- Democratic Party of Russia
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Democratic Party of Russia Leader Andrei Vladimirovich Bogdanov Founded 1990 Dissolved 2008 Ideology Populism[citation needed] Website democrats.ru The Democratic Party of Russia or DPR (Russian: Демократическая Партия России, Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii) is a former Russian political party that existed between 1990 and 2008. It was founded by Nikolai Travkin. It initially featured Stanislav Govorukhin and Sergey Glazyev, was a prominent democratically-oriented party, member of the Democratic Russia coalition, and had deputies in the first State Duma. After the August coup, the party evolved from liberal anticommunism to centrism (1992–1993) to moderate Russian nationalism (1994–1995).[citation needed]
In 1991, the Democratic Party differed from other liberal/democratic organizations with its 'demopatriotic' stance (similar to Aksyuchits' Christian-Democratic Party and Astafyev's Constitutional Democrats). The Democratic Party was opposed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and criticised Latvia's and Estonia's policies towards their Russian-speaking minorities. After the signing of the Belovezhye treaty, the DP organized a number of demonstrations against the treaty.
The party's stance on Gaidar's economic reforms was ambiguous, but developed more critical in the course of time. During the constitutional crisis in Russia (1992-1993), the party did not have unanimous position. The party called for balloting both for re-election of the President as well as of the legislative bodies on the referendum in April, 1993; however, some of the party's leaders took the pro-Yeltsin side. Similarly, during the October 1993 events in Moscow, Travkin initially supported the so-called zero variant (annulling both Yeltsin's decree nr 1400 and the Supreme Soviet's subsequent decisions). On October 4, Travkin supported Yeltsin's actions in suppressing the armed rebellion. The party took part in the Russian legislative election, 1993 and won 14 seats. The party split, however, on the issue of support for the Chernomyrdin cabinet. Travkin who took a more conciliatory stand lost the power struggle to Govorukhin and Glazyev, who were determined opponents of the government course, and Travkin consequently left the party and joined the Our Home is Russia movement.
Glazyev was made leader in 1994 but was disbanded before the following year's legislative election. The rump DR split further between Govorukhin and Glazyev supporters. In the Russian legislative election, 1995, the Glazyev wing took part within the Congress of Russian Communities list, whilst Govorukhin formed his own list, called the Stanislav Govorukhin Bloc.[1]
In the 1996 presidential election, the Democratic Party supported Alexander Lebed, though some of its regional leaders supported Yeltsin's campaign. In the 2000 presidential election, the party supported Vladimir Putin.
In 2001 the party was reformed by Mikhail Prusak. In 2005 Mikhail Kasyanov tried to be elected chairman of the party, but lost to Andrei Vladimirovich Bogdanov. In June 2007 the party proposed a referendum on joining the European Union and in December it took part in the legislative election, but it did not win any seats.[2] The DPR of that time was accused of being a virtual party used to draw away votes from the real opposition parties.
In the Russian legislative election, 2007 the party won 0.13% of votes, not breaking the 7% barrier, and thus no seats in the Duma. As of January 1, 2007, according to the Federal Registration Service, the party had 82183 members.
It merged with Union of Right Forces and Civilian Power to form Right Cause on 16 November 2008.
Contents
Top positions
- Leader and Chairman of the DPR's Central Committee - Andrei Vladimirovich Bogdanov
- Chairman of the DPR's Executive Committee - Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Smirnov
- Permanent Acting Governing Body - Political Council (7 members)
- Party's Upper Governing Body between congresses - The DPR's Central Committee (76 members)
Electoral history
- Russian presidential election, 2008 - 968,344 votes (1.31%)
References
External links
List of political parties in Russia Represented in State Duma United Russia (315) · Communist Party of the Russian Federation (57) · Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (40) · A Just Russia (38)Non-parliamentary parties Portal:Politics · List of political parties · Politics of Russia Categories:- Liberal parties
- Political parties established in 1990
- Political parties disestablished in 2008
- Political parties in Russia
- Political parties in the Soviet Union
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