Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee, the Party Regional Committee, or simply the Obkom — the oblast komitet (Regional Committee) of the Communist Party. Historical name: the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR (prior to July 1990 — the CPSU), or the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
The Nature of the Phenomenon
The principal body governing the Nizhny Novgorod Region under Soviet power. The authority of the Regional Committee's head was equivalent to that of a Governor.
During the USSR era it was housed in the Governor's House, and later in a purpose-built building.
It is currently located at 7 Pokrovskaya Street, 3rd floor.
Having temporarily lost power, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee today regularly issues statements aimed at exposing United Russia and defending the interests of working people, while also drafting legislation, receiving citizens' petitions, and conducting its own investigations.
In Soviet Times
History
The Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Party Regional Committee was established in connection with the transformation of Gorky Krai into a region in accordance with the new USSR Constitution adopted in December 1936.
In June 1937, the 5th Regional (counted from the krai-level) Party Conference took place. By that time the regional party organization comprised 61 district and 2,520 primary organizations. The Party Regional Committee, as the unified governing party body of the region, functioned until February 1963, when a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR established on the region's territory the Gorky Industrial and Rural Regional Party Committees and party committees of territorial production administrations with independent budgets. This structure of the regional party organization lasted until January 1965, when a unified Regional Party Committee and district party organizations were re-established.
On 22 October 1990, by a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the city of Gorky was restored its historical name — Nizhny Novgorod; accordingly, the name of the Regional Committee was also changed. The Regional Party Committee was dissolved on 23 August 1991 in accordance with a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On Suspending the Activities of the Communist Party of the RSFSR."
The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee of the Communist Party exercised functions of party leadership over all spheres of activity in the region. The collection comprises a complete set of documents from all its structural subdivisions and elected bodies.
The collection contains transcripts and minutes of regional conferences, plenary sessions, meetings of the region's party-economic aktiv, bureau sessions, secretariat sessions, and various conferences; correspondence between ministries, agencies, and departments with the Party Central Committee; documents relating to oversight of the implementation of Central Committee and Regional Committee CPSU resolutions; materials from scientific-practical conferences, sociological studies, and other analytical materials. The collection includes documents recording the tragic and heroic episodes of history: the mass repressions of the 1930s–40s and early 1950s, the suppression of dissent in the 1960s–70s, the events of the Great Patriotic War and postwar reconstruction. These documents reflect issues of economic, cultural, and socio-political conditions, the state of science, education, and more.
Of considerable interest are documents admitted to the collection in 1991–1992 in connection with the dissolution of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR.
The collection contains a significant number of documents bearing the signatures of prominent party figures who worked in the organization: Yu. M. Kaganovich, A. I. Shakhurin, M. I. Rodionov, N. G. Ignatov, D. I. Chesnokov, L. N. Yefremov, K. F. Katushev, I. N. Dmitriev, N. I. Maslennikov, M. T. Yefremov, L. D. Ryabev, N. N. Smelyakov.
(Reference guide to the collections of the Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History of Nizhny Novgorod Region: Scholarly reference publication / Compiled by L. P. Gordeyeva, N. P. Yegoshina, V. V. Smirnov, L. G. Chandyrina, T. G. Shestopalova. — Nizhny Novgorod, 1997. Fund 3. Storage units: 98,908. December 1936 — January 1963, January 1965 — August 1991.)
Typical Agendas
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Gorky Regional Committee of the CPSU.
Session of the 9th Plenum, February 15, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 102 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 39 persons; members of the audit commission — 12. 1. Approval of the report of the Regional Committee of the CPSU at the 20th reporting and election party conference. GU GOPANO. F.3, Op.2, D.2448, L.1–5. Session of the 1st Plenum, February 20, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 115 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 38 persons; members of the audit commission — 17; member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Yasnov I.A., head of the sector of the organizational party work department of the Central Committee of the CPSU Kosarev A.T. 1. Election of secretaries, members, and candidate members of the bureau of the Regional Committee of the CPSU. 2. Approval of heads of departments of the Regional Committee of the CPSU. 3. Approval of the editor of the newspaper Gorkovskaya Pravda. GU GOPANO. F.3, Op.2, D.2450, L.1–11. Session of the 2nd Plenum, March 25, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 114 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 45 persons; members of the audit commission — 13. 1. Organizational matter. GU GOPANO. F.3, Op.2, D.2452, D.1–4. Session of the 3rd Plenum, April 18, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 120 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 51 persons; members of the audit commission — 16. Organizational matters. GU GOPANO. F.3, Op.2, D.2454, L.1–9. Session of the 4th Plenum, July 5, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 107 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 34 persons; members of the audit commission — 13. 1. On the tasks of the party organizations of the region in improving ideological work (report by Gorev A.F.). 2. Measures of the Gorky regional party organization in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin. GU GOPANO. F.3, Op.2, D.2456, L.1–114. Session of the 5th Plenum, November 23, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 121 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 47 persons; members of the audit commission — 13. 1. Results of the October Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the Progress of Implementation of the Decisions of the 23rd Congress and Plenums of the Central Committee on Agricultural Issues" and the tasks of the regional party organization (report by First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU Maslennikov N.I.). On the foreign policy activities of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (report by First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU Maslennikov N.I.). GU GOPANO. F.3, Op.2, D.2458, L.1–137. Session of the 6th Plenum, December 27, 1968 (minutes and transcript) Present: members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 117 persons; candidate members of the Regional Committee of the CPSU — 40 persons; members of the audit commission — 14. 1. On the progress of implementation of the resolution of the 7th Plenum of the Regional Committee of the CPSU of September 12, 1967, "On Measures to Develop the Construction Base in the Gorky Region and the Tasks of Party Organizations" (report by Secretary of the Regional Committee of the CPSU Dmitriev I.N.). 2. Organizational matters. |
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The Regional Committee Exposes
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Seventy years ago, on July 4, 1938, Yuly Moyseyevich Kaganovich, Secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the VKP(b), delivered a report at the 6th regional party conference. Below is an excerpt from his report:
"For a number of years, a right-Trotskyist, spy-terrorist-saboteur-wrecking underground has been operating in our region and in our regional party organization, led by Pramnek, Pakhomov, Stolyar, Pogrebinsky, Burov, Zashibayev, and others. …In Diveevsky District, a right-Trotskyist wrecking organization was exposed, headed by the former district committee secretary Steshov and the former chairman of the district executive committee Dudarev. Their activities were directed primarily at provoking discontent and irritation among the masses. Moreover, they went so far as to engage in actual terror against local officials. They organized the murder of a collective farm worker — Kudakov — who had attempted to expose them. … The Diveevo organization was connected to Pogrebinsky and Roslyakov. Luchinin states in his testimony that he attended a meeting at Pogrebinsky's. Those present were: Luchinin, Sukhov, Steshov, and Kaganovich (Pervomaysky District). I must say that this Kaganovich is merely a namesake. If on my wife's side of the family there are individuals who were repressed, on the Kaganovich side no one has been arrested. And so he says that all of them were there. Who else was there? Shelukhin. Who is this Shelukhin? A criminal sentenced to death, whom Pogrebinsky promoted to the rank of militia sergeant. It turns out that Pogrebinsky was engaged in training insurgent-terrorist cadres and organized a group of criminals (around 120 people) for combat operations in case they should be needed. He also made use of criminals from the Sarov colony. And so you see that the "district committee secretaries" Luchinin and Shelukhin — a criminal — all act together under Pogrebinsky's direction. All of this, comrades, vividly and convincingly shows how all these counter-revolutionary, spy forces, criminals, and dregs of human society became entangled in a single knot and constituted, as Comrade Stalin says, a rabid, unprincipled gang of wreckers, saboteurs, and spies acting on the orders of foreign intelligence services." As we can see, Pogrebinsky's name is mentioned repeatedly in the report. What is known about him? Pogrebinsky, Matvei (Motya) Samuilovich (1895–1937) — commissar of the 3rd rank, organizer of the OGPU labor communes, author of the book The OGPU Labor Commune (1928). Accompanying Gorky on a trip to the Solovetsky Islands, he selected young people from among the criminals who were subsequently transferred to the Bolshevo OGPU commune (see Gorky's essay "Solovki," vol. 20, pp. 211–213). Before his transfer to Gorky in 1932, he had served as head of the NKVD Directorate of Bashkiria. While serving as head of the NKVD Directorate of the Gorky Krai, he took his own life in his office on April 4, 1937. Before his death, he wrote a letter to Stalin. "He was too hasty!" Stalin reportedly said. "He still had a lot to tell us…" Yet Maxim Gorky had a soft spot for Pogrebinsky and jokingly called him "Motya the militia man." Such is the way fate plays with a man: today a city is named after you, tomorrow you are trampled underfoot. True, no city of Pogrebinsk ever appeared on the map. Though there were those who wished it… In the Saransk archive there is preserved a collective appeal to Pogrebinsky: "Dear Matvei Samuilovich! We are very sorry you cannot be present at our celebration. However, we know that our growth, our achievements, and every victory in our daily lives and at work are the fruits of your fatherly care for us. Sarov is your brainchild, and it is our shared wish to grow Sarov into the city of POGREBINSK. In wishing to give Sarov your name, we know that in doing so we take on a great obligation. But we are on the right path, and difficulties do not frighten us. We will ensure that every resident of Sarov is worthy of your name. We have the right to say this by virtue of what we are today. What we are today is a struggle for qualifications and knowledge. Not one of us any longer hesitates to raise a hand when a disciplinary violator needs to be punished. Sarov is your new victory in the cause of re-educating mankind, and we swear to you: we will build it into the city of POGREBINSK. Such is our shared wish. With greetings: the general assembly of the Labor Colony. September 6, 1936, the settlement of Sarov." It is worth recalling that in the mid-1990s, when the renaming of Arzamas-16 back to Sarov was being debated, one ardent admirer of Yuly Borisovich Khariton proposed swapping one distinctive nickname for another: renaming the numbered facility "YuB." <..>[http://www.gazeta-sarov.ru/desert/?id=39 Gazeta "Sarov," online edition. August 12, 2008, 20:55
"Motya the Militia Man"]
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Contemporary Statements of the Regional Committee
On Smoking Blends
In response to an appeal by the First Secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the CPRF, State Duma deputy N.F. Ryabov (CPRF faction), addressed to Prime Minister of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin regarding a ban on the distribution of smoking blends in Russia, the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation communicated the following:
"The Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia, in fulfillment of the instruction of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 19.11.2009 No. AZh-P12-6721, has developed a draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation 'On Amendments to Certain Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation on Matters Related to the Circulation of Narcotic Substances,' providing for:
— the inclusion of 'Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Seeds,' 'Flowers and Leaves of the Blue Lotus,' as well as 23 positions of synthetic cannabinoids (with which smoking and aromatic blends are treated) in List I of the Schedule of Narcotic Substances, Psychotropic Substances, and Their Precursors Subject to Control in the Russian Federation (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 30.06.1998 No. 681);
— the establishment, for the said plant parts and chemical substances, of large and especially large quantities for the purposes of Articles 228, 228.1, and 229 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 07.02.2006 No. 76);
— the imposition of a ban on the cultivation of Hawaiian Baby Woodrose (Argyreia nervosa) and Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) on the territory of the Russian Federation, and the establishment of the threshold quantity of these plants for the purposes of Article 231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (up to 10 plants) (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 03.09.2004 No. 454).
In addition, the said draft duplicates the entries 'Salvia Divinorum Leaf' and 'Salvinorin A' (which were included in a previously prepared draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation 'On Amendments to Certain Resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation Relating to the Circulation of Narcotic Substances, Psychotropic Substances, and Their Precursors').
The draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation 'On Amendments to Certain Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation on Matters Related to the Circulation of Narcotic Substances' has currently been forwarded for coordination to the relevant federal executive authorities (FSB of Russia, MVD of Russia, FSKN of Russia, Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, FCS of Russia) by letter dated 30.11.2009 No. 25-1/10/1-6682."
Thus, the numerous appeals by Communist deputies to the Government of the Russian Federation and to the President of the Russian Federation have yielded results, and the "guerrilla war" against retail outlets selling smoking blends is drawing to a close at the local level.
What remains unclear, however, is why the government failed to respond to public demands for a ban on narcotic blends for nearly a year, thereby turning a blind eye to the spread of this scourge.
CPRF deputies will monitor the government's compliance with its promises to suppress the sale of aromatic mixes on the territory of Russia.
Television Is a Nuclear Bomb
Speech by CPRF faction deputy N.F. Ryabov on March 17 during the "government hour" in the State Duma, with the participation of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation.
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— Television is a nuclear bomb. The people are outraged; the officials one speaks with are also outraged by irresponsible television. From every channel broadcasting across the country and the regions pours darkness, blood, murder, immoral films, low-grade entertainment programs featuring practically the same faces every time — one might say, one big family: Pugacheva, Kirkorov, Galkin, Orbakajte, and with them the likes of Anzhelika Varum, Leonid Agutin, Buynov. In comedy it is the same: Petrosyan, Avosyan, Stepanenko. Also a family clan. The question is: are there no other performers in this country besides these participants? If there are none, that is a tragedy. And if there are, why are they not allowed on television? And if there is corruption in television, then it is time to bring them to their senses. Please answer: when will you restore order in television?… (Microphone cut off). |
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A Reply to Valery Shantsev
Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee of the CPRF: a reply to Shantsev
2008-05-13 13:46 First Secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee of the CPRF State Duma Deputy Nikolai Ryabov
Throughout the second half of April and up to the present, mass media outlets funded by the regional government have been running a campaign to discredit and smear the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The campaign was launched by a statement from the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Mr. Shantsev, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the CPRF regional branch's criticism of his administration. In an article titled "Playing on People's Hardships," published in the newspaper Nizhegorodskiye Novosti on April 22, the author Zykin quotes the Governor's words to the effect that today's Communists "have nothing to do with Communist ideology, do nothing themselves, and just keep repeating that everything is bad."
The Governor is incensed that Communist deputies are sending appeals to the prosecutor's office to verify the legality and effectiveness of budget spending by regional officials. This reminds Mr. Shantsev of 1937, when "the finest people suffered — they were working, but denunciations were constantly being written against them." Furthermore, according to the Governor, the Communists, "instead of calming people down," are "stirring them up," which is "dishonest" and "indecent."
The publication of commissioned material in Nizhegorodskiye Novosti — a newspaper read only by its publishers and founders (the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region) — would not in itself have caused surprise or public resonance. However, in various "authored" variations, the theme of discrediting the CPRF was promptly reproduced across regional and municipal media outlets, both print and electronic.
In the Kstovo district newspaper Mayak on 25.04.08, for instance, an article titled "A Reply to the Whiners and Critics" opened with the words: "'Instead of helping people and calming them down, the CPRF stirs people up at rallies. After that, an agitated person comes home, where he has all sorts of problems, and the result could be a heart attack,' believes the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Valery Shantsev." And then came the familiar analogy with the repression of 1937: "It was the same in 1937, when the most talented, active people were hounded because others envied their success."
In the newspaper Nizhegorodskaya Pravda on April 22, in an article headlined "Valery Shantsev: 'The CPRF Does Not Help People — It Stirs Them Up at Rallies,'" the same idea is hammered into the reader's mind: the CPRF simply will not let citizens settle down completely, and is undermining the notion of "stabilization," "economic growth," and "improved quality of life" so frequently invoked in official media. Like other such publications, the article is replete with attacks on the secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the CPRF, Vladislav Yegorov, leader of the CPRF faction in the Regional Legislative Assembly, who is described as the Governor's "chief opponent" and "the man who constantly obstructs the activities of the regional executive authorities."
The output of the government's agitprop machine lacks originality and variety, but it testifies to the deep displeasure of those who commissioned it at the existence in the region of a political force that openly voices its opinion, criticizes the actions of the regional authorities, and enjoys the support of hundreds of thousands of voters. It was precisely the results of the elections of March 2, 2008, in which one in every four Nizhny Novgorod residents (438,000 people) voted for the CPRF candidate, that became the primary irritant for regional officials and provided the impetus for "settling scores" in the form of commissioned anti-Communist material in the media.
In connection with this anti-Communist campaign in the Nizhny Novgorod media, we consider it necessary to state the following.
The Communist Party in the region does indeed conduct active work organizing public oversight of the activities of government bodies at all levels, actively fights for the rights of working people, pensioners, and young people, and helps citizens defend their lawful interests against bureaucratic arbitrariness and big capital. The forms of this work include street protest actions, direct engagement with Nizhny Novgorod residents, initiative groups, and civic associations, as well as appeals to regional and federal bodies responsible for upholding the rule of law and overseeing the use of regional budget funds.
The attempt to discredit the CPRF through insults and labeling is a manifestation of the fear and weakness of a government that employs against the opposition the very same methods of the grimly remembered year of '37. The analogy with 1937 drawn by the Governor is indeed apt, but in an entirely different sense: as in the years of repression in the 1930s, a press campaign is being launched to discredit the latest "enemy of the people," to be followed by "organizational conclusions" — up to and including public show trials based on fabricated "cases."
As for the Communists "stirring up" citizens at rallies — it is worth noting that it is not the CPRF but the current government of Russia that regularly drives up prices and tariffs, pushing people into the streets to express their outrage and protest against the wretched living conditions to which the gentlemen of United Russia have consigned the people.
Nizhny Novgorod residents will not be "calmed down" by officials' lulling talk of blissful prospects in 2020, since not everyone is destined to live to see those times. Nor do people trust a government that refuses to take public opinion into account when forming and implementing its strategic agenda.
Instead of searching for scapegoats and conducting a "witch hunt," the Governor and the regional Government would do well to revise the priorities and benchmarks of their economic policy, making it socially oriented not in word but in deed, and focused on solving the urgent, pressing problems that concern the majority of Nizhny Novgorod residents today: rising food prices, rising prices for essential goods, transport and utility costs, the lack of affordable social housing, the sharp deterioration of the environmental situation, the commercialization of healthcare and education, the collapse of agriculture…
In any case, we advise the regional Government to henceforth direct taxpayers' funds toward more socially useful projects than organizing an anti-Communist campaign in its own media outlets.
The Regional Committee to the Electoral Commission
To the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Nizhny Novgorod Region S.N. Bisin
Dear Stanislav Nikolayevich,
In response to your appeal regarding participation in the cooperation agreement between the Electoral Commission of Nizhny Novgorod Region and electoral associations during the electoral campaigns in the municipal formations of Nizhny Novgorod Region scheduled for March 14, 2009, we wish to inform you of the following.
The Nizhny Novgorod regional and local branches of the CPRF have always provided and will continue to provide every possible assistance in organizing oversight of compliance with the law during electoral campaigns, and in ensuring the competitiveness of the electoral process by nominating candidates and conducting open and fair campaigning in accordance with current legislation, the CPRF's statutory norms, and its programmatic objectives.
The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the CPRF has actively participated in all electoral campaigns over the past 16 years. During this time, no remarks regarding "dishonesty," "immorality," let alone any violations of the law, have been directed by electoral commissions at the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the CPRF.
On the contrary, it is CPRF representatives who have regularly uncovered violations of the law and initiated court proceedings in connection with cases of voter bribery, manipulation of early voting, home voting, and voting by absentee ballots. The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of the CPRF firmly opposes such practices — prohibited by law and immoral, yet employed by the authorities — as administrative pressure on voters, coercion to vote for a single political party, and reprisals against citizens who refused to follow orders from above and remained true to their convictions.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) has always defended voters' right to a conscious and free choice, and has consistently championed direct popular elections for heads of regions, cities, and districts. Immediately after United Russia announced its initiative to amend the Charter of Nizhny Novgorod — thereby stripping Nizhny Novgorod residents of the right to elect the city's head themselves — the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Organization (NRO) of the CPRF held dozens of public events, collected signatures, and appealed to the Regional Prosecutor's Office demanding that citizens not be excluded from deciding matters of self-governance.
On December 21, 2009, the Nizhny Novgorod Region Electoral Commission sent a letter to the NRO CPRF proposing that it sign an agreement "For Fair Elections." Attached to the letter was a similar appeal, already submitted to the Nizhny Novgorod Region Electoral Commission by the NRO of United Russia on December 14, in which it is stated explicitly that the initiative for this agreement belongs to United Russia.
In the draft agreement — drawn up by the NRO of United Russia and forwarded to us under your signature — United Russia calls upon the communists to be "honest and fair," to "comply with the law," setting aside "group and personal interests" in order to do so, to "respect every voter's right to freedom of choice," and to renounce "the direct or indirect provision of material benefits to voters with the aim of inducing them to cast their votes in favor" of the party. It is hard to imagine greater hypocrisy from the party in power.
In light of the foregoing, the NRO CPRF is compelled to respond negatively to the proposal from the Nizhny Novgorod Region Electoral Commission and United Russia, for the following reasons:
1. A discrepancy between the provisions United Russia proposes in the agreement and the actual conduct of that party. The electoral campaign has only just begun, yet the ruling party's use of administrative resources and unlawful campaigning in the mass media are already in full swing.
2. The principle by which electoral commissions are formed gives an exclusive advantage to the ruling party, since commission members with a decisive vote — nominated by local self-government bodies and voter assemblies — are, as a rule, municipal employees and/or workers in the social sector who are members or supporters of the political party United Russia.
3. The CPRF's repeated signing of agreements on conducting honest and clean elections has not once resulted in genuinely honest and clean elections. The responsibility for this lies with the electoral commissions, the authorities, and the party United Russia.
At the same time, we assure you that the NRO CPRF will make every effort to prevent violations of the law during the elections and to ensure the free expression of will by Nizhny Novgorod residents.
Respectfully,
First Secretary of the Committee of the NRO PP CPRF N.F. Ryabov
Address to the bourgeois gentlemen
Text of the procedural instruction submitted to the State Duma on March 19, 2010, by N.F. Ryabov, a deputy of the CPRF faction in the State Duma, directed to the State Duma committees on property and on economic policy and entrepreneurship.
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Gentlemen of the bourgeoisie!
How long will you continue to mock the people? In the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod there is a group of citizens — 489 families — who received their apartments under Soviet-era law. During the thieving, criminal privatization they were unable to register ownership of these apartments. The buildings and flats were entered into GAZ's ownership registry during the corporatization process. No one informed the residents or obtained their consent. They were simply taken away, and that was that. At the time, everyone working at GAZ was a shareholder — that is, an owner. And, incidentally, they sought to have these apartments transferred to their ownership free of charge. But no one ever resolved the matter in their favor. At present, the residents occupy the apartments under commercial tenancy agreements and pay a rate of 1 ruble per square meter of total floor area per month. From April 15, 2010, at the request of the GAZ Group, this rate will be set at 100 rubles per square meter, amounting on average to between 6,000 and 9,000 rubles per month for the floor area alone. The principal owner of the GAZ Group is now Deripaska. I request that the State Duma committees on property and on economic policy and entrepreneurship be instructed to appeal on behalf of the State Duma to President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev and to the Government of the Russian Federation regarding the resolution of this difficult situation. |
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The silencing of Comrade Ryabov
The State Duma stripped Nikolai Ryabov — deputy of the CPRF faction and First Secretary of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Party Committee — of his right to speak for one month.
The majority of his colleagues deemed the communist's accusatory speech — in which he described the annual expenditure of regional budgets on maintaining the representative offices of Russian Federation subjects at the federal government in Moscow as a "thieving budget line" — to be an insult to the executive branch.
As Nikolai Ryabov explained, the dispute originated from his appeal to the budget committee to request from the Russian Government information on the necessity of regional representative offices in Moscow and the total amount spent on them. According to the deputy's calculations, in 2010 the Nizhny Novgorod Region alone would spend 53 million rubles maintaining its Moscow representative office. Ryabov estimated the aggregate expenditure on representative offices of all federal subjects at 4–5 billion rubles annually. "It would be hard to invent a more corrupt line item in the budget," the communist observed. His colleagues then declined to accept his procedural instruction, whereupon he filed a parliamentary inquiry with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, proposing the elimination of the regional representative offices. In the course of the previous day's hearings, 308 deputies supported the initiative of the mandates and parliamentary ethics commission to strip Nikolai Ryabov of his right to speak for one month. "There is no need to sling mud. He effectively accused state authorities — including Nizhny Novgorod Region Governor Valery Shantsev — of a criminal offense, without any evidence whatsoever. One must exercise more restraint, and if one is prone to saying too much, it is better to prepare a speech outline in advance," explained Nikolai Shalyapin, head of the commission's staff.
The Nizhny Novgorod regional government also considers the accusations to be unfounded. "A great many issues are resolved in Moscow, and therefore getting by without a regional representative office is extremely difficult. As for the level of Ryabov's erudition and culture, let that remain on the conscience of the CPRF faction he represents," noted Evgeny Muravyov, head of the press service of the Governor and Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. In Nikolai Ryabov's own view, he was punished because he "called thieves thieves, and they did not like it."
This is not the first time the State Duma has stripped Deputy Ryabov of his right to speak. In March of the previous year, the communist criticized United Russia deputy Vyacheslav Volodin, who had stated in an interview with a federal television channel that United Russia had received an average of 66% of the vote in regional elections on March 1. Nikolai Ryabov called these words "a monstrous lie," reporting that in the by-election to the Nizhny Novgorod Region Legislative Assembly in the Avtozavodsky single-member constituency, the United Russia candidate had received the support of just 8% of voters registered in the constituency. On that occasion, his colleagues censured Nikolai Ryabov with the formulation "For a public statement directed at another State Duma deputy that is ethically unacceptable."
Andrei Maksimov, Director of the Department of Regional and Municipal Programs at the Center for Political Technologies, explains the communist's behavior as a straightforward desire to attract attention: "The punishment worked in his favor — he made it into the newspapers and lost nothing in the process, since without the ban the communist would hardly have been given the floor at all over the coming month."
Interesting facts
- The First Secretary of the Regional Committee was referred to as "The Man Himself," or less commonly "The First" — analogous to The One (in Russian translation: Izbrannyy, "The Chosen One") from the Matrix film trilogy.