Read it - a lot will become clear!

https://bio.yavlinsky.ru/

 

РАУНД 1

1952 — 1960

HOW I LEARNED TO PUNCH IN THE FACE

 

Apparently, this story begins with one very unfair boxing fight.

The year is 1967. The Soviet Union. Junior Boxing Championship. 15-year-old Yavlinsky plays for the Dynamo team.

Yavlinsky is skinny and long. For that time, a boy with that height was almost a rock. But his opponent, who plays for the Spartak team, is twice as healthy as him. It's clear that something is wrong here. But what exactly is wrong is not clear.

The first round ends with a brutal beating of Yavlinsky. A knockdown.
The coach jumps into the ring, shouts that this is a crime, that he will complain to the prosecutor's office. The fight is suspended. The audience doesn't understand what's going on.

In the locker room, the coach whispers something to Yavlinsky...

The coach told me then between rounds: "Come on, Grish, give it your all, because he's older than you." I say, "What about him here?" He says, "They're cheating. They're lying. He's not performing under his own name. And we were deceived by weight. You have different weight categories. He had a fake weigh-in."

It was a terrible injustice. I felt like I was on the street, with everyone on my side.

The case at the Junior Boxing Championship

"Don't be mean. You have to be strong. And there's no need to fight at all."

The coach was angry, forbade him to ride with the opponent even in the elevator: "someone like you should not meet with an opponent before a duel."
What kind of a guy?
A boxer doesn't have to be kind. Must not.
Many years later, it turned out that his childhood idol, the legendary Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), suffered from the same problem. And Muhammad Ali's coach slapped him right in front of the ring, angering him before the fight.
"The first thought that came to my mind in the ring," recalls Yavlinsky, "was: why should I actually beat him?"
"A sentimental boxer?"
"I haven't been able to punch a person in the face since childhood"? 

Yavlinsky was twice the junior boxing champion of Ukraine. Out of 44 fights, he won 43.
But he lost the first rounds: he had to be very angry so that he would stop feeling sorry for his opponent.

ROUND 2

1952 — 1960

HOW I DECIDED TO BECOME AN ECONOMIST

A soccer ball is the blue dream of any boy of that time. Back then, they often played with cans rather than balls.
He also dreams of playing football. He's saving up for a soccer ball. Every day, he puts aside 15 kopecks given for school breakfast to buy a ball for 5 rubles and 70 kopecks. Honestly, this is the coolest soccer ball in the world. He skips school lunches, doesn't eat anything.
And he got his way, Garik Yavlinsky. Three months later, he has 5.70 in his pocket. Finally, the long-awaited day arrives. He doesn't sleep all night. He's already at the store at six in the morning. The store opens at eight. But the ball... it cost 5.70 yesterday!.. Why is it worth seven rubles instead of five today?!

It was the first childhood disaster.

Prices were changed yesterday.
It was the first child disaster. No, he didn't feel sorry for himself. His attention was completely focused on the price — why it is like this and, in general, where it comes from. "Tell me, where does the price come from?" he asked the store clerk, the director, his father, and everyone in turn. No one understood the question. Price and price. Get out of here, boy. Here's the price for you: seven rubles. "But why is she like this?" Now the world consisted not of objects, not of goods, not of a ball, soda, a bottle of milk, but of price tags under them. There were price tags all around.

The ball case

"The main economic issue is what costs how much and why.
And, it turns out, no one knows that."

..

.And he never bought a soccer ball.

ROUND 3

1970 — 1985

HOW I "HIT IT OFF"

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Yavlinsky is eighteen. He's going to enroll in economics in Moscow. He has to remake the entire Soviet economy.
The year is 1970. Brezhnev is in power. Sakharov's open letter demanding the democratization of society is being published. In the USSR, the first publicized case of hijacking an airplane occurs in order to escape from the country. McCartney announces the breakup of the Beatles. Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile; before that, he ran three times and lost three times, and a year before he won, he joked: "They will write on my grave, 'Here lies the future president of Chile.'" But he was still elected.
Yavlinsky listens to the Beatles all night long. A Beatles fan with long curly hair — that's how he walked around the capital, and that's how he was taken to the police for his unusual look. 

A case in the police.
How are the Beatles and politics related?

"I have already worked in the Kremlin and walked with long hair. The ministers came and asked Ryzhkov: what kind of artist is this?"

1970 — 1985

HOW DID I NOT DIE IN THE MINE

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After graduate school, he joined the Institute of Management of the Coal Industry. He had to draw up job descriptions for engineers and mine employees. I spent four years traveling around the country: Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, Chelyabinsk... He worked in the mines. I've been sitting underground for weeks. He compiled a directory of job responsibilities for all mine engineers; it was used to determine who was responsible for the accident and what the pension should be... They still live by this directory, since 1980. They still go to court with this handbook.
One day, the mine was flooded: a rock collapse occurred. 18 people were trapped at a depth of 200 meters, two kilometers from the entrance to the mine.
For 26 hours, Yavlinsky stood waist-deep in icy water...

One day, the mine was flooded: a rock collapse occurred. 18 people were trapped at a depth of 200 meters.

The incident in the mine.
26 hours in ice water. How it was.

"We didn't know anything, whether they were looking for us or not... We couldn't send a signal."

"I have seen how people are actually treated in our "workers' and peasants'" state: barracks, dirt, empty shelves... And constant blatant lies. First, a six-hour working day was introduced for the miners. And then they cheated. They boasted about the short working day to the whole world, forgetting to say that the countdown did not begin with arrival at the checkpoint, as it should be, but with arrival at the mine. And it took four hours to get there and back on foot. You come to the checkpoint — this is not considered the beginning of the working day. You change clothes, you get a briefing, it doesn't count. Going down doesn't count. There used to be a trolley there. Do you remember the old chronicle: happy miners with lamps riding in a tram? So this in-house transport was eliminated. It turned out that the miners were at work not six, but fourteen hours. What can a person do after such a job? Just drink."

The case in Leninsk-Kuznetsk. The coffin on Lenin Avenue and the inevitability of Communism

"The heat is 30 degrees. Beer halls. There are drunk people in them. There is a funeral procession. And above all this there is a banner: "Communism is inevitable""

The Soviet economy began to collapse not at all in the late 1980s, but starting in 1954.

Contrary to popular belief, the Soviet economy began to collapse not at the end of the 1980s, but starting in 1954. With one seemingly inconsequential statement from Lazar Kaganovich to the Politburo,
Kaganovich, then chairman of the Council of Ministers Committee on Labor, suddenly announced that he refused to review the production standards.
Until now, workers have had their allowances increased regularly once a year. Keeping the salary the same. And as compensation, prices were lowered annually on April 1. Only the norms were increased by 20%, and prices were reduced by 5%.
What happened? The worker had to work harder for the same salary. That's how it worked under Stalin. But without Stalin, it stopped: they were afraid of outrage and protests.
The beneficiaries of this policy were all those who did not have standardized labor. The victim was the working class.

"Are we a workers' state or what?" — Kaganovich was indignant. And he refused to increase the norms.

It was then, in 1954, that the Soviet leaders, who had just defeated Hitler and had just outlived Stalin, made a fatal mistake. (Either they relaxed, or they were euphoric, or they didn't want to humiliate the victorious people anymore). The salary remained under the jurisdiction of the State Planning Committee. And the definition of production standards was transferred to the local directors. That's how the postings and fakes began.
Talleyrand, Napoleon's minister, once uttered one memorable phrase: "This is not a crime. It's much worse than a crime. This is a political mistake."

When did the Soviet economy really collapse?

"Kaganovich said: "That's it, I will no longer review the production standards. There will be a riot!""

ROUND 5

1985 — 2000

"THE SYSTEM RAN OVER YOU"

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1982, Moscow. Yavlinsky (head of the Labor Research Institute) publishes a book in which he comes to the conclusion that the Soviet economy is inoperable. And it can only work in two cases: either at gunpoint (Stalin), or in a free market.
And Yavlinsky is writing a great work, the consequences of publishing which will far exceed his most unpleasant fantasies. That's how his nightmare begins for him.

Yavlinsky is writing a great work, the consequences of which will far exceed his most unpleasant fantasies.

This book is published under a special label.
No, it's not "Top Secret." But almost. It is marked "For official use". Ordinary Soviet people should not have read the conclusions reached by the economist Yavlinsky.
The book was read... Above.
And since May 1982, Yavlinsky has been going to the investigator every day. And every day at ten in the morning, in the same office, he is asked the same question: "Who asked you to write this?". They demand to collect all copies of the book. "If you don't find one, you'll go to jail." There were 300 of them...
Every day they try to force him to inform on his colleagues. At some point, he already thought: he would have died before they broke him.
Under Andropov, everything disappeared in one day.

The case of the KGB.
A joke that could have cost your life

"Suddenly, a KGB officer told me, 'Get out of here and forget you were here.' I was very confused. But when I went outside, I immediately realized what was the matter."

He was vilified under Brezhnev. And they stopped persecuting under Andropov. It was destroyed under Chernenko. And they were given freedom under Gorbachev. This is how fate worked under Soviet rule. The head changed, and the system of repression was immediately shut down. Repressive ties, supported by telephone law, were being broken. The mechanism of repression was launched immediately after the arrival of the new Secretary General. This happened when Chernenko came to power in 1984.

Doctors of the famous Fourth Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health suddenly discovered that Yavlinsky had tuberculosis: under this pretext, all his "infected" drafts and manuscripts were seized and destroyed. People came to Yavlinsky, confiscated his documents and clothes. And he ended up in a closed medical facility, where he was diagnosed with a terrible diagnosis: severe pulmonary tuberculosis. The lung can no longer be saved.

On the eve of the operation, the surgeon bends down to him and whispers right in his ear: "Run away from here. You're healthy."

An operation to remove a lung is scheduled. There are a few hours left. On the eve of the operation, the surgeon bends down to him and whispers right in his ear: "Run away from here. You're healthy."
And he ran away. Right in hospital pajamas and without a penny of money.
Then it turns out that in the 80s it was one of the ways to isolate dissidents. They were not only imprisoned. They were not only tortured in psychiatric hospitals. There was a third way — they were healed.
Yavlinsky gets home with adventures. The wife borrows clothes from the neighbors. The next day, Yavlinsky performs fluorography in eight polyclinics in Moscow at once. All the pictures confirm that he is healthy. With a stack of prescriptions, he returns to the tuberculosis clinic to prove his case. He goes straight to the chief physician's office.

The head doctor comes to the door. And locks the office with a key.

"I can't let you go. We will perform an operation for you. Cut out a part of the lung. You will receive a disability of the first group, you will live in a sanatorium in the south...
But I am 32 years old! My son was born! I'm healthy!
— Tell me, — the doctor asks thoughtfully, — can you imagine that you went out on the street and got hit by a tram? Could that be?
— Maybe...
— So that's it. You were hit by a tram... The System ran over you.

He was returned to the clinic.
There are no documents. There is no money. There's nowhere to run. Friends and colleagues believe that he is terminally ill. The clinic is full of criminals. Well, who had tuberculosis? Not the professors— they're prisoners.
One day, a neighbor approached him. He was wearing the same old hospital pajamas that didn't fit his height. The same patient as him. 
— Here, it will help you.
He had a book in his hand.
"One hundred years of climbing," Yavlinsky read.
There's not even a hundred years left to climb such a Sisyphean hell mountain...
Yavlinsky turned the book over in his hands.
— Don't worry, boy, you'll survive! Look at your relatives! — said the patient and left.
It was a book about physics by Yavlinsky.

relative

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2001, the Kremlin. Putin's meeting with Yavlinsky. The anniversary poster of the Kurchatov Institute "The founders of thermonuclear research in the USSR" hangs on the wall in the office. There are nine surnames. Tamm, Sakharov, Kurchatov, Artsimovich, Yavlinsky... Putin points to the photo of Yavlinsky: "Is this your relative?"

Yavlinsky's mother Vera worked as a chemistry teacher all her life. My grandfather, a technologist at an aviation plant in Kharkov, was arrested in 1937. For what? Because his neighbor was a Pole. All. They planted it. He endured torture for a year and a half, but did not sign the fake confession. And what would you think?
They let him go! Even the NKVD did not break such iron obstinacy. Grigory Yavlinsky's
father, Alexei, was an orphan and a street child, his parents disappeared into the civil war. He was a pupil of Makarenko. Makarenko considered him his father. He went through the entire war, was the commander of the artillery battery of the mountain division. He landed in Kerch. He ended the war in July 1945 in Czechoslovakia. There, in the Czech Tatras, SS units did not surrender even after the German surrender. I've worked with street kids all my life. His students corresponded with him until the end of his life. 
There are family legends about the ancestors. For example, there is a version that the surname sounded like Yavlensky and came from the name of the Epiphany Cathedral. Alexey Yavlinsky did not know his parents who died in the civil war. Nevertheless, he had brothers. Physicist Nathan Yavlinsky was his cousin.

My father went through the entire war, was the commander of an artillery battery of a mountain division. He landed in Kerch.

Nathan Yavlinsky was born in 1912.
He was the chief designer at the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant. In 1937, he was expelled from the party and dismissed from his job. In 1939, he was reinstated in the party and at the factory.
In 1941, despite his special armor, he volunteered for the front.
 Participates in the defense of Kiev.
In 1942, he found himself on the left bank of the Volga, not just anywhere, but near Stalingrad. Rotting in the trenches. He gets tuberculosis.
He was discharged from the army and sent to Tashkent. A week before the Battle of Stalingrad.
Was he lucky?
Apparently, he was destined to be a pioneer of thermonuclear research in the USSR.
On April 12, 1943, following the decision of the Defense Committee to proceed with the atomic project, the Academy of Sciences adopted a secret decree on the establishment of the Kurchatov laboratory. And Yavlinsky was seconded to the Kurchatov laboratory.
In 1952, the year Garik Yavlinsky was born, Nathan began work on what would later become the first tokamak.

And he created the world's first Tokamak thermonuclear plant. In the spring of 1962. He did his job.
And in the summer of 1962, I gave up with my family in Sochi... 

In the same summer, his cousin Alexei Yavlinsky, with his wife Vera and son Garik Yavlinsky, vacationed on the Black Sea, but in another city.
In June 1962, a bell rang in the Yavlinsky apartment. Garik's grandmother answered the phone.
— Call Alexey Yavlinsky.
—He's on vacation at sea.
—When did he last call you?
—Five days ago...
that's how my grandmother heard rumors about the death of Grisha's daughter, son-in-law and grandson in a plane crash.
For a whole week, Grandma and grandpa lived with this news.
In fact, they weren't the ones who died in the crash. It was a mistake. The physicist Yavlinsky worked on highly secret projects. The death of people in a plane crash in the USSR was in itself a silent event. The USSR, a secret for a secret.
There was a tragic mix-up.
In fact, in the summer of 1962, it was not Alexei who died, but Nathan Yavlinsky and his family.
Their plane crashed into a mountain near Sukhumi.
Fate no longer cared for Nathan Yavlinsky.

Regular tokamak experiments began in September 1962, immediately after Nathan's death.

"Academician Velikhov told me later," says Yavlinsky, "that my uncle made the installation, and it worked, and the result was obtained, but without it they received all imaginable bonuses. Foreigners, by the way, did not believe until the early 1970s that we had done this."

2001, the Kremlin. Putin points to the photo.
"Your relative?"
"My great—uncle."
- hm... What kind of relatives do you have!

WHO IS TO BLAME? WHY WASN'T THE 500 DAYS PROGRAM IMPLEMENTED?

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Everyone has heard about the 500 Days program. There is no such ignorant person who has not heard this name. There are dozens of jokes and legends about "500 days". But few people have read the program and know what an incredible story is behind it, what a detective story with chases.

This is one of the most mysterious unfulfilled economic programs. In this word, as in a museum, this chance, this alternative version of Russia's fate, is preserved for history.
It's the same meme, the same symbol, as some cruiser Aurora. But only in 1991. And not destructive, but creative. And only the one who didn't shoot...
in general, a missed chance. 

She was stolen, she was distorted, all possible hopes were pinned on her, she was manipulated, she was a tool in the confrontation between Yeltsin and Gorbachev. She disappeared, she appeared, Yeltsin added to her (either by mistake or for beauty) 100 days, and from "400 days" she became "500 days." 

Everyone went crazy then. We, such a backward country, with empty shelves and editorials full of lies, suddenly jumped into the ladies, "caught up and overtook." Can we create a market economy out of a non—functioning planned one - without disaster, without poverty, without a decline in production? 

There are several actors in this drama.
Gorbachev is an indecisive character who wants to treat the dead with poultices.
Yeltsin is a determined character and a populist who wants to use "500 days" as a feature in the struggle for power against "Gorbachev."
Gorbachev's entourage. A chorus of Politburo members who don't understand economics, but guard the Soviet status quo like an egg with Koshchei's life in it.
Yeltsin's entourage. He wants to secede from the USSR at any cost.
The patient is the sinking Soviet economy.
None of the characters wanted to implement the program. Why?

In general, Mikhal Sergeich had Christmas tree plenums. He didn't realize that the country was falling apart. Yavlinsky was in despair

The year is 1989. Yavlinsky is the head of the Consolidated Economic Department of the USSR Council of Ministers. He understands that the Union is falling apart, and asks Ryzhkov to urgently tell Gorbachev that a new union treaty must be drawn up immediately! The old one doesn't work. 

"Mikhail Sergeyevich is very busy. He has plenums, a lot of foreign delegations," Ryzhkov replies. 

It reminds me of an old Soviet joke: 

"An ordinary Soviet artist had one opportunity to earn money — New Year's Eve Christmas trees. On New Year's Eve, a bell rings in the artist's apartment:
— You are invited to Hollywood. Urgent auditions from Spielberg.
"I can't." I have Christmas trees." 

A good description of an inadequate reaction. 

In general, Mikhail Sergeyich had Christmas tree plenums. He didn't realize that the country was falling apart. Yavlinsky became desperate. 

"I remember my condition. I left the office and walked along the Kremlin corridor, thinking: This is the end. If they don't understand what's important and what's not important, the country is finished."

What was the economic situation like? Oil prices have halved. The money was borrowed in the West. The external debt was growing rapidly. Up to this point, high oil prices had somehow kept the inefficient Soviet economy afloat. Now it's over. Urgent reform was needed.

But they wanted to carry out reforms, the people in Gorbachev's government. Wanted to. 

They wanted to do "something else", but what is "otherwise"? 
Yavlinsky attended the meetings of the Council of Ministers and saw impotence and confusion.
— How are you implementing the plan?  Ryzhkov asked out of inertia.
"What's the plan?"  The Minister of Light Industry replied cheerfully. — Instead of a plan, we now have proposals from below.
And I got a terrible stick from the boss. Ryzhkov screamed in helplessness. He didn't even know what questions to ask the ministers and what they should answer. The planned economy is dead. And instead of what? 

And then it occurred to Yavlinsky that a special economic program should be devised, which would be scheduled not by topic, but by day. So that the country's leadership has an economic cheat sheet for every day. So that the head of government knows what needs to be done today, tomorrow, in a week, in a month — 400 days in advance. It was impossible to draw up an action plan for more than a year and a half. And for a year and a half, the plan was quite clear. This is how the "400 days of trust" appeared, the first version of the famous "500 days". 

And here is the most famous myth about the Yavlinsky program. Yavlinsky wanted to make Switzerland out of Russia in 500 days! 

Well, what can I say? You are Switzerland yourself! Russians are so harsh that they won't become Switzerland for any price. But Russia could have become a real market economy if the "400 days of Trust" program had been implemented back in 1990. 

When you say that 500 days is a year and a half, people say, "Oh, well, that's another thing... You can move mountains in a year and a half!"

Meanwhile, Nikolai Ryzhkov had prepared his own "reform" program, which consisted of... raising prices. And he was going to announce it at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. 

"Just don't do this, Nikolai Ivanovich! You'll regret it later," Yavlinsky told him.

Meanwhile, Yavlinsky's program was stolen.

Nikolai Ivanovich waved him off. The next day, on May 24, 1990, Ryzhkov announced an upcoming price increase. On the same day, people ran to the shops in a panic and swept everything off the shelves. The next morning, on May 25, Russia greeted with perfectly empty shops. This was the end of Ryzhkov's political career. Although technically he still worked for a few months. 

Meanwhile, the Yavlinsky program... stolen. And she got to Yeltsin. By the time the author was found, Yeltsin had added another 100 units to the title, and the program was called 500 days instead of 400 days. It was Yeltsin's mistake or whim. But the mistakes of the great ones of this world become monuments. Yeltsin spoke at the congress, praising Russia's new economic reform program, which in principle could not work in Russia because it was written for the USSR. But Yeltsin was a broad man, he didn't like to go into details. 

In May, Yavlinsky met Yeltsin, then chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. 

"I told him: you promised in your speech that there would be no price increases, but there will be. I tell him: this program was written for the USSR, it is not suitable for the RSFSR, there are no economic institutions in the RSFSR. I tell him: everything you said there has nothing to do with what is written in the program. And Yeltsin says, "I'm not interested in that. You take it and do it." "It doesn't happen that way," I say. "It doesn't matter how it happens," he says. In general, he was a typical first secretary of the regional committee in this: "it doesn't matter how it happens, take it and do it." 

On July 27, 1990, Gorbachev and Yeltsin signed a joint order to develop a 500-day economic reform program. All summer, Yavlinsky and a large working group were making a new program. And in September 1990, it was ready. Who is to blame for the fact that it was not implemented?

In October, Yavlinsky flies to Washington. He is thirty-eight years old. It's his first time in America. Soros hires fifty of the best translators who translate the 500 Days program overnight, every piece of it. The discussion has been going on for four days.

Soros hires fifty of the best translators who translate the 500 Days program overnight.

It was a real triumph. World-renowned economists, including Janos Kornai, announce to a Plekhanovka graduate who studied Soviet planned economics that he has written the best program for market transition that anyone has written in Europe. 

The next morning, the triumphant man receives a note that Senator Doll wants to see him. 

Yavlinsky comes to Congress, not really understanding why. 

— Ah, the man from the TV! — he is greeted by an imposing and important Doll. 

Here, within the walls of the American Congress, Yavlinsky will hear the most insulting thing he has ever heard in his life. 
— Two days ago I met with Yeltsin. He asked me what I thought about the 500 Days program, and if it was risky. I replied that, of course, it was risky, but it was the only possible program for Russia. "I won't do it," Yeltsin said. — I have an election. I won't." That's all, actually. I wanted to warn you. 

And the senator left. 

As they say in such cases, few people left the walls of the American Congress with such a heavy feeling. No, it wasn't just Yavlinsky's personal drama. It was the collapse of the idea and the drama of the country. We could have... 

The incident in Yeltsin's apartment
 

 

Yavlinsky came to Yeltsin on Lesnaya Street. Yeltsin was ill. He was lying on the couch in a sweat suit. "Boris Nikolaevich, why do you tell everyone that you are implementing the 500 Days program, but in fact you are doing exactly the opposite?"
"Don't worry, Grigory Alekseevich, we will turn everything back"

State Emergency Committee

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The historic August of 1991. The Communist coup. People tried to stop the tanks with their hands. The GKCHPISTS tried to stop the story with their hands. As it turned out, the tank is much easier to stop. 

"The members of the Emergency Committee lived in an ivory tower on some very high floor and did not know what was going on below. This is actually very typical for those who live in the Kremlin," Yavlinsky said on the Vesti − 24 program in August 2016. Words are not cut out of the air.

August 19th, 1991. Among the world leaders, only Muammar Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein express support for the coup. Yavlinsky is on vacation that day. He immediately interrupted his vacation and came to the White House. 

State Emergency Committee.
Yavlinsky is in the White House. 19.08.1991

"I had a feeling that this operation on the part of a part of the nomenclature was doomed"

Did the members of the Emergency Committee manage to instruct the government to deal with food within a week?! 

It was a coup of the indecisive. Probably the most indecisive coup in world history. A lively oxymoron. Cowardly rebels. They lost the moment they appeared to the public. How timidly the invaders of power stood up and introduced themselves with a nod of their heads!

It seems that it's not like Yeltsin, but the cleaning lady will now come out and chase them away: "Go away, I need to wash the floor!" 

Another interesting observation from those days: columns of armored personnel carriers and tanks obediently stopped at a red light. Were their tanks careful too? Although it was really scary at that moment. 

"I understood and felt that the coup was doomed from the very beginning, and therefore I was not afraid, but I was very disgusted. I had a feeling that this was a push into the pit. And I was annoyed with Gorbachev for his inconsistency.: one step forward, two steps back, three steps sideways, down, up — I brought it to this," recalls Yavlinsky. 

There are such moments in the history of the country. This was at the beginning of the "thaw". It's a time of joining forces, when any song sounds like "La Marseillaise." 

Why did everything go downhill immediately after the coup, and today our entire struggle for freedom is connected with the deepest disappointment? And the word "democrat" got a treacherous "r" in the middle. 

On the afternoon of the 21st, Gorbachev was released in Foros. Gorbachev announces the cancellation of all decisions of the Emergency Committee. Members of the Emergency Committee (Yazov and Kryuchkov), whom he does not accept, and members of the resistance from Yeltsin's team (Rutskoy and Silaev), whom he accepts as relatives, fly to him in Foros. In the late evening, representatives of both sides fly to Moscow on different planes. Kryuchkov is put on a plane to the Democrats (they definitely won't shoot him down!). In Moscow, the coup participants are arrested right on the airfield by representatives of the Russian security forces. Kryuchkov is outraged: "Where is the union prosecutor's office?" They don't pay any attention to this remark. 

This is how the retreat of the allied authorities before the Russian ones begins. 

Yavlinsky, as one of the key participants in the GKCHP resistance, was present at the arrest of the putschists as an understood person on Yeltsin's instructions. 

He was a random person during this arrest, but in this post—trip leapfrog, the economist found himself together with the chairman of the KGB (Ivanenko), Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs (Yerin), deputy prosecutor (Lisin), and he had to see this horror - two people in agony. He never talked about this tragedy. There is only one interview with him.

The death of Pugo

"These people believed that the meaning of their lives was lost. They spent their whole lives building the Soviet Union."

ROUND 9

1991 — 1992

HOW THE COUNTRY WAS ABOLISHED

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I felt like I was sitting at the bedside of a dying loved one and there was nothing I could do but hold his hand and watch him die." Yavlinsky said this about the country from August to December 1991. 

At the request of Yeltsin and Gorbachev, immediately after the coup, Yavlinsky became deputy prime minister of the last Soviet government. 

He is strongly against the collapse of the country. He is preparing an agreement on economic cooperation. The purpose of the agreement is to preserve the common economic space between all the republics of the USSR. 

Do you know what was written in that contract? A single free trade zone, a single currency — the ruble, a banking union where representatives of all republics would meet, and open borders... The European Union will come to this only in ten years. The agreement was signed on October 18. 

Did you know that 13 of the 15 republics initialed it, including even the Baltic States as observers? 

All of a sudden, on December 8, something happens in Belovezhskaya Pushcha that no one expected. The USSR is simply being abolished. There was a country, and there wasn't. Everything was destroyed.

After Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Yeltsin arrives at Gorbachev's office at 7 a.m., locks himself in the office and does not let Mikhail Sergeich inside.

The next morning after the ratification of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha decisions, Yeltsin arrives at Gorbachev's office, locks himself in it and "stupidly" does not let Mikhail Sergeich inside. The fate of the country and the world is decided by such elegant methods. If only you knew what kind of trash... world politics is being created.

The Kremlin incident

"Gorbachev arrived at the Kremlin at nine in the morning. But Yeltsin took over his office at seven in the morning."

Cartoon of 1991
After the Belovezha Accords, Yavlinsky leaves the government.

ROUND 10

1985 — 2000

YELTSIN'S CHOICE

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October 1991. Yeltsin has two decrees for the post of prime minister on his desk. One is for Yavlinsky, the other is for Gaidar. Two ready-made decrees. Yeltsin is considering which one to sign. It wasn't just two pieces of paper, it was two images of politics. And there are two ways for the country.

What happens if you choose Yavlinsky?

The year is 1991. There is money. There are no goods. People have a lot of rubles in their accounts and suitcases. And the shops are empty. The imbalance is huge. This is the so-called "money canopy". Money "hangs" over the goods. 

What did Pavlov do? That's right, he confiscated money from the population. What was Ryzhkov doing? That's right, he raised prices.

What does Yavlinsky suggest? 

Yavlinsky suggests allowing people to buy "means of production": trucks, buses, shops, cafes, hairdressers...
What will happen? A man will buy a truck and start his own small business. 

This would have created real private property, mass entrepreneurship, and a middle class in Russia. The most talented of these people would get rich. Then, at the next stage, they could become participants in the corporatization of large enterprises. This is a way to avoid huge inflation, get rid of the money overhang and make sure that an ownership class appears. Secondly, Yavlinsky insists on preserving the economic space on the territory of the former USSR. This was the "500 days" program.

So. This is understandable and convincing. And there are no arguments against it. There is also a simple human consideration: Yeltsin knows Yavlinsky well, but Gaidar does not know at all. And Yeltsin is leaning towards this option.

But there is one "but". Yeltsin is persistently offered another way: 

1. Removing price controls from all enterprises in the country in one day;
2. The simultaneous severance of all economic ties between the republics of the USSR. 

This is the position of the Americans. And only for this they will give loans to the IMF. They know what to do. You only need a performer. 

The same was done in Poland. We are talking about the infamous "shock therapy". In any incomprehensible situation, turn on the shock — a healthy body will cope on its own...
What is "shock therapy"? Instant price liberalization. The initial push for the market. The child was thrown into the sea — let him flounder. Usually the child swims out. The Polish child swam out, quickly working his arms and legs. Because there was private agriculture in socialist Poland. Collectivization was not carried out there.

And the Americans are pushing for the same actions in Russia. 

You can't, says Yavlinsky. There were private manufacturers in Poland, but not in the USSR. In the USSR, every single enterprise is state—owned. The economy is overmonopolized. This means that you are proposing to free monopolies from all control!
But first we need to create a private owner. Then it will be a market. 

Shock therapy

Why is it possible in Poland, but not in Russia?

- Yeltsin tells me: "Talk to Yavlinsky. Talk about taking him on as prime minister." <...> I invited Grisha Yavlinsky to my place. And Oleg Poptsov arrived, and the three of us sat half the night. <...> And Grisha Yavlinsky agreed. Early in the morning, I called Yeltsin and said that I had made an agreement with Yavlinsky — he agrees to work, when should he arrive? He said: "Let him arrive at 12 p.m." Then I call Yeltsin: "Boris Nikolaevich, was it?"— "Was it" — "So what?" "No, we didn't agree. Yavlinsky is Yavlinsky. He said that he agreed to work, but according to his own program, and not according to someone else's program."

Mikhail Poltoranin, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and Minister of Press and Information, in an interview with Forbes magazine

Grigory Yavlinsky and Egor Gaidar at an anti-fascist rally. December 2005

So, what about Gaidar?

Gaidar is unknown to Yeltsin. He is the head of the department of the Communist magazine and the Pravda newspaper. But Gaidar has a plus. He agrees to do as the Americans advise Yeltsin. His motto is an immediate transition to the market at any cost. 

Gaidar had a deceptive appearance. It happens. He is similar in type to Manilov. But those who knew him said he was very tough. "Iron Winnie-the-Pooh," his colleagues called him, and he really liked this image, he seemed to have come up with it himself.

And Yeltsin signs a decree against Gaidar.

— I will make reforms, but you won't!  Gaidar boasted to Yavlinsky.
"Why is that?"
"Because you're kind." And I'm evil," said the Iron Winnie-the-Pooh. 

And he began to make reforms.

January 1992. They did it anyway — they released the prices. Inflation in 1992 was 2,609%. This is called "hyperinflation." As a result, the population's monetary deposits in Sberbank (which amount to more than 100 billion rubles) have depreciated. People regarded this as a direct robbery on the part of the state. 

Gaidar seemed to do the same thing that was done in Poland, but everything went according to a different scenario. Prices soared, and people became impoverished. How can privatisation be carried out in such a situation? What to do? Who should I sell to if no one has a dime? It's simple! Like everything else that's brilliant. 

State property was simply given to those who hung around the government. An acquaintance... 

Moreover, they were distributed not for a song, as is commonly believed, but literally for free. 

How they stole on privatization

Yavlinsky on what schemes of fraudulent privatization were used at mortgage auctions

Inflation in 1992 was 2,609%.

"Not once in the history of our country has the people managed to create their own state that serves them and not themselves. The only attempt to do this was in 1991, when the people chose deputies and Yeltsin. But then tragedy struck. The reforms began to be carried out in such a way that the people lost all confidence in the government and hated it again. Instead of a vital dialogue, the people were told: if you are dissatisfied with something, well, for example, hyperinflation at 2609%, then you are anti-reform forces and there is nothing to talk about with you. And 1992 began with privatization, then 1993 with the shooting at the White House, and then the war in the Caucasus."

G. Yavlinsky 

The year is 1992. Privatization. Part One. Anatoly Chubais on all TV channels

"For a voucher, you can buy two Volga cars"

The year is 1993. Shooting at the White House. Russia on the eve of the civil war
ROUND 11

1993 — 1994

HOW I DECIDED TO BECOME
A POLITICIAN

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Yavlinsky is tired of giving economic advice if they are ready to use him only as a screen. It's like giving your car keys to someone who can't drive.
Come on, Grisha, take the keys! Drive yourself!
And Yavlinsky creates Yabloko. Yabloko's slogan is "The end does NOT justify the means." In 1993, this principle gave 8% of the vote and 27 seats in the State Duma. 

ROUND 12

1994 — 1996

tragedy

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The year is 1994. The beginning of the First Chechen War. Yeltsin utters his famous "Take as much sovereignty as you can carry," which is perceived in the Russian autonomous regions as a call to action. And Chechnya has always dreamed of seceding...
Yeltsin was a master of the double game. He promises sovereignty, but at the same time tacitly supports anti-separatist forces in Chechnya. This is how Russian soldiers find themselves in Chechnya without shoulder straps. And they are captured.
At this moment, Chechen militants, defending their land in the way they understand it, are hacking Russian soldiers alive, filming it on camera. These videos are available.
It's impossible to watch these videos...
"Kind people! Have pity!" the guy begs.
"I've found some good people!" they reply.
And they cut the throat.
Dudaev gives an ultimatum: if you admit that these are your soldiers, we will release them, and if you do not admit it, we will shoot them.
And they were abandoned. The FSB refused. The Ministry of Defense refused. The Interior Ministry refused. The president refused. "We don't know who they are."
Yavlinsky offered himself as a hostage in exchange for them.
"They were acting on orders. You took away their documents, you hid their shoulder straps, you didn't tell their parents anything. Now they will be destroyed there. As a deputy of the State Duma, as a politician, I recognize these soldiers as Russian."
Yavlinsky called the President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, and he allocated a plane. Yavlinsky ended up in Chechnya at the head of a group of politicians and journalists.
Negotiations with Dudaev were terribly difficult. They tried to deceive Yavlinsky several times. Before the shelling began, they began to blackmail: if you don't get out right now, you will die. It was only when Yavlinsky actually went into the pit where our soldiers were sitting that everyone started to get hysterical. No one wanted to die. And no one wanted to give up the soldiers. And they really didn't want Yavlinsky to stay there. Then it turned out that Dudaev had promised Grachev that Yavlinsky would return. 

As a result, he finally released them. Not all of them... But he brought seven of them—seven alive—and handed them over to his parents. He also brought twenty coffins... I collected the remains of the bodies of our soldiers so that they would not be eaten by dogs.
After all this, his son was attacked. He never talked about this terrible episode, as any other person would not talk about it. But at a meeting with voters in the tiny Karelian town of Olonets, one journalist — as follows from the tone and manner of the question, who supports Yavlinsky's opponents — asked him a question about his sons. And he answered...

At a meeting in Olonets, Yavlinsky was asked a "provocative" question about where his sons live.

"Dudaev gives an ultimatum: if you admit that these are your soldiers, we will release them, and if you do not admit it, we will shoot them. And ... they were abandoned." 

After that, Russia begins an operation that will be called and will go down in history as the "restoration of constitutional order in the Chechen Republic."

ROUND 13

1996 — 1997

WHY HAS THE UNITED STATES NEVER SUPPORTED YAVLINSKY?

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The year is 1996. The presidential campaign. Yeltsin persuades Yavlinsky to withdraw his candidacy. Well, as he persuades... Boris Nikolaevich was not very good at persuasion. Requires. 

There is pressure on Yavlinsky from all sides. They promise all kinds of troubles if they oppose Yeltsin. 

The US ambassador to Moscow, Mr. Pickering, comes to him and also demands that he withdraw his candidacy. He promises that otherwise all members of his family will become "not allowed to travel." That is, they are not allowed to travel to "all civilized countries of the world," and above all to the United States. The visit was remembered by the fact that the ambassador said one beautiful nasty thing: "You think you will be a hero of a history. But you will be a footnote of a history!" ("You think you will be a hero of the history of Russia. But you will become a footnote in the history of Russia"). "That's a beautiful phrase," Yavlinsky thought, and politely pointed the ambassador to the door. 

Two months later, the Americans apologized for their words: "Sorry, Grigory, we didn't know what condition Yeltsin was in. I'm sorry, we didn't understand what was going on."

"If you vote with your heart, stock up on validol," Yavlinsky described Yeltsin's election campaign.

Then there was a slogan, a wonderful campaign slogan, a classic of the genre — "Vote with your heart." There was a terrible ambiguity in this. Yeltsin had problems with his heart. "If you vote with your heart, stock up on validol," Yavlinsky described Yeltsin's election campaign, as a result of which Yeltsin went to the operating table right from the inauguration.

Then a report will be written in the US Congress on why America has never supported Yavlinsky. The drafters of the report concluded that there should be one Democrat in Russia. If we support Yavlinsky, then who is Yeltsin?! 

They meet with Yeltsin several times, and each time Yeltsin pushes: "Withdraw your candidacy. Take it off!" And he bangs his fist on the table. Yavlinsky turns around and leaves. Suddenly Yeltsin stops Yavlinsky in the doorway. And suddenly she says quietly to him, "And I wouldn't take it off." 

"Political technologies" sample of 1996

The newspaper "God Forbid!" contained black PR against Zyuganov, had a circulation of 10 million copies, exaggerated the threat of communist revenge and was published with the money of the oligarchs. It was published by Kommersant Publishing house, however, hiding its authorship.
ROUND 14

1999 — 2002

BLACK PR

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The year is 1999. The Second Chechen War. Yabloko is losing its electorate due to Yavlinsky's anti-war stance. "The Russian army is being revived in Chechnya. And Yavlinsky is stabbing the Russian army in the back," Chubais famously says. 

The debate between Yavlinsky and Chubais. Classics of Russian television. The NTV reference transmission. The whole country is watching her. The coolest rap battle of 1999.

Photojaba on the famous debate. The year 1999
Yavlinsky demands an explanation of why the privatization was carried out in such a fraudulent way. In response, Chubais uses the classic technique of getting personal. Therefore, Chubais will respond to claims of fraudulent privatization: "You, Grigory Alekseevich, were in the elite of Russian politics and never did anything at all." That's it! The guard, he criticizes, but does nothing! So, with the light hand of Anatoly Borisovich, this stereotype arose. 
What exactly is hidden under the claim of "doing nothing"? He doesn't do to us what we do. Distancing himself! He's bothering my eyes with his reputation! We have vouchers, auctions, that's the job. We don't live on a cloud, it's just salt without a smell. Politics is a dirty business, comrade!

And how does Yavlinsky react? To hit or not to hit back? To wet or not to wet? He's a boxer who only punches when he gets angry...

"I felt like I was on the street, with everyone on one side..."

The case on NTV

"My voter brought me to the elite of Russian politics. I have as many voters as I have. I cherish everyone. And how did you get into the elite of politics, Anatoly Borisovich?" 

Dmitry Muratov: "Liberal intelligentsia" VS Yavlinsky

"There is a group of media intellectuals who always urge not to vote for Yavlinsky, and then they are terribly offended by him for not winning." 

The year 2000. President elections. Black PR against Yavlinsky is on all TV channels. ORT reports that Yavlinsky underwent plastic surgery. RTR makes a famous story about gays and Yavlinsky. The tapes slandering Yavlinsky are brought from the Kremlin by an armed officer, who is instructed to insert the tape during the evening news and wait for the story to pass.

Since no one at ORT, not even Ernst, wanted to put this tape on the air, an armed field communications officer was sent from the Kremlin.

MN: Was the idea "politics is a dirty business" introduced intentionally? Is this political technology? 

G.Ya.: It's not like an evil genius was sitting there calculating and implementing. We went by touch, looked at what was happening. For example, before Yeltsin's 1996 election, no one knew if it was possible to control the entire press. Berezovsky and Chubais proved: it's easy! Berezovsky came up with the idea that there was no need to maintain an ORT. It's enough to buy Dorenko, the head of the news service, and the female presenters. You don't even need to buy girls — you can change them. That's it! No need to invest in the channel, come up with new programs — these are all excesses. Pay Dorenko and order stories from him. If you are interested in technology, then it was like this: first they slapped you at random — once! — and it turned out. Let's do it again! They made me a woman... 

MN: In what way? 

G.Ya.: ORT informed me that I had an operation and became a woman. That was in 2000. It was already difficult to get into the political programs on the first and second channels. Then I went to an entertainment program. And I got into the "auditorium of the Kazan railway station." Can you imagine the waiting room of the Kazan railway station? Different directions, different audiences — the whole of Russia, the whole nation. And I got into this nation. And he became interested. I was lively and joking. And the rating went up. And then last Friday, in the last three hours before the election, they killed me. You can't even imagine how "elegant" it was done. Ella Pamfilova is being asked: "As a woman, do you feel that Yavlinsky had plastic surgery?" And she says, "Of course..." — suddenly the interview is interrupted with these words. And then the reporter says it's not just a plastic surgery, but a sex reassignment surgery. Since no one at ORT, not even Ernst, wanted to put this tape on the air, an armed field communications officer was sent from the Kremlin to insert the tape during the evening news and wait for the story to pass. 

MN: And on the RTR? 

G.Ya.: And on RTR the plot "Gays for Yavlinsky" was shown. And it worked, because you can't think of anything more disgusting for Russia — that's the perception of the people. 

MN: Didn't you apologize afterwards? 

G.Ya.: Ernst called me: "I'm sorry, Grigory Alekseevich, it didn't work out well. It's not really my fault, but it wasn't good." I filed a lawsuit, it was in March. My lawyer told the judge, a pretty woman, "Yavlinsky is ready to come and prove that he is a man." She protested, "No, no, don't. Not again. We'll figure it out." And in December, the news refuted this information, almost a year after the election.

From Yavlinsky's interview with the Moscow News

ROUND 15

2002 — 2003

"NORD-OST"

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Yavlinsky was known for his anti-war stance on Chechnya. Therefore, when the "Nord-Ost" happened, the Chechens named him among the possible negotiators.

"Nord-Ost".

How did my negotiations with the terrorists go?

MN: Why do you refuse to talk about Nord-Ost? 

G.Ya.: Listen, Nord-Ost is a terrible crime. Today, there are no prerequisites for punishing the perpetrators. Who let them in? Who were they paying? Why weren't the victims given an antidote? Why didn't the doctors say anything? Why did you choose this method? Were there really bombs there? It looks like there were dummies. There are no answers to all these questions today. What should I say? A politician is not a storyteller. And I'm not a human rights activist. The human rights defender says something because it's true, that's all. This is a well-deserved and respected position. A politician must speak in order to change or prevent something. There's nothing I can do in this case. When the time comes, we'll talk. The court also decided on compensation. If it goes further, if it turns into a real process... Although it can't be... But if the process takes place, I will say what I think, completely and to the end, no matter what. 

MN: You don't want to remember that now? 

G.Ya.: I will never forget this in my life. How can you forget that? I still don't say goodbye to life every day... I knew that both of them could kill me. Our people might kill me to give me a reason to storm. They can be killed by those, accidentally or intentionally.

MN: How was your dialogue with the terrorists? 

G.Ya.: They were completely young people who did not understand anything. And these were not the same negotiations that I conducted in Chechnya in the early 90s. The dialogue lasted an hour and a half. The bottom line is: "We are stronger than you. You want to live, we want to die." I say: "You destroy innocent people, who are you after that? That's who you are?" They didn't expect such a plot. They poked me with a machine gun with such force that I thought they would punch me through the head. It started to bleed. I say, "What do you want?" "We want to end the war." I say, "This is a whole war, it cannot be stopped in one day. Do you want to be deceived? I don't want to deceive you." An hour and a half of bickering. As a result, they demanded a meeting between Putin and Maskhadov. I say, "If you want, I'll try. Let the kids out first, and I'll try to negotiate." They called me this morning and said, "We're done. Now you do it." I say, "How much?"—"Eight." And, indeed, the children were released. They were immediately seized and carried away. It's probably written in the annals somewhere. But I couldn't do anything further... 

MN: Did you feel helpless?

G.Ya.: I had a premonition of a terrible crime that was about to take place.

From Yavlinsky's interview with the Moskovskie Novosti newspaper

ROUND OF 16

1985 — 2000

YELTSIN

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Boris Nikolaevich played a strange role in the life of Yavlinsky. He gave the green light to the 500 Days program, thereby bringing Yavlinsky into politics. And then, suddenly, the yellow light and the red light turned on: he used the program for his own purposes, but did not implement it. In 1996, Yeltsin did everything to make Yavlinsky withdraw his candidacy from the elections. But quietly, so that no one could hear, he confessed: "And I wouldn't take it off." A few months before his death, Yeltsin invited Yavlinsky to visit and suddenly said: "You were right, I didn't understand you." And he presented an autographed book of memoirs, writing the warmest words on it. "And the book itself is not so well written about me, Boris Nikolaevich," Yavlinsky grinned. 

Really, what a gift: inside the three—volume book there are criticism and reproaches, and on the flyleaf there is an autograph of the author with beautiful words. 

"Come on, Grigory Alekseevich, I didn't write this book," Yeltsin replied good—naturedly. 

But the most interesting thing is this interview given to Channel One journalists on February 1, 2006. The broadcast is timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the BNE. Yeltsin is in good shape here, cheerful and articulates his thoughts precisely. In 2006, we had already lost the habit of such a Yeltsin, we did not remember him like that.

— Which of your political opponents do you respect the most? — the journalist of the "First channel" asks. 

"Respect?"  Yeltsin asks again. — Yavlinsky. 

"Who is your main opponent, Boris Nikolaevich?" 

What did Yavlinsky think about Yeltsin? For many years, Yavlinsky was his consistent and implacable opponent. He criticized for the collapse of the country, for privatization, for the appointment of Vladimir Putin as a "guard" of the results of privatization. How did he rate it? 
There is a phrase by Yavlinsky that he did not say quite directly, and therefore it is more valuable and characterizes both of them more than questions and answers head-on.
- What do you think about Yeltsin, Grigory Alekseevich? You knew him well...
— Well, who knows politicians of this magnitude well?.." 

Who knows Yavlinsky well?

ROUND 17

2015-2018

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The last chapter did not include the events of 2012, when Yavlinsky was not allowed to run in the presidential election, but Prokhorov was put in his place. It does not include the events of 2014, when Russia, like Primakov over the Atlantic, turned its ship in the opposite direction. This chapter does not include Bolotnaya squares and the associations of Democrats under the Yabloko banner. What now?

One lady, after Yavlinsky's meeting with voters, said: "Let them elect him first, and then we will vote for him." Another wrote: "I respect Yavlinsky very much. But where is the guarantee that he will become president?" What guarantees are there, friends? This is a high-risk area. 

Grigory Alekseevich read this biography. He thanked me very cordially. And he was unhappy: "What is all this for? This is not a detective story. What was I doing all this for? It's not clear from the biography." And then he explained why. We just managed to turn on the recorder... It turned out to be a very sincere afterword. 

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Biography author: Valiakhmed Popov, Boris Skobelev

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