Word: zyuganov
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...everyone is so sanguine. Many Russians and Western experts are deeply concerned that regardless of what he says, Yeltsin may have lost his taste for transforming the economy and may even reverse some of the advances he has made. An even graver worry is that Communist Party chief Gennadi Zyuganov will win the election and roll the economy back to state-controlled socialism. "The people who said the reforms could never be reversed are coming up short," says Marshall Goldman, associate director of the Harvard Russian Research Center. "At the moment, everyone's in a race...
Will Russia go backward? The country has undergone profound changes over the past four years. Despite the understandable fears for the future, some of Russia's reforms have become so embedded that dislodging them would be difficult. As Zyuganov himself has said, "We understand that if we start taking factories back, there's going to be shooting from Murmansk to Vladivostok...
Some key aspects of reforms, like unfettered prices and budget austerity, are in danger if Zyuganov wins in June. Yegor Gaidar, the original architect of Yeltsin's policies, believes a return to a Stalinist state is impossible now, but he fears that the economy's nascent stability might not survive a communist restoration. If Zyuganov reaches the Kremlin, he says, the result may be populism of the sort that Juan Peron tried in Argentina, marked by irresponsible government spending, high inflation, price controls and shortages...
...after the election, reform seems destined to lose momentum. It is not certain that Yeltsin can even make it into the second round of the election that will result if, as expected, no candidate wins a majority on the first ballot. It is also unclear whether he could beat Zyuganov one on one, saddled as he is with the weight of illness, the war in Chechnya and his identification with the pain and corruption of reform. Even if he were re-elected, who would push ahead with reform now that he has thrown its leading advocates out of his Cabinet...
...reforms. "I spend sleepless nights analyzing what we have done and thinking about the future," Yeltsin said. "Every time, I feel convinced we have chosen the correct path and we must not steer away from that under any circumstances." Even as Yeltsin spoke, in Moscow communists unanimously chose Gennady Zyuganov to oppose Yeltsin in the June 16 elections. Currently the owner of a healthy lead over Yeltsin in the polls, Zyuganov charges Yeltsin's reforms have done little to improve the lives of Russians: "Under the guise of democracy and human rights, only three rights are guaranteed to Russian citizens...