Expert Opinions
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Nemtsov's tenure as governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, which made the young reformer famous throughout the country and far beyond its borders, revealed both the undeniable strengths and the unmistakable weaknesses of Nemtsov as a politician.
He always adhered to the principle that "good publicity is a sure path to success," and as early as his first year in office he demonstrated himself to be a brilliant public-relations manager. No generator of new ideas himself, but quick to absorb them — if in somewhat simplified form — Nemtsov enlisted Grigory Yavlinsky, who had been left without a role after the collapse of the Soviet Union, to help develop the program of Nizhny Novgorod's reforms. The economist, then very much in fashion, came to Nizhny together with his "Epitsentr" group and prepared a series of projects under the collective title "Nizhny Novgorod Prologue." Some of these projects were put into practice (the introduction of a system of social indicators); others remained on paper (the housing-stock conversion program). But thanks to skillful promotion of these initiatives, Nizhny Novgorod gained a reputation as a "reform testing ground," and Nemtsov and Yavlinsky — friends at the time — reaped substantial political dividends, which each of them endeavored to claim primarily for himself. It was at that moment that Nemtsov fashioned for himself a highly appealing image that for several years proved irresistible not only to the majority of Nizhny Novgorod voters but to a significant share of Russian voters as well. The bold reformer steering his entrusted ship toward the harbor of market abundance, and the committed democrat who considered himself the heir to Academician Sakharov's views. An energetic leader and a charming individual, demanding of officials and affable toward journalists, he appealed equally to the young — because he embodied personal success — and to veterans, since he tried to help them when Moscow delayed pension payments. Nemtsov is therefore not far from the truth when he credits himself with having transformed the provincial city of Gorky into the internationally known Nizhny Novgorod. For Nemtsov's greatest political achievement to this day remains the creation of the image of the "capital of reforms" — a campaign to present the "Nizhny Novgorod miracle," for which he managed to enlist Yeltsin and Thatcher, Gorbachev and Wolfensohn as advertising agents. The young governor, agreeable in every respect, so captivated those who spoke of the Nizhny Novgorod transformations at the time that no one wished to conduct an objective analysis of the reforms being carried out, let alone answer the fundamental question: what was Nemtsov's strategic goal, and the capital of precisely what was Nizhny Novgorod supposed to become? A brilliant exterior concealed an undefined substance; a handsome package hid an unknown commodity. It cannot be said that Nemtsov made no attempt to set priorities for the development of the city and the region. Initially he pinned hopes for the region's future on the revival of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka; then he actively encouraged the opening of Western company branches in the region; and toward the end of his governorship he became taken with the idea of turning Nizhny Novgorod into "the Russian Detroit." Yet behind all these plans and schemes there was no visible economic justification, no well-thought-out social vision. As time went on, Nemtsov relied ever more heavily on personal popularity and on the advertising of the "Nizhny Novgorod miracle" in his economic policy. As a result, the "capital of reforms" never managed to become the leader in investment attraction — a goal that had been proclaimed one of the governor's primary objectives. Meanwhile, the general crisis in Russian industry, particularly from 1994 onward, affected the overwhelming majority of factories in the Nizhny Novgorod region, which from that point began to cede its economic position. For the regional leader — who only in December 1995 exchanged the post of appointed head of administration for that of elected governor — the danger of being held accountable for the resulting mess began to loom, still distant but unmistakably on the horizon. |
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Criticism
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Nemtsov shed his romanticism considerably earlier than Klimentyev was forced to do. The governor understood perfectly well that the Nizhny Novgorod reforms, about which he reported loudly at every available opportunity, amounted in practice to something resembling a soap bubble. While orchestrating the unprecedented advertising campaign portraying Nizhny Novgorod as the "capital of reforms," Nemtsov knew full well that sooner or later the country — and, most damagingly, its all-powerful President Yeltsin — would learn the terrible truth: about the ruin of peasants in what had once been prosperous Collective Farm, about falling output at the largest defense industry enterprises, and finally about the catastrophically low standard of living endured by the majority of Nizhny Novgorod residents. |
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Interesting Facts
- In commemoration of the Nizhny Novgorod reforms, Margaret Thatcher visited Nizhny Novgorod
- Economists G. Yavlinsky and Ye. Gaidar frequently came to Nizhny at the time for meetings with Nemtsov.