This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Russian. (January 2013)Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Демократический союз]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|ru|Демократический союз}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation. You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Ukrainian. (May 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Ukrainian Wikipedia article at [[:uk:Демократичний союз]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|uk|Демократичний союз}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Democratic Union Демократический союз
Abbreviation	DU (English) ДС (Russian)
Leader	Valeriya Novodvorskaya
Founder	Valeriya Novodvorskaya Yevgeniya Debryanskaya Sergei Grigoryants
Founded	8 May 1988; 37 years ago (1988-05-08)
Dissolved	July 2014; 11 years ago (2014-07)
Succeeded by	Western Choice
Headquarters	Moscow
Newspaper	Free Word
Ideology	Liberalism Classical liberalism Reformism Anti-communism Anti-fascism Atlanticism
Political position	Centre-right
Colours	White   Blue   Red
Website
www.ds.ru
Politics of Russia Political parties Elections

Democratic Union (Russian:Демократический союз) was the first officialpolitical opposition party in theSoviet Union. It was founded on 8 May 1988 by a group ofSoviet dissidents includingValeriya Novodvorskaya,Sergei Grigoryants andYevgeniya Debryanskaya.

Practical preparation for the first constituent congress of the party was carried out in a country house at theKratovo station near Moscow, where human rights activistSergei Grigoryants lived. One of the meetings of the constituent congress was held on the platform of this station. The party gained fame thanks to the full-scale party newspaperSvobodnoye Slovo, which was distributed throughout the USSR, with a weekly circulation in 1991 of 55,000 copies.

The party has become known after a series of unsanctioned demonstrations organized and consistently taking place from 1988^[1] to 1991 inMoscow and Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), with the protesters getting arrested. The party charter specifies the main goals of the organization (among others) as follows:

• Popularization of liberal ideas
• Strengthening the rule of law
• Supporting liberal reforms
• Support and protection ofprivate property
• Fighting against occurrence ofcommunism,nazism,fascism, andsocialism.

The main statutory task of the party "liquidation of the totalitarian state" was accomplished in 1991, after which the party's program, tested in political battles, was actually copied by all parties officially registered in the territory of the former USSR.

In 2014, after the death of the leader of the movement, Valeriya Novodvorskaya, the movement ceased to exist.

• Liberalism in Russia
• List of political parties in the Soviet Union

• Democratic UnionArchived 2022-02-27 at theWayback Machine official site (inRussian)

• 1988 establishments in the Soviet Union
• Classical liberal parties
• Liberal parties in Russia
• Political parties established in 1988
• Political parties in the Soviet Union
• Russian democracy movements

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