The presidential elections in 1996 became one of the most resonant political campaigns in the history of modern Russia. This was the only presidential election where the winner could not be determined without a second vote. The campaign itself was distinguished by a tough political struggle between the candidates. The main contenders for victory were the country's future president Boris Yeltsin and communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.
The situation before the elections
The presidential elections in 1996 were appointed by the Federation Council in December 1995. Elections were scheduled for June 16th. This happened literally on the eve of the completion of the elections to the State Duma. They were won by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, gaining 22% of the vote, the second place was taken by the liberal democrats, the Our Home is Russia movement, which supported Yeltsin, finished third with only 10% of the vote.
By 1996, there was no trace of Yeltsin's popularity. In 1991, he won a landslide victory with over 57%. After 5 years, the people were depressed by the economic failures of the reforms carried out by the government, the protracted Chechen war, which brought a large number of victims, corruption scandals in the highest echelons of power. According to polls, the president's popularity was only 8-9%.
Collect signatures
In the 1996 presidential election, it was necessary to collect one million signatures in order for the CEC to register a candidate. Interestingly, the consent of the politician himself was not required for this. Therefore, the signing campaigns started around the New Year, while Yeltsin himself officially announced his nomination only in mid-February. At the same time, it became known that Zyuganov would represent the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the 1996 presidential elections in Russia.
At that time, the advantage of the communist leader was obvious. They say that at the economic forum in Davos he was greeted as the likely favorite of the race.
In March, Yeltsin had to make a choice about how to campaign for the 1996 presidential election. It was possible to give everything at the mercy of the headquarters, which included officials and politicians, to cancel the elections and declare a state of emergency in the country, which was advised by some close associates, or to agree to the proposal of a number of big businessmen who offered to entrust the entire campaign to political technologists according to the Western model. Yeltsin took the third path.
The so-called Analytical Group headed by Chubais was formed. Large-scaleresearch, with the help of which it was possible to find out the most painful points of Russian society. Based on this study, the campaign for the presidential elections in the Russian Federation in 1996 was conducted by Yeltsin's headquarters.
Presidential Candidates
Initially, 78 initiative groups announced their intention to run. But only 16 of them managed to collect the required one million signatures. Some refused to be nominated, like the head of the Nizhny Novgorod region Boris Nemtsov, a few people supported other candidates, like right-wing politician Nikolai Lysenko, who called on supporters to vote for Zyuganov.
During the verification of the collected signatures by the CEC, seven were denied registration, two were able to prove their case in the Supreme Court. As a result, 11 candidates appeared on the ballots for the 1996 Russian presidential election.
They were:
- Entrepreneur Vladimir Bryntsalov, nominated by the Russian Socialist Party. He was initially denied registration, but managed to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
- Writer Yuri Vlasov from the People's Patriotic Party.
- The last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, who ran as an independent candidate.
- Incumbent President Boris Yeltsin, also as an independent candidate.
- State Duma Deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky from the LDPR party.
- State Duma Deputy Gennady Zyuganov from the Communist Party.
- State Duma Deputy Alexander Lebed from the Congress of Russian Communities.
- Ophthalmologist and State Duma deputy Svyatoslav Fedorov from the Partyworkers' self-government.
- Director of the Reform Foundation Martin Shakuum. This independent candidate, like Bryntsalov, managed to appeal the refusal of registration to the Supreme Court.
- State Duma deputy Grigory Yavlinsky from the Yabloko party.
Another candidate, the head of the Kemerovo region Aman Tuleev, withdrew his candidacy at the last moment in favor of Zyuganov.
Election Campaign
One of the brightest campaigns in Russian history was the campaign before the presidential elections in 1996. Yeltsin's entourage launched the "Vote or Lose" campaign, the president himself traveled a lot around the country, despite he alth problems, participated in a large number of events.
The newspaper "God forbid!" became famous, which came out with a circulation of several million copies and was distributed free of charge. It criticized Zyuganov, frightening citizens with a probable Civil War if he won, mass arrests and executions, and starvation. Zyuganov was often compared to Hitler in publications.
Following the results of sociological research, the bet was made on the population of large cities, youth and intelligentsia. A positive moment was the recognition by the current president of the mistakes made. Yeltsin kept his promise to end hostilities in Chechnya in the near future.
First round
In the first round, the turnout for the 1996 presidential elections in Russia was very high. In them75,587,139 Russians took part, which is almost 70% of the country's population.
According to the results of voting, 5 candidates at once failed to gain even 1% of the vote, losing to the "Against all" column (1.54%) and even the number of ballots declared invalid (1.43%). The worst result was demonstrated by Vladimir Bryntsalov, who received 123,065 votes. He was accompanied by Yuri Vlasov (0.2%), Martin Shakkum (0.37%), Mikhail Gorbachev (0.51%), Svyatoslav Fedorov (0.92%).
Fifth place was taken by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, more than 4 million Russians voted for him (5.7%), Grigory Yavlinsky was in fourth place (7.34%), and Alexander Lebed was in third (14.52%).
It was not possible to determine the winner in the first round. None of the candidates received more than half of the votes in the 1996 presidential elections in the Russian Federation. Gennady Zyuganov received only 32.03%, while Boris Yeltsin won a sensational victory with 35.28% of the vote.
As it turned out, Yeltsin's team made the right bet. He was mainly supported by the inhabitants of the two capitals, as well as the industrial centers of Siberia, the North of Russia, the Far East and in some national republics. Zyuganov was voted for in the depressed agricultural regions of the Chernozem region, Central Russia and the Volga region. The swan unexpectedly won in the Yaroslavl region.
Preparing for the second round
The second round was scheduled for Wednesday, July 3, 1996. It was declared a day off, everything was done in order to increase the turnout of people. Experts believed that Yeltsin had more potential supporters, butthey, unlike the communists, are less active, so the increase in turnout was in the hands of the incumbent president.
There has been a split in Yeltsin's headquarters. Chubais and a group of oligarchs were determined to win a second round, while the security forces, represented by the head of the presidential security service, Alexander Korzhakov, suggested postponing the second round or canceling the election altogether. The situation was aggravated due to a heart attack that Yeltsin had. Obviously, this was the result of an intense campaign.
Swan support
General Lebed, who received almost 15% of the votes in the first round, became the owner of the decisive resource. It became clear that the one supported by his supporters would win.
Shortly after the official summing up of the results of the first round, Yeltsin appointed Lebed to a high post. He becomes secretary of the Security Council, after which he officially called on his supporters to vote for the incumbent president. This predetermined the outcome of the struggle.
Election results
Voters showed high activity in the second round, more than 68% of Russians came to the polling stations.
As a result, Boris Yeltsin received the votes of more than 40 million people (53.82%), which turned out to be significantly more than Zyuganov's - 40.31%. More than three and a half million Russians voted against both candidates.
Yeltsin was elected for a second term. His official inauguration took place on August 9, 1996.
