Gennady Yanayev | |
|---|---|
Геннадий Янаев | |
.jpg) Yanayev in 1993 | |
| President of the Soviet Union Acting | |
| In office 19–21 August 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Succeeded by | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Vice President of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 27 December 1990 – 21 August 1991[1] | |
| President | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Preceded by | Anatoly Lukyanov (as vice head of state) |
| Succeeded by | None (post abolished) |
| Chairman of theAll-Union Central Council of Trade Unions | |
| In office April – July 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Stepan Shalaev |
| Succeeded by | None (post abolished) |
| Full member of the28thPolitburo | |
| In office 14 July 1990 – 31 January 1991 | |
| Secretary of the28th Central Committee | |
| In office 14 July 1990 – 31 January 1991 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1937-08-26)26 August 1937 Perevoz,Gorky Oblast,Russian SFSR,Soviet Union |
| Died | 24 September 2010(2010-09-24) (aged 73) Moscow,Russia |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1962–1991) |
Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev (Russian:Геннадий Иванович Янаев; 26 August 1937 – 24 September 2010) was aSoviet politician anddisputed President of the Soviet Union for three days. Yanayev's political career spanned the rules ofKhrushchev,Brezhnev,Andropov andChernenko, and culminated during theGorbachev years. Yanayev was born inPerevoz, Gorky Oblast. After years in local politics, he rose to prominence as Chairman of theAll-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, but he also held other lesser posts such as deputy of theUnion of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.
Due to his chairmanship of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, in 1990 he gained a seat in the28thPolitburo andSecretary of theCentral Committee. Later that year, on 27 December, with the help ofMikhail Gorbachev, Yanayev was elected the first, and only,Vice President of the Soviet Union. Having growing doubts about where Gorbachev's reforms were leading, Yanayev started working with, and eventually formally leading, theGang of Eight, the group which deposed Gorbachev during theAugust 1991 coup d'état attempt. After three days, thecoup collapsed, in part due to Western backing ofBoris Yeltsin; during its brief grip of power, Yanayev was made ActingPresident of the Soviet Union. He was then arrested for his role in the coup, but in 1994 he waspardoned. He spent the rest of his life working in the Russian tourism administration until his death on 24 September 2010.
Yanayev was born on 26 August 1937 in the town ofPerevoz, Gorky Oblast during the administration ofJoseph Stalin asGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[2] He graduated from theGorky Institute of Agriculture in 1959. After graduation he worked as the head of a mechanised agricultural unit and later as a chief engineer in theGorky Oblast. He applied and officially became a member of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1962.[3] From 1963 to 1968, he held the positions of second, and subsequently first, secretary of the GorkyKomsomol, and later became Chairman of theCommittee of Youth Organisations, which he held for 12 years.[4] From 1980 to 1986 he was Deputy Chairman of theUnion of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. He became Secretary for International Affairs ofAll-Union Central Council of Trade Unions in 1986 and became Deputy Chairman of the trade unions in 1989. In April 1990 he was elected Chairman of theAll-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.[5] As chairman of the trade unions, he was not able to quell the growing labour discontent in the country, but his position granted him a seat in thePolitburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)[6] at the28th CPSU Congress (held in 1990), alongside his election asSecretary of theCentral Committee.[7]
On 27 December 1990,Mikhail Gorbachev proposed Yanayev as Vice President of the Soviet Union. He was Gorbachev's third choice for the post;Foreign MinisterEduard Shevardnadze andKazakh presidentNursultan Nazarbayev had turned the offer down.[8] Yanayev had initially been rejected by theSupreme Soviet, but he was finally approved by a second vote due to Gorbachev's insistence, (by a vote of 1,237 for to 563 against), only days after Shevardnadze had resigned from office due to Gorbachev's willingness to give leeway to conservatives. Yanayev said after the vote "I am a Communist to the depths of my soul."[9]
Some weeks after Yanayev's election, a senior Soviet official described Yanayev as "Gorbachev'sQuayle—a conservative nonentity, no threat to Gorbachev, and his selection would pacify the right-wing".[9] At the beginning of January 1991, Yanayev headed a committee working on the formation of a new cabinet.[10] Later, he was sent to the Soviet city ofKuznetsk to negotiate with a newly formed independenttrade union, making this the first time since 1917 that a Russian government official had negotiated with a trade union; however, after gaining the attention of theSoviet government, the unionists withdrew their plans for a strike.[11]
Shortly after taking office, Yanayev joined a group of more conservative Communist politicians, led byKGB chairmanVladimir Kryuchkov, who hoped to persuade Gorbachev to declare a state of emergency.[12][13] After Gorbachev announced his proposal for a New Union Treaty to form theUnion of Sovereign States, as a reorganisation of theSoviet Union into a new confederation, he went on vacation to hisdacha inCrimea. Believing that this new Union treaty would lead to the disintegration of the USSR, theState Committee of the State of Emergency placed Gorbachev underhouse arrest on 19 August, one day before the treaty was due to be signed. On that same day theTelegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) issued the coup plotters' decree, which stated: "Owing to the conditions of his health, Mikhail Gorbachev is no longer capable of carrying on the duties of the President of the USSR. In accordance with article 127, clause 7 of theUSSR constitution, Vice President Gennady Yanayev has assumed the duties of the President of the USSR."[14]
The decree made references to the growing problems facing the country such as ethnic tensions, political confrontations and chaos, which according to the coup leaders threatened the very existence ofSoviet life and the territorial integrity of the USSR.[15][16] Yanayev further claimed that the danger of collapse was imminent, and if the economic situation was not handled quickly, the Soviet Union would collapse. In addition, Yanayev and the rest of the state committee ordered theCabinet of Ministers to alter the then currentfive-year plan to relieve the housing shortage. All city-dwellers were given one third of an acre each to combat winter food shortages by growing fruit and vegetables.[17] When asked about Gorbachev, Yanayev replied: "Let me say that Mikhail Gorbachev is now on vacation. He is undergoing treatment, himself, in our country. He is very tired after these many years and he will need some time to get better."[17] At a press conference, Yanayev's hands were shaking rather violently, leading many journalists to focus on Yanayev's apparentdrunkenness instead of Gorbachev's alleged bad health.[18]
On 19 August, citizens of Moscow gathered around Russia'sWhite House and began to erect barricades around it, in which at 16:00 Yanayev responded by declaring astate of emergency in Moscow.[19][20] Yanayev declared at the press conference at 17:00 that Gorbachev was "resting". He said: "Over these years he has become very tired and needs some time to get his health back." Yanayev said the Emergency Committee was committed to continuing his reforms. However, Yanayev's weak posture, trembling hands and shaky expressions made his words unconvincing.[19] On August 21, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, chaired by the heads of the chambers of the union parliament, adopted a resolution in which it declared illegal the actual dismissal of President Gorbachev from his duties and the transfer of them to the country's vice-president and, in this regard, demanded that Vice-President Yanayev cancel the decrees and emergency orders based on them.[21] According to some historians, Yanayev was the most visible and powerful member of the Emergency Committee but was not its mastermind; Kryuchkov has been described as the "heart and soul of the conspiracy". Yanayev only agreed to head the Emergency Committee on 20 August. Along with the other coup leaders, such asValentin Pavlov andBoris Pugo for instance, Yanayev was dismissed as vice president and later jailed for his crimes against the Soviet state.[22]
In 1993, Moscow weeklyNovy Vzglyad quoted Yanayev as admitting that he was drunk when he signed the decree which made him acting president, but saying that inebriation had not affected his judgment.[23] In a 2008 interview, Yanayev said he regretted making himselfacting President, further claiming that he was pressured by the more conservative members to sign the documents which declared his own presidency. He described the events of 1991 as a burden for the rest of his life.[2]
Yanayev was released on recognizance not to leave in January 1993.[24] He was pardoned in 1994.[22] He would eventually become the head of the Department of History and International Relations of theRussian International Academy of Tourism.[2]
On 20 September 2010, Yanayev fell ill and was hospitalised at the Central Clinical Hospital inMoscow, where he was diagnosed withlung cancer. He died on 24 September 2010.[25] TheCentral Committee of theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) expressed their condolences to Yanayev's family.[26]Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the CPRF, said of him: "Yanayev lived an interesting, complicated and worthy life."[27] The CPRF officially praised him as "a highly professional specialist ... a dear and trustworthy comrade".[28] In another statement made by the CPRF, this time on their official website, they claimed: "If they had acted much more decisively, our unified country would have been preserved."[29] He was buried at theTroyekurovskoye Cemetery, in a ceremony attended by several prominent CPRF members. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.[30]
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