Resolution by the Yabloko Congress, adopted on 10.12.2023, published on 12.12.2023

Photo by Yury Abramochkin, RIA Novosti

Thirty years ago, a vote on the draft Constitution of Russia took place.

The creation of the Constitution of post-Soviet Russia, its popular discussion and adoption procedure could have become key stages in the creation of a new state, fundamentally different from the Soviet system based on lies and terror and, as a result, lost its legitimacy.

However, instead of all this, the creation and adoption of the Constitution in 1993 was subordinated to short-term political interests and became, in fact, a continuation of the forceful solution to the constitutional crisis chosen by President Yeltsin and his circle in September-October 1993.

This forceful decision, in turn, resulted from the “Bolshevik-style” economic reforms of 1992, which ignored the interests of citizens.

Instead of investigating the tragic events of the October coup, establishing the causes of the death of many people and those responsible for it, the authorities decided to quickly turn the page of history, which the new Constitution was supposed to enshrine.

There was no serious public discussion of the draft Constitution. There has been no certainty that it actually received the necessary support during the voting on 12 December.

Yabloko did not support the draft Constitution of 1993 and called not to vote for it.

At the same time, the foundations of the constitutional system established in the First Chapter of the Constitution and the values of human rights and freedoms declared in the Second Chapter could have set the vector of the country’s democratic development in the interests of all its citizens. However, the authoritarian system of power, predetermined by other chapters of the Constitution, was oriented towards other interests and values, which led to the erosion of guarantees of human rights and freedoms, rejection of judicial independence and constitutional control, and elimination of the independence of local self-government.

Today, the connection between the procedure for adopting the Basic Law “in a hurry” in 1993 and the vote to amend the Constitution in 2020 is obvious – this is the concentration and irremovability of power. The fate of the Constitution reflects the failure of post-Soviet reforms, carried out in isolation from the interests of the majority of citizens, and a departure from the principles of democracy and the rule of law.

The future of our country lies not in the ideal text of the Basic Law, but in a fundamentally different approach to its development and adoption. The whole society must be involved in it directly or through its representatives.

The goal of the constitutional process and the adoption of the Constitution should be not merely a declaration, but institutionalisation of human values, human rights and freedoms – creation of a state system that ensures their implementation in life and excludes legal arbitrariness.

The development of a draft Constitution of Free People and preparing citizens for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly is one of the main directions of the long-term work of the Yabloko party for the sake of the future of Russia.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman