29 Gorbachev, Zhizn’ i reformy,1:292.
30 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 82–83.
31 Manyukhin, Pryzhok, 59–60. On the other hand, Yakov Ryabov spoke to Yeltsin about the Moscow job and found him to be unenthusiastic. Ryabov interview (University of Glasgow).
32 Politburo transcript for December 23, 1985, in Volkogonov Archive (Project on Cold War Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University), 1–3.
33 The Politburo had nineteen full and candidate members as of February 1986. Yeltsin was one of only nine full-time party apparatchiks in the group. He continued to attend the Secretariat’s weekly meetings.
34 See Timothy J. Colton, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), 384–92, 428–29, 567–72; and Viktor Grishin, Ot Khrushcheva do Gorbacheva: memuary (From Khrushchev to Gorbachev: memoirs) (Moscow: ASPOL, 1996), 292–320.
35 Nikolai Ryzhkov, interview with the author (September 21, 2001). In Ispoved’, 54, Yeltsin says he and Ryzhkov were acquaintances (znakomyye) in Sverdlovsk and that when Ryzhkov was named prime minister he tried “not to abuse” their relationship. Naina Yeltsina was cool toward Ryzhkov and felt his rapid rise had gone to his head.
36 Ryzhkov interview. Most of these details are omitted in his published account: N. I. Ryzhkov, Desyat’ let velikikh potryasenii (Ten years of great shocks) (Moscow: Kniga, Prosveshcheniye, Miloserdiye, 1995), 139. Ryzhkov told me he was sure the Politburo would have ratified the appointment even if he had opposed it.
37 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 83.
38 Yurii Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS: pervyi sekretar’ MGK KPSS vspominayet (Before and after the ban on the CPSU: a first secretary of the Moscow gorkom remembers) (Moscow: Algoritm, 2005), 71.
39 Anatolii Luk’yanov, interview with the author (January 24, 2001).
40 Ye. I. Chazov, Rok (Fate) (Moscow: Geotar-Med, 2001), 86–88.
41 Luk’yanov interview.
42 Aleksei Shcherbinin, a professor at Tomsk State University, interview with the author (February 24, 2006).
43 Aleksandr Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin: ot rassveta do zakata (Boris Yeltsin: from dawn to dusk) (Moscow: Interbuk, 1997), 52. Korzhakov also writes that Yeltsin “worshiped” Gorbachev at the beginning, which is an exaggeration.
44 “Otchët Moskovskogo gorodskogo komiteta KPSS” (Report of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU), Moskovskaya pravda, January 25, 1986.
45 Grishin, Ot Khrushcheva do Gorbacheva, 298–99.
46 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 84.
47 A. S. Chernyayev, Shest’ let s Gorbachevym (Six years with Gorbachev) (Moscow: Progress, 1993), 63–64. This valuable memoir is available in English as Anatoly S. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev, trans. Robert D. English and Elizabeth Tucker (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
48 XXVII s”ezd Kommunisticheskoi partii Sovetskogo Soyuza: stenograficheskii otchët (The 27th congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: stenographic record) (Moscow: Politizdat, 1986), 140–42. The references to officials’ privileges were purged from the chronicle in the next day’s Pravda but, as quoted here, appeared in the final transcript of the congress.
49 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya t. Yel’tsina B. N. 11 aprelya s. g. pered propagandistami g. Moskvy” (Extract from the statement of comrade B. N. Yeltsin on April 11, 1986, before Moscow propagandists), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Materialy samizdata, July 18, 1986, 3.
50 Yel’tsin, Ispoved’, 85; Valerii Saikin, interview with the author (June 15, 2001).
51 Prokof’ev, Do i posle zapreta KPSS, 64.
52 Lobbying the center is described in V. I. Vorotnikov, A bylo eto tak: iz dnevnika chlena Politbyuro TsK KPSS (But this is how it was: from the diary of a member of the Politburo of the CPSU) (Moscow: Sovet veteranov knigoizdaniya, 1995), 84; and “Kak reshalsya v Moskve prodovol’stvennyi vopros” (How the food question was resolved in Moscow), Izvestiya TsK KPSS, December 1990, 125.
53 On October 23, 1986, for example, the Politburo discussed Soviet bread shortages. Yeltsin observed that bakers—his mother’s occupation in Kazan in the 1930s—were not being trained in Moscow. Andrei Gromyko demanded to know why the Politburo was discussing so picayune a matter and asked rhetorically if it was supposed to answer for the supply of lapti (handwoven bast shoes). Gorbachev expostulated that, if such resolutions were to be adopted, at the urging of Yeltsin or anyone, the Soviet military would have to be engaged, “so as to deal with this at the point of the gun.” V Politbyuro TsK KPSS… (In the Politburo of the CPSU) (Moscow: Gorbachev-Fond, 2006), 92.
54 Saikin interview.
55 Korzhakov, Boris Yel’tsin, 54–58.
56 Vitalii Tret’yakov, “Fenomen Yel’tsina” (The Yeltsin phenomenon), Moskovskiye novosti, April 16, 1989.
57 “Vypiska iz vystupleniya,” 7–8. George W. Breslauer, Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), detects similarities with the populism of Nikita Khrushchev a generation before. There were some commonalities, but Khrushchev was a much less radical agent of change than either Yeltsin or Gorbachev. The definitive study is William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (New York: Norton, 2003).
58 Vladimir Mezentsev, “Okruzhentsy” (Entourage), part 2, Rabochaya tribuna, March 25, 1995.
59 According to Jonathan Sanders, the Moscow-based staffer who worked with producer Susan Zirinsky, “I pointed out that we were sending one of our most respected correspondents to do the interview, someone who was a veteran of the Nixon White House and was personally quite interested in him [Yeltsin]. At this point, the ever clever Ms. Zirinsky pulled out a glossy eight-by-ten photo of Diane Sawyer and said this was the star who would be doing the interview. Now, remember what the Soviet anchorwoman looked like in the mid-1980s? Remember how much [Richard] Nixon was respected? And remember how much Boris Nikolayevich understood intuitively about the power of the media? So we did the interview.” Sanders, personal communication to the author (October 9, 2005).
60 “Pribavlyat’ oboroty perestroiki” (Quicken the pace of perestroika), Moskovskaya pravda, April 4, 1987.
61 Colton, Moscow, 576.