April 24, 1997 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408) 459-2495; mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu

NEW BOOK THE REBIRTH OF POLITICS IN RUSSIA CAPTURES THE DRAMA OF 1987-95

*Michael Urban is available for media interviews; see contact information below*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--An eyewitness to many of the events that rocked Russia during 1987-95, political scientist Michael Urban has captured much of the drama of those years in his new book The Rebirth of Politics in Russia (Cambridge University Press, 1997). The book covers the tumultuous years of Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.

The "rebirth of politics in Russia" has been marked by passion, enthusiasm, outrage, and sometimes appalling naiveté, said Urban, whose comments are tempered by a sympathetic tone. "Russians are incredibly ignorant about politics, and they've done it from scratch," he said. "There's been very little to guide this process except a tremendous amount of energy and a great deal of hatred of the people who ruined the country."

That anger was the key to Yeltsin's popularity, said Urban. "He said 'It can be better. We've been held back. We can do better, and we need a leader to take us there.' Yeltsin personified that feeling of hope," he said. "It was as much religion as politics."

But if the first half of the story contains comic elements, said Urban, the second half is a tragedy, as the very same people who'd represented the return of political life began to betray the citizenry. "They created an unmanageable, horrible government system, and their incapacities began catching up with them," said Urban. With no grasp of the importance of separation of power, Urban said, it is as if Russians replaced the czar with the communist party, and the party with an all-powerful president. Each time they created lots of problems.

Lines of authority are unclear, and the constitution is just "window dressing," said Urban. The actual conduct of government is ordered by presidential and governmental decrees, which are often inconsistent and frequently ignored. As under czars and communists, Russian bureaucrats tend to shift burdens to the populace, who are bearing the brunt of unpredictable government behavior.

Urban blames Yeltsin for failing to create political institutions and procedures that would end "the war of all against all." Instead, Yeltsin held all the power, and the goal became "who can manipulate the czar," explained Urban. "It's no way to run a country. It's very like czarism."

Now, with everyone certain that Yeltsin's health problems will prevent him from ever running the country effectively again, there is a remote chance that some rules will be established and lines of succession may be drawn--if only because the country's elites fear General Alexander Lebed, who almost certainly would win the next presidential election if no procedural changes are made, said Urban.

"Right now the rules are a function of the players," said Urban, who smiles as he recites Urban's Rule of Russian Politics: "The only reason two politicians are not fighting each other is because they're each busy fighting other people."

If the players don't reshape the system and make it more responsive to voters, Urban said the possibility of revolt is real. "There is severe suffering outside of Moscow," he said. "People are hungry. Starving to death. Conditions are very bad."

The army, too, is hungry. Soldiers are not getting paid, and more than 500 officers in the Russian Army committed suicide last year, said Urban. "The minister of defense said recently that he can't speak indefinitely about control of Russia's nuclear arsenal," said Urban, raising the possibility of civil war in Russia with nuclear weapons. "I feel apocalyptic, almost alarmist even to mention it, but in all seriousness, it would be foolishly optimistic to discount it as a possibility."

Biographical information about Michael Urban:

Urban has been captivated by the drama and spectacle of Russian politics for more than 25 years. He has visited the country more than 15 times since 1975 and was invited to brief the State Department in 1995 about candidates in upcoming elections. He also served in 1996 as a specialist and consultant to a working group of the Russian State Duma that was drafting new legislation on election procedures.

To reach Michael Urban:

Office phone: (408) 459-3153 Home phone: (408) 426-5556 E-mail: urban47@cats.ucsc.edu

To request a review copy of The Rebirth of Politics in Russia:

Call Jennifer McNulty in the UCSC Public Information Office at (408) 459- 2495, or send e-mail to mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu.

This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist/) or via modem from UC NewsWire (209-244-6971).

Press Releases Home | Search Press Releases | Press Release Archive | Services for Journalists

Maintained by:pioweb@cats.ucsc.edu