Actually existing privatization: an interview with Yurii Marenich - Russia - Interview

Monthly Review, March, 1992 by David Mandel

D.M. How much has already been privatized in this manner?

Yu.M. The executive committee's order transferred all the property that the district managed to UKOSO. A part of the buildings and land in the district are under the jurisdiction of state enterprises and other state agencies. These too have been transferring some of their buildings to UKOSO, but at least they seem to demand guarantees for the tenants: if the building is torn down, the tenants have to be offered other apartments.

D.M. As I recall, Zaslavskii promised in his electoral campaign back in early 1990 that he would not allow such conflict of interest.

Yu.M. The promise was even published in a district paper. But once elected, he radically changed positions. Then, when he had finished "privatizing" the district's property, he gave an interview to the radio in which he warned that the economic basis of a new dictatorship is being created, not of the classic Communist type, but no less totalitarian.

D.M. And he didn't feel any need to explain why he himself had condoned and participated in what he was now condemning?

Yu.M. A person generally behaves in accordance with interests that arise from his concrete situation. Thanks to the confusion created by the "war of laws" (itself, of course, no accident, but the consequence of the acquisitive interests of those who hold power at all levels), he found himself in a position to become owner of someone else's property.

D.M. What did you, as an elected deputy, do?

Yu.M. I fought from the moment I learned of the possibility of combining posts in the executive and in the private sector. That was in May 1990. At that time we didn't even know the people in the executive, but they all openly declared that they would be on the board of directors of UKOSO, and we knew that in virtually all civilized countries such conflict of interest is outlawed. You didn't have to be a genius to predict that they would sell this property to themselves at the lowest possible prices, in this case, zero rubles. You realize the tremendous wealth involved and the temptation.

So before anything even happened, we opposed the very principle of combining posts. And the answer was edifying: "How can you even suspect that such upright people would violate the people's trust? What happened to the presumption of innocence?" Zaslavskii said he personally would monitor the process, and he requested that the soviet mandate him to preside over the executive committee between sessions of the soviet, even though this is not allowed by our constitution.

The deputies refused, and his slate of candidates for the executive was voted down. So he called a meeting of the Democratic Russia caucus [the main liberal coalition that supports Yeltsin], which had 76 of the soviet's 148 deputies. You certainly can't attribute any of this to some design of the "evil Communists." The caucus decided to ask the soviet for a vote of confidence in the chairman, Zaslavskii. The rules state that if such a vote is won, then the whole executive slate is automatically confirmed. They won the vote.