Colleagues spoke about the personality of Khasbulatov: a politician with an unhappy fate

Ruslan Khasbulatov died at the age of 81 in Olgino near Moscow. Being not only a political but also a scientific figure, he was directly involved in the most important events for Russia, when a difficult and painful process of transition from one type of statehood to another took place. In the first half of the 1990s, Khasbulatov’s name appeared in almost every socio-political news, but he soon left the arena of political struggle, leaving for the social sciences. What is the memory of the last chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR?

Ruslan Khasbulatov was born on November 22, 1942 in Grozny, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Together with his family, he was deported to the territory of modern Kazakhstan, where the future politician spent his childhood and youth in the northern regions. In 1967, Khasbulatov graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. Continuing to engage in science after his studies, he distinguished himself by working at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Research Institute for Higher Education Problems, as well as twenty years of teaching at the Moscow Institute of National Economy named after G.V. Plekhanov, known today as the Russian University of Economics. In 1982, Khasbulatov became a professor of economics.

By 1990, the policy of “perestroika” in the USSR was in full swing. The revival of political life in the country at the turn of the last decade of the 20th century involved many representatives of the scientific community in this area. Khasbulatov was no exception. Having been elected a People’s Deputy of the RSFSR from the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the politician supported democratic reforms, the territorial integrity of Russia and the expansion of the function of local Soviets to real self-government bodies with legislative power.

At first, Khasbulatov was among the supporters of the then Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, being his first deputy. Despite his personal negative attitude towards the draft Union Treaty in August 1991, he opposed the State Emergency Committee, and after the signing of the Belovezhskaya Agreement, together with Yeltsin, he tried to overcome the obvious unwillingness of the Congress of People’s Deputies to ratify them.

1993 became a dividing line both in his relationship with Yeltsin and in the political career of Khasbulatov himself. The confrontation between the President and the Parliament arose first on the basis of socio-economic disagreements, which later developed into a constitutional crisis. Khasbulatov, along with Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, was one of the leaders of the parliamentary opposition to Yeltsin. The words “White House” and the barricades became a symbol of the struggle for power only two years after the “August Putsch”. This time the events, unfortunately, turned out to be more bloody than then. It was possible to fulfill the presidential decree of 1400 on the dispersal of the Supreme Council only with the help of volleys of tank guns.

After the October battles and the defeat, Khasbulatov was arrested and until the amnesty in February 1994 was kept in the Lefortovo detention center. Already the former chairman of the dispersed Russian parliament tried to play a peacekeeping role in the Chechen conflict, but to no avail. Ruslan Imranovich did not return to politics, and science again became his main activity. Until the end of his life, Khasbulatov remained the head of the Department of World Economy at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

About what kind of person and politician Ruslan Khasbulatov was, MK talked to people who knew him personally.

Konstantin Zatulin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs

– Konstantin Fedorovich, what kind of politician was Khasbulatov?

– As a politician, Ruslan Khasbulatov has an unhappy fate. By virtue of his election to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, he joined Yeltsin’s team, which, of course, is responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, I am sure that Khasbulatov himself was not the initiator of this, but simply at that moment obeyed the command logic. Soon the paths of Yeltsin and Khasbulatov diverged, and all this led to the events of 1993 and that shameful phenomenon when hostilities were going on in the center of Moscow. In the course of personal communication with Khasbulatov, it was clear to me that he is a firm, definite person, obsessed with the obligations that he took on. He was unlucky with his boss, Yeltsin. Yeltsin was ready for anything, Khasbulatov was not ready for anything. Therefore, he began to oppose the reform course of the Gaidar government. With this, he will remain in the history of these turbulent years. Perhaps much of what he said while fighting Yeltsin was correct, but there is no certainty that it would be better if the Supreme Soviet won then. In practice, you can’t check it. Maybe they would all just as well then quarreled among themselves.

Why did his political career end so abruptly?

– After 1993, he was excluded from the political process, although he lived long enough. After his release from Lefortovo, he continued his scientific work. A special article is the relationship of the Khasbulats with their small homeland, Chechnya. There are different versions here. In the early stages, Khasbulatov was an obvious opponent of Dudayev. I think that the reason why he did not return to politics is due to the fact that his opponents used the fact of Khasbulatov’s Chechen origin, playing on the national aspect. By the time Khasbulatov was released, an internal conflict was in full swing in the Chechen Republic. Then it was very difficult for Khasbulatov to come to the fore, and then it was too late. The Chechen story continued until the early 2000s. His attempts to return to politics would run into the memory of his defeat in 1993 and the circumstances of the Russian-Chechen disagreements.

Oleg Rumyantsev, Executive Secretary of the Constitutional Commission of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR in 1990-1993.

– How do you assess Ruslan Imranovich as a person?

– Khasbulatov is certainly the brightest personality. He belonged to the galaxy of Russian political leaders who came to power as a result of the first democratic elections in 1990. Khasbulatov for me is not only the chairman of the Supreme Council, but also the deputy chairman of the Constitutional Commission. It was in this capacity that we interacted with him for almost 4 years. When the commission was formed, this Moscow professor of Chechen origin, known for his books on economics, was in great demand.

– What are his main achievements would you single out?

– Two main achievements can be distinguished in his posts with Khasbulatov. The first is the Union Treaty of 1992, we worked closely with Khasbulatov and Viktor Zorkin. After the fiasco of Belovezhya, a problem arose. The separatists began to raise their heads and say: “If Kazakhstan left, then why can’t Chechnya?” There was a threat of the state collapse of the Russian Federation. The autonomies asked for an agreement on the establishment of the Russian Federation, but we were categorically against it. As a result, in March 1992, an agreement was signed on the delimitation of powers between authorities. It was a historic victory for federalism. We did not allow the collapse according to the Union scenario. Cooperation with Ruslan Imranovich was very close during these months. Sometimes I had to swear, and almost fight, because the Upper Chamber, which included representatives of autonomies, had a serious impact on him.

The second achievement is Khasbulatov’s struggle against Yeltsin’s voluntarism. Yeltsin, whom I knew from the inter-regional deputy group and the first months of the work of the Constitutional Commission, later became completely different when he was surrounded by the beneficiaries of the property being torn apart. On such a “crucian” as Yeltsin, a voluntarist who does not obey the laws, the Constitution and the very spirit of democratization, there was such a “pike” as the Supreme Council, headed by Khasbulatov. His merit is that he was able to lead the fight against this greed. It was a confrontation between the Parliament and the presidential structure striving for absolute power. Many people scold him for this, but I would erect a monument to him. Despite the fact that Ruslan Imranovich had his troubles and shortcomings, he kept himself within certain limits. He was the chairman of the parliament that we wanted him to be.