Alexander Rutskoi is the first and only vice president in the history of Russia.
He held this position from July 1991 until it was abolished in December 1993.
Before entering politics, Rutskoi was a military pilot.
He fought in Afghanistan, where he was shot down twice during combat missions.
For the first time, by causing the air defense of a large base to fire on itself in order to open air defense firing points.
During the ejection, he broke his spine, after recovery he was able to return to duty and was again sent to Afghanistan to the post of deputy aviation commander of the 40th Army.
The second time Rutskoi was shot down by Pakistani Air Force planes, carrying out a mission to destroy bases and warehouses.
After landing for a week and a half, he escaped pursuit, fired back, in the last battle he was seriously wounded and was taken prisoner in an unconscious state.
According to Rutskoi, in prison he was subjected to all kinds of bullying and torture, returned emaciated weighing 48 kilograms.
Soon after his release, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his courage and heroism in performing combat missions, having completed 562 combat missions.
Then he took up public activities and in 1990 was elected People's Deputy of the RSFSR
(note - the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic)
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Vice President of the RSFSR
- On June 12, 1991, you, together with Yeltsin, were elected vice-president of the RSFSR at the first national elections held in the USSR. How did this tandem come about and why was this format chosen?
- As the chairman of the committee of the Supreme Soviet and a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, I took a pragmatic and active position.
Apparently, that is why Yeltsin, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, drew attention to me, and offered to run with him for vice-president.
I knew that Burbulis, a teacher of scientific communism, who quickly "dyed" in a different color, applied for this post.
Unexpectedly for everyone, Yeltsin invited me to talk.
The first time I turned down the offer.
- What was the reason for your refusal?
- Knowing about the undercover struggle for this post, I argued my refusal by telling him: “Boris Nikolayevich, if I am invited somewhere, to this or that position, I should know what I will do.
And given that I am a self-critical person, I have to understand if I am capable of being in this position to be useful. "
He replied: "Okay, go, think."
Then he invited a second time: "Have you thought?"
I stayed on my own: "Boris Nikolayevich, I repeat, if you tell me clearly and clearly what I will do, I will think about it and make a decision."
And so Yeltsin invited me for the third time: "You will be engaged in the military-industrial complex, army reform, social protection of servicemen and their families."
This is all mine, something that I am well versed in.
And I agreed.
- How did your election campaign go?
- Yeltsin and I split up and went to the regions.
In 42 regions that I got, the voting results were not lower than 55-60 percent.
In some it reached 65.
If you look at the voting results where Boris Nikolayevich personally campaigned, they were much lower, and even less than 50 percent.
In total, they added up - and it was a victory.
- Why did you start disagreements with Yeltsin?
- We were elected in June 1991.
Then the government was headed by a professional, Ivan Silaev, a former minister in the USSR Council of Ministers.
And then, after the Emergency Committee, Yeltsin removed Silaev, arguing that he did not show courage.
And then the leapfrog began: Bocharov, Gaidar, Burbulis.
The personnel policy for the formation of the Government of the RSFSR was, to say the least, outrageous.
Young people were appointed to the posts of ministers who did not have any life or professional work experience at all, moreover, they did not have industry education.
Privatization was being worked out and prepared on the fly, with the form of which I strongly disagreed.
- Why?
- Because it was clear how this privatization would end: with the plundering of the country and the plundering of the national treasure.
I suggested to Yeltsin that the privatization be done in three stages.
First, the privatization of the service sector.
And see, analyze how the service sector will work.
According to the formula: a person wins a tender, gets a service company in a trust, and pays its real value in a mortgage.
After which the enterprise becomes his property.
And the money received from mortgage payments goes to the fund for social needs: the construction of schools, hospitals, clinics, roads, communications. "
And so in stages: light industry, construction and other spheres of the economy, except for the basic industries, which remain the property of the state.
My offer was ignored.
They accepted Chubais' proposal, and Yeltsin supported him, to launch everything under the privatization rink, the advisers dictated, as it later turned out, the staff of the US CIA.
On this basis, it was between me and Yeltsin that antagonism arose.
- Was that the only contradiction?
- As I said, when Yeltsin offered me to run with him, he said that I would deal with the military-industrial complex, army reform and the social sphere of servicemen and their families.
And he appointed me to be in charge of agriculture.
It became clear to me why he did it: to show my inability to fulfill the instructions of the head of state, and also to initiate my resignation.
President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and Vice President of the Russian Federation Alexander Rutskoy
RIA News
© Dmitry Donskoy
I do not have a sense of snobbery, and if I do not know something, I always ask and follow the opinion of experts.
Therefore, I created the Federal Center for Land and Agroindustrial Reform, where I invited professionals, from a tractor driver, milkmaid and ending with academicians.
At the first meeting, he invited them to write what they consider necessary to reform, and how agriculture should be built in a market economy.
Subsequently, Yeltsin realized that it would not be possible to substantiate my incompetence on this assignment.
- You were also involved in anti-corruption activities?
- We failed to harvest in agriculture, they came up with another version of my shift.
At the suggestion of Burbulis, an Interdepartmental Commission for Combating Crime and Corruption is being created.
And they appoint me as its chairman.
They assumed that I would bury myself in search of criminals, tracking down the corruption activities of ministers, heads of subjects and various officials.
Again, it did not work to push the vice president, because the commission chose a different direction of its activities.
Analysis of documents issued by the government of the RSFSR, as well as decrees and orders of the President concerning material and financial resources and public procurement.
Hair on end from what was happening in the country.
Impudent, cynical robbery under the guise of privatization, government orders, the use of credit funds, the sale of military equipment, material resources, property and real estate of troops being withdrawn from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia.
On the results of the commission's work, I made a weekly report to the president, but Yeltsin did not react and forbade the institution of criminal proceedings.
And then I realized that the order was given to plunder the country, as much as possible.
I could not agree with this.
At the age of 18, I took the oath of loyalty to serve the motherland and the Soviet people, and I am faithful to this oath up to this day.
If you take the election program of Yeltsin, 1991, you will put an exclamation mark next to each item.
Now let's see which of the promised has been implemented.
Nothing.
- How were the duties of the Vice President defined in the Constitution?
- In the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978, an addition and amendment was made for the president and vice president.
My rights and responsibilities are defined in one line: "carries out the instructions of the President."
And no credentials.
Many people tell me today: “You were the vice-president and could not stop this arbitrariness”.
I have a counter question: "How and how, without constitutional powers?"
I did my best to counteract this recklessness.
Name me another who resisted and ultimately rebelled against this outrage.
"Where were you in August 1991?"
- In August 1991 there was a coup. You brought Gorbachev to Moscow from Foros. What was it then, 19-21 August 1991, the isolation of the President of the USSR or self-isolation?
- We were blocked in the building of the Supreme Council.
Yeltsin's office was also located there.
And information came that an assault was about to take place.
As soon as this information passed - Yeltsin went downstairs, by elevator to the garage, quickly to the car - and each time he was going to leave for the American embassy.
I repeatedly persuaded him and explained that this should not be done, because it is nothing but a shame.
Once again, when trying to go there, we had the following dialogue:
"Boris Nikolaevich, let me fly to Foros."
- "What will you fly there?"
- “I'll find something to fly.
As a last resort, we'll hijack a plane at Vnukovo and fly away. "
- "How do you do it?"
- "I can handle it, Boris Nikolaevich."
- “You will not be allowed to do this, you will simply be shot all over.
Do you understand that you are putting yourself and the servicemen accompanying you in mortal danger? "
We said goodbye and left for Vnukovo.
They seized the plane of the vice-president of the USSR Yanaev and flew away for Gorbachev.
Vice President of the Russian Federation Alexander Rutskoi answers journalists' questions at the White House
RIA News
© Alexander Lyskin
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Yanaev
not
objected
?
- Nobody asked his permission.
I had 20 special forces.
And Andrey Fyodorovich Dunaev was with me.
An exceptionally decent and courageous lieutenant general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Nobody controlled the flight, the "corridor" and "echelon" were not given to us, in fact, they flew without communication.
We sat down at the Belbek airfield.
Yes, the Marine Corps Brigade Commander was given the command to put the tanks on the strip so that we could not land.
It is good that he did not fulfill it, because the fuel in the plane was already running out.
- What did you see in Foros?
- We are approaching Gorbachev's dacha, at the entrance to the territory are the head of the KGB Vladimir Kryuchkov, the chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Anatoly Lukyanov, the Minister of Defense Marshal Dmitry Yazov.
I greeted them and asked: "Why don't you come in?"
In response: "We are not allowed there."
- “How, they are not allowed?
Gorbachev has been arrested. "
- “Who told you that he was arrested?
Try you, maybe they will let you through. "
They let me through.
Gorbachev goes to meet disheveled, drooping and justifying himself: "I was arrested, I was blocked, there is no connection."
In his presence I go to the phone, pick up the receiver, the switchboard signal went off.
I say: "Girl, connect me with Yeltsin."
Connect.
“Boris Nikolaevich, I’m here.
Here is Mikhail Sergeevich.
Will you talk to him? "
The sharp answer is no.
Yeltsin gives the order: "Take Gorbachev and fly to Moscow."
I say: “Mikhail Sergeevich, who blocked you?
Here is the link.
You have 30 minutes to get ready. "
He: "No, Alexander Vladimirovich, I will fly on my plane."
I say: “I am responsible for you before the country and the President of the RSFSR.
You will fly on my plane. "
President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev after returning from Foros, accompanied by Vice President of the RSFSR Alexander Rutskoi.
August 22, 1991.
© Screenshot from video: Youtube
- Last year I spoke with Vyacheslav Generalov, the officer who led Gorbachev's security in Foros. He said that Gorbachev could leave the residence at any time.
- He speaks honestly.
Gorbachev withdrew.
He was supposed to sign a new Union Treaty on August 20.
But, realizing that he blinded the wrong thing and drove himself into a dead end, he just fled.
And he framed the "gkchpists".
After all, the decision to create the Emergency Committee was made by him back in March!
And this all happened in August.
Gorbachev showed lack of will.
After all, he is the head of state, the president of the USSR!
What is the problem to invite the leaders of all 15 republics?
And so that they know that there are representatives of the prosecutor's office and the KGB behind the doors.
Here are the results of the national referendum, here is the Union Treaty - sign it.
There had to be a strong-willed decision.
Those who did not sign - for familiarization in Lefortovo.
Who gave this right?
The people gave you this right.
- In March 1991, by an absolute majority in a referendum, people spoke in favor of preserving the USSR. Why in August of the same year these same people did not support the Emergency Committee?
- I do not want to condemn the members of the State Emergency Committee, they tried to preserve the Soviet Union, not pursuing any personal goals.
I believe that initially there was a mistake in defining the leader of the Emergency Committee.
They do not speak badly about the deceased, but for the sake of objectivity I have to express my opinion about Yanaev - he was a weak-willed person.
This was the main mistake.
And the second mistake was the introduction of troops into Moscow.
- As a journalist, I believe that their main mistake was that they chose a form that people got tired of during the Soviet years: broadcast restrictions, ballet, presidium table ... - a live show, where they would explain their position - it seems to me that it would be a completely different story.
- It is quite possible, but not a talk show, but an open discussion about the preservation of the Soviet Union and possible measures and actions to prevent the collapse of the USSR.
But let's get back to the fact: the Communist Party was the governing and guiding one.
And now let's look at the actions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, republican Central Committees of the CPSU, regional committees, regional committees, district committees, city committees of the CPSU.
Everyone fled the buildings like rats from a sinking ship.
Not even a slingshot was fired at them.
The country fell into a daze as the authorities scattered and people did not understand what was happening.
In addition to all this, the misfortune of our people is total political, legal and economic illiteracy.
As governor, I tried to introduce two subjects into the school: the basics of law and the basics of economics.
They twirled a finger at my temple and said: "How then to govern such a people?"
I believe that the people should not be governed, that one should negotiate with them.
People must understand political, economic, legal processes.
Then it will be a normal legal democratic society.
Alexander Rutskoy and Mikhail Gorbachev before the start of the civil funeral service on August 24, 1991
RIA News
© Alexey Boytsov
December 91st: "Give me a special forces group"
- How did the situation develop with the collapse of the country in December 1991?
- On the basis of the status of vice-president, I accompanied Yeltsin to Belarus.
In a conversation before leaving, I asked Yeltsin a question: "Boris Nikolayevich, if journalists ask, I need to know why you flew to Belarus?"
He says: “Sign an agreement on economic cooperation.
You see, Gaidar, Burbulis, Kozyrev, Shakhrai are with me. "
And in the morning I learn that the Belovezhsky Agreement has been signed and the Soviet Union has been liquidated.
What do you think my reaction will be if I swore allegiance to the country and the Soviet people?
- What have you done?
- I immediately called Gorbachev and said that it urgently needs to be stopped: “Mikhail Sergeevich, why did I fly after you to Foros, risking the lives of the people who were with me?
Why did I take you out of there?
We flew with you, and I told you: finally, take yourself in hand.
You will finish badly by destroying the country. "
By the way, Raisa Maksimovna supported me then.
We flew on my plane and had an intimate conversation with him.
That it is necessary to gather the heads of states that are part of the USSR, and to sign a new Union Treaty by order.
It is in the order.
Because a referendum was held, the people expressed their position on the preservation of the Soviet Union and there can be no other way.
It was just necessary to show a strong-willed decision.
- In December 1991, could Gorbachev change the situation by force?
- Why forceful methods?
It was enough to arrest this initiative group, which no one gave the authority to act against the country, and in accordance with the law to bring them to criminal responsibility under Art.
58 of the USSR Criminal Code "Treason to the Motherland".
There was an unequivocal punishment for her - the capital punishment.
- And there were people who were ready to arrest Yeltsin after the signing of the Belovezhskaya agreements? Maybe Gorbachev wanted this, but no one went to carry out his order?
- We met with Gorbachev, and I told him: "Give me a group of special forces, I will fly to Minsk and bring these figures."
You should have seen what was happening to him: he was covered with cadaveric spots: "What are you saying, are you thinking with your head?"
I say, “I think.
My Motherland is dying, for which we put 25 million compatriots in the Great Patriotic War.
Why and what did my father, my grandfather fight for?
So that this trinity would take and destroy the country? "
But it was clear, looking at him, that he was categorically against my proposal.
If he had given permission, I would have brought them, and immediately law enforcement agencies would have taken care of them.
- What was Gorbachev counting on? Was he ready to leave his post?
- In my entire life, and I have a respectable age, I first met a leader of this level, unable to make a decision in an extreme political situation.
- Why didn't you leave your post when Yeltsin returned, but went on with him?
- Why, for various reasons, I wrote a statement to Yeltsin three times to dismiss me from the post of vice president.
When submitting an application, he always asked me the same question: will I substantiate my application at the Congress of People's Deputies?
I always told him that I would, and he immediately tore my application and threw it into the basket.
I, the vice-president of the Russian Federation, could only be dismissed by the congress.
On December 8, 1991, the Belovezhskaya Agreement was signed.
Four days later, on December 12, this agreement was submitted for ratification by the Supreme Soviet.
In accordance with the 101st article of the Constitution, the Supreme Council had no right to ratify this agreement.
Only the Congress of People's Deputies had this right.
I went to the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Khasbulatov, and tried to convince him that this should not be done, that this is a crime.
But Khasbulatov went on about Yeltsin.
On December 12, the day of ratification, I spoke from the rostrum of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in the presence of Yeltsin and, by the way, Gorbachev, and addressed the deputies with an appeal that this should not be done.
Only six people supported me, including Sergey Baburin.
All.
The faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which today walks with posters "We will restore the USSR", "We are for the USSR", voted for ratification with their entire composition.
October 1993
- Why do you think this practice has not taken root in our country - the president and the vice president?
- The answer to this question must be sought in the events of 1993.
I first told Yeltsin privately that his personnel policy of appointing ministers with a biography of three lines, without experience, was political and economic suicide.
But I saw that he was not responding to that.
Then I began to say publicly that with such a government, in the end, we would destroy the economy and drive the country into a shameful state of default.
It was 92nd year.
And what happened in 1998?
Default.
Here is the summary of his work and the government of the liberal young reformers.
- When was the vice presidency institute abolished in Russia?
- When the events of October 1993 took place and Yeltsin, by his decree, relieved me of my post.
But before doing this, he created a group that forged my signatures, said that I had accounts abroad, millions of fortunes, real estate management trusts and so on.
And on the basis of this, Yeltsin in August 1993 dismissed me from my post and gave the command not to let me go to work in the Kremlin.
So I ended up in the Supreme Soviet, where I had a visiting office.
And then, when these events had already reached their climax, and everything ended with the shooting of the Supreme Soviet from tanks.
On October 4, 1993, Yeltsin, by his decree, relieved me of my post of vice-president and acting president.
It was illegal.
The post of vice president was abolished on December 25, 1993 in connection with the entry into force of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in which this post was not provided.
- In 1993, the bulk of the people in the country did not support the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, which opposed the adoption of the new Constitution. Why didn't people understand your position?
- Because the media as soon as they did not roll me in the mud: a villain, a criminal, a corrupt official.
And then, only in 1995, the Prosecutor General, Yuri Skuratov, sent me a letter: “The investigation is over.
The criminal case was dropped.
Your signatures are forged.
The perpetrators of forging your signatures have not been found. "
I then said to Skuratov: "You will end badly, look at what place they will choose for you."
And so it happened.
- Were you accused, among other things, of organizing riots in 1993? Why you?
- Everything happened spontaneously.
The Communist Party, once leading and directing, which was supposed to explain to people what was happening in the country, led by Zyuganov, fled from the Supreme Soviet.
And on October 2, Zyuganov on television called on the people not to support us.
24 hours a day on television it was going on that we were fascists, anti-Semites, bandits, and I was a corrupt official.
Who will support such a person?
- Were you accused of calling to storm the television center?
- Let's take archival video.
And we'll see where they shoot from.
People who are in the square are being hit from the buildings of Ostankino.
Submachine guns and machine guns were loaded with tracer ammunition.
So who was shooting whom?
Then the investigation will conduct a fingerprint examination of servicemen, police officers, the FSB, and the civilian population in the center of Moscow who died in Moscow.
And he will make a conclusion: all were killed from sniper firearms, which were not in the Supreme Council.
But that was later.
And in those days, as I said above, around the clock they broadcast from the TV screen that bandits from the Supreme Council were killing people.
What kind of people will go to support those who kill their own?
- Was there a need to shell the White House from tanks? These epic footage has been around the world.
- Of course not.
Grachev said that they were shooting with wooden blanks.
At the same time, the stone and glass building burns like a tire cover.
Will a building made of stone, glass and aluminum burn from a wooden blank?
They fired high-explosive and armor-piercing shells.
The building was pierced right through.
Now imagine what happened to the people who were there!
And when they say that 150 people were killed in the Supreme Soviet - a lie of pure water.
At least one and a half thousand people.
- According to the events of 1993, the trial did not take place. Then you wanted there to be a court?
- Everyone who was in Lefortovo signed an amnesty, that is, they admitted their guilt.
I didn’t sign the amnesty, in principle.
I demanded that there be a trial.
Moreover, I am the only one who published my interrogation protocols.
The rest refused to do so.
The investigator told me: "Alexander Vladimirovich, we need to change your testimony, you have earned capital punishment."
I replied that I would not change anything.
- What did you do in prison?
- When I was in Lefortovo, I wrote the book Finding Faith.
This is my attempt to present a national idea, an ideology, detached from any kind of "-ism".
Because we ate "-izms", there is nowhere else to go.
Alexander Rutskoy, surrounded by family and friends, leaves the territory of the Lefortovo prison by the decision of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the amnesty of the participants in the October events of 1993
RIA News
© Oleg Lastochkin
I published a book in Germany, nobody took it here.
The Germans gave it the name "Mein Raum".
But the book was first withdrawn from the kiosks.
They were frightened by the analogy with Hitler's "Mein Kampf".
Then the publisher turned to the University of Berlin to make an opinion on this book.
And the Germans came to the conclusion that this book should be a reference book for every self-respecting German.
And she returned to the kiosks.
It was published three times, 50 thousand each.
About communists
- What do you think about the communists? Why did the Communist Party allow the collapse of the Union? Didn't they understand what was going on?
- They all understood.
And the GKChP 1991, when everyone fled, and the ratification of 100% for the Belovezhsky agreement to destroy the USSR.
And in 1993, the entire CPRF faction headed by Rybkin fled from the Supreme Soviet.
In October, the Supreme Soviet was shot, and in December a new Constitution was adopted, where Yeltsin received powers not even as the Tsar of All Russia, but much more.
At the same time, they combined a referendum on the Constitution with the election of the State Duma.
Is there such an authority in the 1978 Constitution?
Not.
This means that the elections to this authority were illegal.
Now let's see who becomes the chairman of the State Duma, of the first convocation.
Rybkin.
Head of the Communist Party faction.
Do you understand the diagram?
In 1995, elections to the Duma are held.
Who is the absolute majority in the State Duma?
Communist Party.
Who headed the Duma?
Gennady Seleznev, editor-in-chief of the Communist Party newspaper Pravda.
Today they talk about crimes during the period of privatization and loans-for-shares auctions.
When did the loans-for-shares auctions start?
In 1995.
Who represented the majority in the State Duma?
Communist Party.
In the Kursk region
- You got out of prison and returned to politics - you were elected governor of the Kursk region. What problems have you faced?
- I was the governor of the Kursk region from 1996 to 2000.
When I took over as Governor, the profitability of agriculture was minus 39, and when it left, it became plus 18. I got an oblast with a budget deficit of 45, and passed it with a surplus of 18.
Alexander Rutskoy talks to residents of the city
RIA News
© V. Chistyakov
He restored all enterprises, restored agriculture.
I can say that I pulled the Kursk region out of the abyss.
I still have a very high rating there.
But unfortunately, I was not given the opportunity to be elected for a second term.
On Sunday the vote, and on Saturday night I was removed from registration, because I did not indicate the area of the balcony in the service apartment and the "Volga" of 1983, which was sold many years ago.
Thus, he allegedly misled the voters.
In the morning, my name was crossed out on the ballot papers.
Mikhailov, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, was elected governor.