Marxist economist and leader of the group "Communists for a Party of Labour"
T SEEMS that the first reactions have been comparatiely calm — not sparking off the type of strike actions that Pavlov's price reform of April 1991 did in Byelorussia, for example.
There is much discussion among people about the new prices, but so far it is mostly words. This reaction didn't come as a great surprise, because already for some time, people have been forced to pay sums much above the fixed state prices to get any goods.
The state shops were empty, so you had to go to commercial shops, the markets, or buy things in the large illegal or semi-legal street trading. In that sense there was no radical change on January
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He was immediately given a job in the mayor's administration.
Then he became co-chairman of the city's Democratic Russia organization, that is, he took on a post analogous to that previously held by Yu.
Prokoviev, former first secretary of the
Moscow city committee of the now defunct Communist Party.
And now
Popov is lobbying hard for Zaslavskii's appointment as chief prosecutor of Moscow.
It is well-known that the mayor has marked our October district down as a testing ground for market innovations.
Zaslavskii and Vasil'ev used to tell us that
28 they had the full approval of the mayor
2. However, I think we may see stronger reactions later when the stocks of goods that people have hoarded in their flats are gone. • Before the reform, several Soviet commentators pointed out that speculators have accumulated enormous stocks of goods, which would only be released after January 2.
In the present period the speculators are obviously in clover. We now have three systems of trade: State-directed trade, private trade (cooperatives and so on) and illegal trade, which is booming. However the frontiers between these three systems are blurred. The freeing and that we, therefore, should not interfere. • You told me that you life had been threatened.
This wasn't a direct threat. During one session of the soviet, one of the group around Zaslavskii came over and asked me if I wasn't worried about dying from a heart attack or some other mortal illness. The other deputies took this seriously enough to select six people to accompany , me home, just to make sure I didn't "fall ill" on the way.
Right now I am writing up this experience as a book. I figure that publicity is the best insurance policy in our circumstances. *
• What kind of organized protest has there been in the few days after the reform took effect?
The right wing, the so-called "patriots", organized a demonstration in Moscow featuring people like Shirinovsky and Nevsorov, and supported by, for example, the United Front of Toilers (OFT).' In the short term the right wing will probably grow - they are putting forward simple slogans about patriotism and social justice that appeal to the mass of people, who are passive and looking for a new leader, "a good Tsar".
Our demands for workers' selforganization require a higher level of activity
However, the Party of Labour, in which we participate, is constantly trying to launch activities — pickets and so on. We have called for a protest demonstration in Manezh Square near the Kremlin for January 12. • Presently, the Yeltsinites seem far from united about what to do - symbolized, for example, by the camof Vice-President Rutskoy against the price reforms of Yeltsin and Gaidar. What does this mean?
There are in fact two splits within the Yeltsin camp. One "opposition" is led Moscow's mayor, Popov, who recently threatened to Shevardnadze, Yakovlev and others. They do not have a political platform clearly separate from Yeltsin's, but are struggling for a more favourable share out of power.
The other, and more important, opposition, comes from Rutskoy. He is pursuing a demagogic, populist line — you could say he puts forward the same type of ideas that Hitler did in the early 1930s, though in a more "civilized" fashion. He calls for law and order, for a strong Greater Russia and attacks the profiteers, but in reality he has a pro-capitalist orientation.
He is building an alliance behind this, which includes the leaders of big state enterprises and layers of middle-ranking bureaucrats.
I think that Rutskoy could be emerging as the new Russian leader. * 1. Shirinovsky ran against Yeltsin in the Russian presi dential elections in June 1991 on an outright chauvinist programme. Nevsorov is a well-known conservative TV producer. The OFT is a neo-Stalinist organization.
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RUSSIA After the price rises