Nikolai Ryzhkov - RSFSR Politics and Post-Soviet Russia

RSFSR Politics and Post-Soviet Russia

After recovering from his heart attack, in early 1991 Ryzhkov stood as the Communist candidate in the first election of the President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). At the election on 12 June 1991, he gained 13,395,335 votes, equal to 16.9% of the electorate. Boris Yeltsin beat him decisively with 57%. Ryzhkov's vice presidential candidate was Boris Gromov, a Soviet war veteran who led the Soviet military during the final stages of the war in Afghanistan. Most of Ryzhkov's votes came from the countryside, while he had hoped to win over voters who were becoming increasingly disenfranchised as a result of perestroika and Gorbachev's leadership, even though the latter supported his candidacy.

During the 1995 legislative campaign, Ryzhkov defended his own tenure as Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers, claiming that Russians were far worse off under capitalism than Soviet communism. Russian TV channel NTV broadcast a debate featuring only Ryzhkov and Grigory Yavlinsky, a liberal politician who strongly supported the economic reforms pursued by Yeltsin's regime. At the election, he was elected to the State Duma Federal Assembly as an independent candidate. Once elected, he headed the Power to the People bloc, a communist faction with nationalist tendencies. The Power to the People bloc came about through the merger of Ryzhkov's supporters and the All-People's Union headed by Sergey Baburin. Its policies were left-wing and included revival of the Soviet Union, the introduction of a planned economy, more state involvement in the economy and the promotion of nationalism and patriotism. During the 1996 presidential election Ryzhkov endorsed Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) candidate, for the presidency.

In 1996, Ryzhkov was one of the founders of the CPRF-led alliance of leftists and nationalists known as the People's Patriotic Union of Russia (PPUR) and was elected chairman of its Duma faction. The PPUR's formal leaders were Ryzhkov and Ziuganov, who was an unofficial leader. In September 2003, Ryzhkov entered the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation as the representative for Belgorod Oblast, subsequently resigning his seat in the State Duma. He currently serves as Chairman of the Federation Council Commission on Natural Monopolies, as a member of the Committee on Local Self-Governance and as co-chairman of the Russian–Armenian commission on inter-parliamentary cooperation.