Gennady Yanayev - Vice President

Vice President

See also: 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and Gang of Eight (Soviet Union)

On 27 December 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev proposed Yanayev for the Vice Presidency of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Yanayev had initially been rejected by the Soviet parliament, but he was finally approved due to Gorbachev's reluctance to replace him with another candidate. Because of Yanayev's more conservative views, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Shevardnadze resigned from office to protest against the increasing numbers of conservatives in top political offices. At the beginning of January 1991, Yanayev headed a committee working on the formation of a new cabinet. Later, he was sent to the Soviet city of Kuznetsk to negotiate with a newly-formed independent trade 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 the Soviet government, the unionists withdrew their plans for a strike.