Anatoly Lukyanov - the last chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Anatoly Lukyanov is a domestic (Soviet) politician. Former Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. One of those accused in the GKChP case. Spent about a year in custody on charges of coup d'état.

Biography of the politician

Anatoly Lukyanov was born in Smolensk in 1930. His father died at the front. At the age of 13, he himself went to work at a defense plant at the height of the Great Patriotic War.

This did not prevent Lukyanov from studying well, in 1948 he graduated from school with a gold medal. From Smolensk to the capital, he went as an aspiring poet. He had already been published in local newspapers and received favorable reviews from his countryman, the author of "Vasily Terkin" Alexander Tvardovsky.

In 1953, Anatoly Lukyanov received a law degree at Moscow State University, he remained to study at graduate school.

Works in the legal department under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Then he is sent as a legal adviser, first to Hungary, and then to Poland. In 1976, he took part in the development of a new constitution for the USSR.

After the adoption of this important state document, he enters the secretariat of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

In 1979 he became a Doctor of Law. His thesis was onresearch in the field of public law. In 1984, he became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the Smolensk region.

Participation in the work of the State Emergency Committee

In his memoirs, Lukyanov Anatoly Ivanovich claims that he himself did not consider it necessary to introduce a state of emergency. He stated this on March 18 to one of the leaders of the Soviet Union, Valentin Pavlov, who at that time held the post of prime minister.

Already two days later, Rutskoi, Khasbulatov and Silaev met with Lukyanov in the Kremlin. They demanded to stop the work of the State Emergency Committee, to return Mikhail Gorbachev to Moscow. At the same time, no ultimatum requirements were expressed. Therefore, Anatoly Lukyanov decided that they did not want to aggravate the situation.

His associates in the State Emergency Committee note: Lukyanov initially took an unnecessarily soft position, when a lot depended on the Supreme Council.

Role of the State Emergency Committee

The State Committee for the State of Emergency, which eventually included Lukyanov Anatoly, was organized to save the Soviet Union from collapse.

He lasted four days. The members of the GKChP were categorically against Gorbachev's reforms, as well as the creation of the CIS, where only a part of the republics of the former USSR originally planned to join.

The leadership of the RSFSR, headed by President Yeltsin, refused to obey the decrees of the State Emergency Committee, declaring that their actions were contrary to the constitution. The activities of the State Emergency Committee led to the August putsch.

Already at the end of the summer, the committee wasdisbanded. Everyone who participated in its work or assisted the leaders of the State Emergency Committee was arrested.

Arrest of GKChP members

The first to be arrested were the politicians at the head of the State Emergency Committee. These are Yanaev, Baklanov, Kryuchkov, Pavlov, Pugo, Starodubtsev, Tizyakov and Yazov. Anatoly Lukyanov was one of the last to be taken into custody.

The politician himself believed that his arrest was due to the fact that Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin feared that he would be elected to the leadership at the Congress of People's Deputies, because of this, the successes of democracy could come to naught.

On August 29, a decision was issued to arrest Lukyanov and bring him to criminal responsibility for an attempted coup d'état. He spent more than a year in the capital's pre-trial detention center.

Charges and release

Anatoly Lukyanov, whose biography was closely connected with the USSR, was initially accused of treason. Then the wording was changed to an attempt to seize power and abuse of authority.

Lukyanov refused to testify in the GKChP case. The ending of this story turned out to be happy for all participants. At the end of 1992, all those arrested were released on bail. And in February 1994, the State Duma announced an amnesty for everyone who was related to the State Emergency Committee.

After release

Once at large, in 1993, Lukyanov won the elections to the State Duma, having received a mandate from the Smolensk region. Then he was re-elected twice to the federalparliament.

Lukyanov is the author of more than 350 scientific papers. Most of them are devoted to constitutional law and legal theory. In 2010, he published a book about his own vision of the events of those days called "August 91. Was there a conspiracy?"

However, he did not leave his youthful passion for poetry. Poetry collections were published under the pseudonyms Anatoly Osenev and Dneprov.

His wife Lyudmila Lukyanova is a biologist, Ph. D. Works at the Department of Constitutional Law of the Higher School of Economics.

From youth he is fond of mountaineering, according to his own statements, he was friends with Lev Gumilyov, whom he met in the late 60s. Lukyanov assisted him as a lawyer in the process of the inheritance of Anna Akhmatova. Gumilev wanted to transfer her archive to the Pushkin House.

Anatoly Ivanovich Lukyanov played a big role in the development of his native Smolensk region. Biography, awards received by him testify to this. Lukyanov has the title of honorary citizen of the hero city of Smolensk. Awarded with the orders of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, the medal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Has the status of Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation.

Lukyanov's rare passion is well known. He collects phonograms recording the voices of poets and other famous personalities. In 2006, he even released a separate edition of "100 Poets of the XX century. Poems in the author's performance", providing the notes with his own comments.

Now Lukyanov is 86 years old and lives in Moscow.