1. For a detailed study of the social background and politics of the informal movement, see Sigman, Carole, Clubs politiques et perestroïka en Russie: Subversion sans dissidence (Paris, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, also available in Russian: Sigman, Karol΄, Politicheskie kluby i Perestroika v Rossii: Oppozitsiia bez dissidentstva (Moscow, 2014)Google Scholar.

2. I use the term “liberal” following a common and convenient usage to designate one of the ideological camps of the late Soviet Union, generally contrasted with that of “nationalists” and “communists.” As all ideological labels, these should be used with caution. One must keep in mind that they are not exhaustive of all political nuances, that they were not necessarily assumed by those they designate (many Soviet liberals did not use this label prior to 1990), and that they do not necessarily correspond to the definition of the related terms in western social science. To underline this specificity, I refer to the intellectuals under study as Soviet liberals.

3. Fish, M. Steven, Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution (Princeton, 1995), 33Google Scholar; Devlin, Judith, The Rise of the Russian Democrats: The Causes and Consequences of the Elite Revolution (Brookfield, VT, 1995), 94, 133, 154, 158–65Google Scholar; Hosking, Geoffrey A., Aves, Jonathan, and Duncan, Peter J. S., eds., The Road to Post-Communism: Independent Political Movements in the Soviet Union 1985–1991, (London, 1992), 70, 76, 80, 87Google Scholar; Reddaway, Peter and Glinski, Dmitri, The Tragedy of Russian Reforms: Market Bolshevism against Democracy (Washington, DC, 2001), 141–42Google Scholar; Remnick, David, Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (New York, 1993), 29–30Google Scholar; Viktor Sheinis, Vzlet i padeniye parlementarizma v Rossii, t. 1 (Moscow, 2005), 119–20, 240, 270, 679; Carole Sigman, Clubs politiques et perestroïka en Russie, 287–88; Sogrin, Vladimir, Politicheskaia istoriia sovremennoi Rossii 1985–2001: Ot Gorbacheva do Putina (Moscow, 2001), 49Google Scholar; Urban, Michael, Igrunov, Vyacheslav, and Mitrokhin, Sergei, The Rebirth of Politics in Russia (Cambridge, Eng., 1997), 118, 132, 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. To my knowledge, the only study devoted specifically to this topic is an unpublished master’s thesis defended in 2012 under the supervision of Viktor Sheinis: Ripsime Martirosian, “Klub ‘Moskovskaia Tribuna’ v gody perestroiki (1988–1991 gg.)” (MA thesis., Moscow Historical Archives Institute, 2012). This work explains the position of the club leaders on the basis of their articles published in 1988 and recounts some of the club key debates on the basis of Viktor Sheinis’ unpublished private archives, which constitute a precious source of information.

5. Batkin, Leonid, Epizody moei obshchestvennoi zhizni (Moscow, 2013), 128Google Scholar.

6. See for example Aleksandr Shubin, Predannaia demokratiia: SSSR i neformaly (1986–1989) (Moscow, 2006); Aleksandr Sungurov, “Leningradskii klub ‘Perestroika’ kak prototip Tsentra publichnoi politiki,” in M. Gornyi and A. Sungurov, eds., Publichnaia politika 2007: Sbornik statei (St. Petersburg, 2007), 127–35; Valentin Toltstykh, ed., Svobodnoe slovo: Intellektual΄naia khronika desiatiletiia 1985–1995 (Moscow, 1996).

7. Leonid Batkin, personal communication, December 9, 2012.

8. See for example Iurii Kariakin’s memoirs: Peremena ubezhdenii (Ot oslepleniia k prozreniiu) (Moscow, 2007). See also Inna Kochetkova, The Myth of the Russian Intelligentsia: Old Intellectuals in the New Russia (London, 2010), chapter 4.

9. Urban, The Rebirth of Politics in Russia, 92.

10. See respectively Fish, Democracy from Scratch, and Vladimir Gel΄man, Authoritarian Russia: Analyzing Post-Soviet Regime Changes (Pittsburgh, 2015).

11. For a positive appraisal, see Vladimir Shlapentokh, Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post-Stalin Era (Princeton, 1990); and Leon Aron, Roads to the Temple: Truth, Memory, Ideas and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987–1991 (New Haven, 2012). For a more critical appraisal, see Alexander Lukin, Political Culture of Russian “Democrats” (Oxford, 2000); and Reddaway and Glinski, The Tragedy of Russian Reforms.

12. Vadim Mezhuev, “Perestroika i intelligentsiia,” in Valentin Tolstykh, ed., Perestroika: Desiat΄ let spustiia (Moscow, 1995), 112–17; Aleksandr Tsipko, “‘Demokraticheskaia Rossiia’ kak bol΄shevistskaia i odnovremenno pochvennicheskaia partiia,” Nezavisimaia gazeta, April 9, 1993, 5. Vekhi was a famous collection of critical essays on the Russian intelligentsia, originally published in 1907: Nikolai Berdiaev, Sergei Bulgakov, Mikhail Gershenzon, A. S. Izgoev, Bogdan Kostiakovskii, Petr Struve, Semen Frank, Vekhi: Landmarks (Armonk, NY, 1994).

13. Jochen Hellbeck, “Speaking Out: Languages of Affirmation and Dissent in Stalinist Russia,” Kritkika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 1, no. 1 (Winter 2000), 71–96; Benjamin Nathans, “The Dictatorship of Reason: Aleksandr Vol΄pin and the Idea of Rights under ‘Developed Socialism,’” Slavic Review 66, no. 4 (Winter 2007), 630–63.

14. See Leonard Schapiro, ed., Political Opposition in One-Party States (London, 1972); Frederick C. Barghoorn, “Factional, Sectoral and Subversive Opposition in Soviet Politics,” and H. Gordon Skilling, “Opposition in Communist East Europe,” in Robert Dahl, ed., Regimes and Oppositions (New Haven, 1973); Rudolf L. Tökés, ed., Dissent in the USSR: Politics, Ideology, and People (Baltimore, 1975). These works follow the approach introduced in Robert Dahl, ed., Political Oppositions in Western Democracies (New Haven, 1966).

15. Dahl identifies “goals” and “strategies” as two of the six ways in which political oppositions differ. These two criteria, however, have been identified by Schapiro and Skilling as the main distinguishing features between types of opposition in communist regimes.

16. Jean Blondel, “Political Opposition in the Contemporary World,” Government and Opposition 32, no. 4 (October 1997): 469.

17. Viacheslav Igrunov acquired many materials from MT as part of his work at the Moscow Bureau of Information Exchange, which he created to collect and preserve the publications from the informal movement.

18. Testimonies include Batkin, Epizody moei obshchestvennoi zhizni; Iakov Berger, “INION kak seredina zhizni: Rasskaz Iakova Bergera,” Sotsionet, at https://socionet.ru/publication.xml?h=repec:rus:vlebon:2 (accessed October 8, 2015; no longer available); Iakov Berger, “Interv΄iu s Iakovom Bergerom,” Yel΄tsin Tsenter, at http://www.yeltsincenter.ru/decryption/intervyu-s-Iakovom-bergerom (accessed August 3, 2015; no longer available); Andrei Sakharov, Gorkii, Moskva, dalee vezde (Moscow, 1989); Mikhail Tsalenko, Vzgliad iz nevidiashchikh glaz (Hanover, 2013). The interviews I conducted: Iurii Afanas΄ev, Mytishchi, October 24, 2013; Marietta Chudakova, Moscow, April 20, 2014; Svetlana Gannushkina, Moscow, April 5, 2017; Leonid Gozman, Moscow, April 10, 2017; Viacheslav Igrunov, Moscow, October 21, 2013; Vladimir Iliushenko, Moscow, April 10, 2017; Viktor Sheinis, Moscow, November 8, 2013.

19. The format of this paper does not allow to present another debate on the strategies of opposition, which took place at the MT in the spring 1990, regarding the creation of the Presidency of the Soviet Union by—and for—Gorbachev.

20. Leonid Batkin, “Vozobnovlenie istorii,” in Iurii Afanas΄ev, ed., Inogo ne dano: Perestroika: Galsnost΄, demokratiia, sotsializm (Moscow, 1988), 155.

21. These decrees were denounced in one of the MT’s first official declarations, drafted on October 12, 1988. Arkhiv Sakharova, Moscow, Russian Federation (hereafter AS), fond (f.) 1, (Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov), opis΄ (op.) 3 (Obshchestvenno-politicheskaia deiatel΄nost), razdel΄ (raz.) 3.4.3, “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” ed. khr. 169 (Obrashchenie k Verkhovnomu sovetu SSSR, in Biulleten΄ Moskovskoi Tribuny no. 1, [Moscow, 1989], 6–10). All references to Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” are from 1989, published in Moscow.

22. Afanas΄ev, Inogo ne dano. The book became the most famous collection of essays of the time of perestroika and was translated into various foreign languages.

23. Other members of the initiative group who had contributed to Inogo ne dano included Iurii Kariakin, Len Karpinskii, Iurii Burtin, Ales΄ Adamovich, and Mikhail Gefter. The physicists Roal΄d Sagdeev and Arkadii Migdal also joined on Sakharov’s invitation.

24. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (O sozdanii politiko-kul΄turnogo obshchestvennogo kluba “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny,” no. 1), 3.

25. Biblioteka mezhdunarodnogo obshchestva “Memorial,” Moscow, Russian Federation (hereafter BM), Fond sovremennoi politicheskoi dokumentatsii, papka “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” (Chleny Moskovskoi Tribuny [po sostoianiu po 16 dekabria 1989 goda]). Of that number, three were already deceased at the moment the list was established: the historian Natan Eidel΄man, the lawyer Sof΄ia Kallistratova, and Andrei Sakharov. The MT was mostly a boys’ club, with only 22 women out of the 194 members listed.

26. Institutions that hosted MT sessions between 1988 and 1991 include the Central House of scholars, the Central House of artists (now the New Tretiakov Gallery), the Central House of Culture of Health Care Workers (now the Helicon Opera), the Central House of Writers (now the Moscow Capital Club), the Moscow Aviation Institute, the Moskva Hotel, the Mossovet (now the City Hall), and the House-Museum of A.S. Pushkin. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168 (Annotatsii videozapisei 1989–1991 g.g. S. I. Alenikovoi-Vol΄kenshtein). An indication regarding the length of the sessions can be found in the suggestion of a member to limit them to four or five hours, so there would be more time for informal contacts and discussions during the rest of the day. Leonid Gozman, “V biuro MT—Predlozheniia po rabote kluba” in Martirosian, Klub “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” annex 3, 95–96.

27. Berger, “INION kak seredina zhizni”; Leonid Gozman, interview, Moscow, April 10, 2017; Vladimir Iliushenko, interview, Moscow, April 10, 2017.

28. Sakharov, Gorkii, Moskva, dalee vezde, 333; Batkin, Epizody, 123.

29. Skilling, “Opposition in Communist East Europe,” 93; Barghoorn, “Factional, Sectoral, and Subversive Opposition in Soviet Politics,” 39.

30. On the influence of the institutchiki (experts from institutes) on Gorbachev, see Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor (Oxford, 1996), 111–15.

31. Batkin, Epizody, 123.

32. Two members expressed this view at MT session on December 6, 1988. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168, (Zasedanie kluba “Moskovskaia tribuna” o Karabakhe 6 dekabria 1988 goda), transcript of audiocassettes no 85 and 86.

33. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168 (Zasedanie kluba “Moskovskaia tribuna” [raspechatany vyderzhki] 4 fevralia 1989 goda), transcript of audiocassettes no 80, 81, 84, and 87.

34. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (O sozdanii politiko-kul΄turnogo obshchestvennogo kluba “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 3. This objective was the only one mentioned in the manuscript drafts of the founding declaration written by Batkin. This is also the first motivation Batkin mentions in his memoirs: Batkin, Epizody, 122.

35. On the inheritance of this view from the nineteenth century among late Soviet intellectuals, see Vladislav Zubok, Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia (Cambridge, Mass., 2009). For a study of the cultivation of this ideal by the Soviet regime, see Benjamin Tromly, Making the Soviet Intelligentsia: Universities and Intellectual Life under Stalin and Khrushchev (Cambridge, Mass., 2014).

36. See for example AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (K miru v nashem dome, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 1–13.

37. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (Stenogramma obsuzhdenia proektov zakona SSSR ob izmeneniakh i dopolneniakh konstitutsii SSSR i zakona o vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 65. For a similar reminder, see Gozman, “V biuro MT—Predlozheniia po rabote kluba” in Martirosian, Klub “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” annex 3, 95–96. For an explicit—and critical—reflection by a MT member on the triangular relation between the intelligentsia, the rulers, and the people (narod), see Iurii Levada, “Intelligentsia,” in Iurii Afanas΄ev, and Mark Ferro, eds., 50/50. Opyt slovaria novogo myshleniia (Moscow, 1989), 128–31.

38. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (O sozdanii politiko-kul΄turnogo obshchestvennogo kluba “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 3. Afanas΄ev had openly formulated that double exclusion a few months before in his editor’s foreword to Inogo ne dano, explaining that he did not consider contributions from both the “adversaries” of perestroika and from those who were “openly skeptical” of its course. Iurii Afanas΄ev, “Neskol΄ko slov ot redaktora,” in Afanas΄ev, ed., Inogo ne dano, 6.

39. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (O sozdanii politiko-kul’turnogo obshchestvennogo kluba “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny,” no. 1), 3.

40. Skilling, “Opposition in Communist East Europe,” 92. Barghoorn, “Factional, Sectoral, and Subversive Opposition in Soviet Politics,” 40.

41. Batkin, “Vozobnovlenie istorii,” 475, 484.

42. Howard L. Biddulph, “Protest Strategies of the Soviet Intellectual Opposition,” in Tökés, ed., Dissent in the USSR, 115.

43. It is very telling of the MT’s self-representation, however, that neither the club Perestroika nor any previous Soviet informal club were explicitly considered for emulation in its founding documents. The only club model openly praised was that of the Club of Rome, a famous international think tank created in 1968, which gathered intellectuals, scientists, high-ranking officials, and industry barons. At the session on November 12, 1988, a member asked the club not to abandon the model of the Club of Rome, thus signaling that this model was commonly accepted among the members. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (Stenogramma obsuzhdenia proektov zakona SSSR ob izmeneniakh i dopolneniakh konstitutsii SSSR i zakona o vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 92. A month later, another member sent a letter to the MT bureau with practical recommendations for the club functioning based on Aurelio Peccei’s book about the Club of Rome. BM, Fond sovremennoi politicheskoi dokumentatsii, papka “Moskovskaia Tribuna.” (Iurii Samodurov, Predlozheniia k deiatel΄nosti “Moskovskoi Tribuny.”)

44. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (O sozdanii politiko-kul’turnogo obshchestvennogo kluba “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 3.

45. Skilling, “Opposition in Communist East Europe,” 93, 104.

46. See for example David Remnick, “The Double Thinkers,” in his Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (New York, 1993), 162–79.

47. Barbara Falk, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe: Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher Kings (Budapest, 2003), 315–16. Likewise, in Czechoslovakia, dissidents such as Václav Havel and Charter 77 forcefully avoided until the fall of 1989 defining themselves as an opposition to communist rule, in fear that a direct challenge could lead to violent repression.

48. “Uchreditel΄noe sobranie obshchestvenno-diskussionnogo kluba ‘Moskovskaia tribuna,’” Ekspress-khronika, no. 42 (63), October 1988, 8. On the post-Soviet usage of the term, see for example Luke March, “Managing Opposition in a Hybrid Regime: Just Russia and Parastatal Opposition,” Slavic Review 68, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 504–27.

49. The historian Mikhail Gefter drafted a declaration on this topic that was approved by the club at its first session: AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (K miru v nashem dome, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 1–13. It was followed by an official call for a halt to hostilities, dated from November 28, 1988: AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168 (K obshchestvennomu mneniiu– otkrytoe obrashchenie chlenov kluba “Moskovskaia tribuna” v sviazi s obostreniem armiano-azerbaidzhanskogo konflikta). The MT delegation travelled to Azerbaijan and Armenia from December 21 to 26, 1988. It was composed of Batkin, Elena Bonner, Sakharov, and the anthropologist Galina Starovoitova, who was selected as a Caucasus specialist. The special committee “Spravedlivost΄” in support of incarcerated informal leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan was created at the session on February 4, 1989. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (Zaiavlenie komiteta Spravedlivost΄ in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), annex.

50. In a poll distributed in 1990 by MT bureau, the club members were asked, among other things, if they considered themselves “moderate” or “radical,” if they thought most of the members were more moderate or more radical than themselves, and if they believed the public statements issued by the bureau reflected their point of view. The results of this poll, unfortunately, were not preserved in the archives. BM, Fond sovremennoi politicheskoi dokumentatsii, papka “Moskovskaia Tribuna.” “Uvazhaemyi kollega!” poll with answers from Viacheslav Igrunov. The labels “moderates” and “radicals” were also used by journalists reporting on the club’s sessions. See for example Aleksandr Verkhovskii, “Na Moskovskoi Tribune,” Panorama, December 12, 1989, 2.

51. As demonstrated by the oft-cited fact that Soviet liberals were hardly distinguishable among themselves on programmatic issues despite their use of different political labels as of 1990, such as “republicans,” “social democrats,” “Christian democrats,” and “constitutional democrats.” See Fish, Democracy from Scratch, 55. Further ideological distinctions took place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when programmatic issues moved to the fore of the electoral struggle.

52. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (K obsuzhdeniiu na Moskvoskoi Tribune proektov zakona SSSR ob izmeneniiakh i dopolneniiakh konstitutsii SSSR i zakona o vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 37–64; AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (Stenogramma obsuzhdeniia proektov zakona SSSR ob izmeneniiakh i dopolneniiakh konstitutsii SSSR i zakona o vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 65–104; B. P. “Moskovskaia tribuna vyrazhaet somnenie,” Referendum, 20, November 1–15, 1988, 7–8.

53. Izvestiia rejected the publication of the article, which was eventually published two years later in a book of collected essays: Leonid Batkin, “Tri stseny iz pervogo akta,” in A. Protashik, ed., Cherez ternii (Moscow, 1989), 404–9.

54. Ibid., 409.

55. This was indeed the way most deputies from the MT were elected in the following spring. As a rule, Soviet liberal candidates encountered more support in their professional organizations than in electoral constituencies, as explained below.

56. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (Stenogramma obsuzhdeniia proektov zakona SSSR ob izmeneniiakh i dopolneniiakh konstitutsii SSSR i zakona o vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny,” no. 1), 89.

57. Evgenii Feinberg, AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 169 (Stenogramma obsuzhdeniia proektov zakona SSSR ob izmeneniiakh i dopolneniiakh konstitutsii SSSR i zakona o vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR, in Biulleten΄ “Moskovskoi Tribuny” no. 1), 99.

58. AS, f. 1, op. 3, , raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168 (Otkrytoe obrashchenie kluba “Moskovskaia Tribuna” o proektakh zakonov “Ob izmeneniiakh i dopolneniiakh Konstitutsii SSSR” i “O vyborakh narodnykh deputatov SSSR”), November 12, 1988.

59. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168, (Zasedanie kluba “Moskovskaia tribuna” o Karabakhe 6 dekabria 1988 goda), transcript of audiocassette no 85.

60. Berger, “Interv΄iu s Iakovom Bergerom”; Sheinis, Vzlet i padenie parlementarizma, vol. 1, 120; Tsalenko, Vzgliad iz nevidiashchikh glaz, 163.

61. AS, f. 1, op. 3, raz. 3.4.3, ed. khr. 168 (Zasedanie kluba “Moskovskaia tribuna” [raspechatany vyderzhki] 4 fevralia 1989 goda), transcript of audiocassettes no. 81, 84, and 87.

62. Nina Beliaeva, “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” Moskovskie novosti 7, February 12, 1989, 2.

63. All of them had been elected by their professional organizations, except for Afanas΄ev, who ran for the popular vote. Nuikin and Korotich also chose this riskier strategy, but failed to be registered as candidates.

64. On April 9, 1989, a demonstration at Tbilisi was heavily repressed by the army, resulting in twenty-one deaths and many injuries. For an account of an MT demonstration by a club member, see Viktoriia Chalikova, “‘Moskovskaia tribuna’ vpervye vyshla na miting,” Soglasie, April 30, 1989, 8.

65. Boris Kagarlitsky, Farewell, Perestroika: A Soviet Chronicle (New York, 1990), 133.

66. MT’s aspiring role as the intellectual propeller of democratic mobilization was met with frustration from some of the informal activists, who did much of the organizational work. On the power struggles behind the various organizers of the meeting at Luzhniki, see Sigman, Clubs politiques, 276–77.

67. N. L. “‘Moskovskaia Tribuna’ (Zasedanie 16 iiunia 1989 g.),” Glasnost΄, 31, 198–99.

68. Leonid Batkin, “Vstrecha dvukh mirov na s΄΄ezde deputatov,” Moskovskie novosti 24, 1989, 9.

69. Adam Michnik was invited to Moscow to attend one of the preparatory meetings of MDG’s founding, in order to share his experience from Solidarity. Sheinis, Vzlet i padenie parlementarizma, 248.

70. The two other MDG chairmen were Moscow deputy Boris El΄tsin and Estonian deputy Viktor Pal΄m.

71. On the circulation of repertoires of action from the revolutions in eastern Europe to the Soviet Union, see Mark Kramer, “The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part II),” Journal of Cold War Studies 6, no. 4 (Fall 2004): 3–64; Guillaume Sauvé, “De la difficulté de rattraper l’Europe de l’Est. Dilemmes des démocrates de Russie face aux révolutions de 1989,” Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest 50, no. 2–3 (2019) : 49–82.

72. Igor΄ Kliamkin, Andranik Migranian, and Georgii Tselms, “Nuzhna li zheleznaia ruka?”, Literaturnaia gazeta, August 16, 1989, 10. This call for an “iron hand” was met with a strong rebuttal in the press, notably from fellow MT members: Leonid Batkin, “Mertvyi khvataet zhivogo,” Literaturnaia gazeta, September 20, 1989, 10; Evgenii Ambartsumov, “Oboidemsia bez zheleznoi ruki,” Literaturnaia gazeta, December 27, 1989, 10. On this debate, see Barry Sautman, “The Devil to Pay: The 1989 Debate and the Intellectual Origins of Yeltsin’s ‘Soft Authoritarianism,’” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 28, no. 1 (March 1995): 131–51.

73. The United Front of Workers was created in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) on 8–9 September 1989. Its positions were often the opposite of those of the Interregional Deputies Group: against national secessionist movements and against economic reforms towards market economy.

74. Quoted in Aleksandr Verkhovskii, “Na Moskovskoi Tribune,” Panorama, December 12, 1989, 2.

75. Quoted in Martirosian, Klub “Moskovskaia Tribuna,” 55.

76. Quoted in Verkhovskii, “Na Moskovskoi Tribune,” 2.

77. Verkhovskii, “Na Moskovskoi Tribune,” 2.

78. Elena Bonner, “Mezhregionaly i Sakharov,” Sakharovskii Tsentr, December 26, 2008, at https://www.sakharov-center.ru/news/2008/mezregionsakharov-t.html (accessed August 2, 2022); Reddaway and Glinski, The Tragedy of Russian Reforms, 149.

79. Andrei Sakharov, “Poslednoe vystuplenie,” in his Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1996), 589.

80. See Sakharov’s electoral campaign program, published in February 1989: “Predvybornaia platforma,” Vospominaniia, 570–74.

81. On March 14, 1990, at the initiative of Gorbachev, the Congress amended the sixth article of the Soviet Constitution, which stipulated the “leading role” of the Communist Party.

82. MT members active in the leadership of DR included Afanas΄ev, Batkin, Burtin, Iakunin, Popov, Sheinis, and Starovoitova.

83. The four MT members were Ales΄ Adamovich, Sergei Stankevich, Galina Starovoitova, and Vladimir Tikhonov (quote author). The four other delegation members were Oleg Bogomolov, Arkadii Murashev, Aleksandr Iakovlev, and Egor Iakovlev; “Landscape after a Battle: USSR People’s Deputies on their Meetings with MPs from Polish Solidarity,” Moscow News, March 25–April 1, 1990, 5.

84. Kramer, “The Collapse of East European Communism.”

85. Afanas΄ev tore his Party card as early as April 1990. Other MT members, such Evgenii Ambartsumov—but also Boris El΄tsin, who was not a MT member—followed his steps in July 1990, after the definitive failure of the “Democratic Platform” at the Twenty-eighth Party Congress.

86. On the influence of the Baltic republics and the discourse of “sovereignty” in Soviet Russia, see Mark R. Beissinger, Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge, 2002), 409.

87. El΄tsin largely followed Gorbachev in claiming to defend statehood from collapse, see George W. Breslauer and Catherine Dale, “Boris Yel΄tsin and the Invention of a Russian Nation-State,” Post-Soviet Affairs 13, no. 4 (October 1997), 303–32.

88. The “red-brown plague” (krasno-korichnevaia chuma) was a widespread depreciatory expression within Soviet liberal circles to designate the political alliance of communist and nationalist forces.

89. Marietta Chudakova, “Blud bor΄by,” Literaturnaia gazeta, October 30, 1991, 3.

90. See Galina Koval΄skaia, “Intelligentsia i vlast,’” Demokraticheskaia Rossiia, November 3, 1991, 5.

91. Koval΄skaia, “Intelligentsia i vlast΄.”

92. Leonid Batkin, “Rossiia na rasput΄e,” Literaturnaia gazeta, November 11, 1991, 3.

93. Vladimir Bibler, quoted in Koval΄skaia, “Intelligentsia i vlast΄”.

94. Iurii Afanas΄ev, Leonid Batkin, Bela Denisenko, Iurii Burtin, “Nam nechego delat΄ v etoi kompanii,” Demokraticheskaia Rossiia, January 30, 1992.

95. Yitzhak Brudny, “The Dynamics of ‘Democratic Russia,’ 1990–1993,” Post-Soviet Affairs 9, no. 2 (1993): 141–70; Carole Sigman, “Russie démocratique: Histoire d’une organisation politique,” in Roberte Berton-Hogge, ed., Les Partis politiques en Russie (Paris, 1993), 13–20.

96. Along with Viacheslav Ivanov, Lev Timofeev, Vladimir Bibler, and Elena Bonner, Batkin and Afanas΄ev created in 1991 an alternative group called “Independent Civic Initiative” (Nezavisimaia grazhdanskaia initisativa), which attempted to hold an autonomous democratic position after DR had moved in full support of El΄tsin. The group published a few polemical declarations in 1991–93, but it failed to leave its mark on the polarized politics of the unfolding constitutional crisis. They started devoting more and more of their time to the new post-Soviet academia. Afanas΄ev founded the Russian State University for the Humanities (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi gumanitarnyi universitet), and invited Batkin to become a member of the university board.

97. Interview with Iliushenko, Moscow, April 14, 2017.

98. Batkin, Epizody, 128; Berger, “Interv΄iu s Iakovom Bergerom”; Tsalenko, Vzgliad iz nevidiashchikh glaz, 163. Aleksandr Mitrofanov, “‘Moskovskaia Tribuna’ protiv ‘korichnevoi ugrozy’,” Podol΄skii rabochii, no. 20, February 5, 1992, unknown page number.

99. The quotation is drawn from Barghoorn, “Factional, Sectoral, and Subversive Opposition,” 74.

100. See Dmitri Furman, “‘Perevernutyj istmat?’ Ot ideologii perestroiki k ideologii ‘stroitel΄stva kapitalizma’ v Rossii,” Svobodnaia mysl΄, no. 3 (1995); Vladislav Zubok, “How the Late Socialist Intelligentsia Swapped Ideology,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 15, no. 2 (May 2014): 335–42.

101. This lack of ideological clarity has been lamented, and rightly, as it led to many misunderstanding as to the real objectives of the reforms, but it should not be forgotten by projecting an artificial ideological clarity onto the fluid ideological landscape of the time.

102. Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution (New York, 1965).

103. See for example the call for full support for El΄tsin expressed at a round table in the summer of 1992 by former MT members Vassilii Seliunin, Leonid Gordon, and Iakov Berger (who had become “moderate” at that point): Iurii Burtin, ed., God posle Аvgusta. Gorech΄ i vybor: Sbornik statei i interv΄iu, (Moscow, 1992), 209–56. See also the uncompromising position expressed during the October 1993 crisis by former MT members Ales΄ Adamovich, Iurii Davydov, Iurii Kariakin, Andrei Nuikin, Bulat Okudzhava, Valentin Oskotskii, Anatolii Pristavkin, and Boris Vasil΄ev, along with several other famous liberal intellectuals: “Pisateli trebuiut ot pravitel΄stva reshitel΄nykh deistvii,” Izvestiia, October 5, 1993, 3.

104. On the “superpresidential” character of the 1993 Russian Constitution, see M. Steven Fish, Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics (New York, 2005), chapter 7.

105. David White, “Going Their Own Way: The Yabloko Party’s Opposition to Unification,” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 21, no. 4 (2005): 462–86; Ol΄ga Malinova, Liberalizm v politicheskom spektre Rossii (na primere partii “Demokraticheskii vybor Rossii” i obshchestvennogo ob΄΄edineniia “Yabloko” (Moscow, 1998).

106. James Krapfl, Revolution with a Human Face: Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989–1992 (Ithaca, 2013), 227.