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Why Russia's Democracy Never Began

After the Soviet collapse, Russia underwent not a democratic transition but a temporary weakening of the state, making re-autocratization inevitable, writes former Davis Center fellow Maria Snegovaya.

After the Soviet collapse, Russia underwent not a democratic transition but a temporary weakening of the state, making re-autocratization inevitable, writes former Davis Center fellow Maria Snegovaya. If the Russia of three decades ago, shortly after the Soviet breakup, was a democracy (albeit a weak and fledgling one), who or what sank it? Was it President Boris Yeltsin, with his October 1993 decision to crush opponents by force, his pushing of an executive-dominated constitution, and his disastrous choice of Vladimir Putin as his successor?

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