behind bars on charges of inciting national hatred, for a series of articles in the newspaper“ Eve ” " . He “appointed” two acting leaders of the region: Petr Sumin (elected April 25, 1993 head of the regional administration) as vice-president , and Vadim Solovyov (by decree of the President of the Russian Federation in October 1991 he was appointed head of the regional administration) prime minister of the republic ^{[4 ] [5] [6]} .

At the same time, the “president” Sergey Kostromin already had a rival, a certain Alexander Avdeev, who declared himself “the king of the Urals Alexander I,” and the Chelyabinsk region the “Ural kingdom” . Boris Mityurev, the head of the Vadim Solovyov’s administration’s press center, stated the reaction of the current government, saying that it’s “complete absurdity” , “absolutely will not affect anything” , “will be perceived as a curiosity” ^{[5] [6]} .

• Ural Republic

• Chelyabinsk opposition
• Chelyabinsk standoff continues: August 1993
• Chelyabinsk region in September 1993