a victory march exemplery orchestra of the ussr

#A victory march exemplery orchestra of the ussr driver

Moscow deputy Sergei Stankevich said he thought Gorbachev would be a successful president but added that he would abstain in the balloting because he felt the Soviet leader should have faced a nationwide vote. 'Elections mean a popular vote, not this charade.' 'Gorbachev is fine, but I'd rather not vote at all,' said Ivan Zhdakayev, a deputy from Sakhalin Island in the Soviet Far East. With political organizations and parties starting all over the country, Gorbachev's unopposed election to a position intended to become the center of political power in a more democratic Soviet Union seemed out of step to many deputies. Olzhas Suleimenov, a deputy from Kazakhstan, said the Soviet leader was inconsistent in instituting reforms, saying, 'Gorbachev is putting his foot on the brake and the accelerator at the same time.' Teimuraz Avalani, from Siberia, accused Gorbachev of leading the country to the brink of economic collapse and Nikolai Kutsenko of the Ukraine even proposed that Gorbachev withdraw his nomination. 'Even if Mikhail Sergeyevich should be elected czar, the situation will not change.'

#A victory march exemplery orchestra of the ussr driver

But the truth is that we are on the edge of an abyss,' said Leonid Sukhov, a driver from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov. 'There has been a lot of praise heaped on Gorbachev here. There were only three candidates and we knew all along that two would withdraw.'Īlthough many of the speeches nominating Gorbachev were endlessly flattering in the old style, some were scathing, criticizing Gorbachev for failing to feed the nation, resolve ethnic crises, draft a new constitution and face a nationwide election campaign. Just before the vote, an Armenian deputy, Genrikh Igityan, stormed to the podium and said, 'What has happened here? We did not find a single alternative. But even most of the radical deputies who seek faster change echoed the notion that 'only Mikhail Sergeyevich' could lead the country through the next stage of reforms. Some deputies were stunned that the leader of Soviet 'democratization' would be elected in a way so reminiscent of a bygone age. The new office of president is intended to become the center of Soviet executive power as Gorbachev continues to shift authority away from the Communist Party.īoth Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov and Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin withdrew their names from nomination before the balloting Wednesday. The only way Gorbachev could have lost was if a majority of the deputies had abstained or crossed out his name, but there was almost no chance of that. 'I accordingly declare that Gorbachev has been elected president,' he said. Gorbachev won by a vote of 1,329 to 495, Yuri Osipyan, chairman of the parliamentary counting commission, told today's session of the congress. The Congress of People's Deputies, which voted earlier Wednesday to elect a president to a five-year term and then turn presidential elections over to the Soviet public in 1995, voted on Gorbachev's nomination at the close of the session. MOSCOW, MARCH 15 (THURSDAY) - Running without opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the Soviet Union's first executive president, it was announced today.