Boris Yeltsin: "May God Help Us"

By John Kohan and Boris Yeltsin

While preparing for the summit and the opening session of the new parliament, Boris Yeltsin responded to written questions from Moscow bureau chief, John Kohan. It is Yeltsin's first exclusive interview with an American publication since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Q. What are the prospects for reform in Russia, given the opposition in the parliament?

A. The elections showed once more that the majority of voters are against the return to a communist utopia and support free enterprise and a diversified market economy. There are differences over the question of how to carry out reforms and at what speed, of how to overcome those temporary difficulties that inevitably affect the lowest-paid segments of the population. I have fully resolved that we must keep on with the strategy of democratic reforms. At the same time, we will have to make certain corrections in our tactics. We must heed the signal that voters have sent us.

A constructive opposition, rejecting extremism and political violence, can also make its contribution to the search for the best solutions. Those whose thinking has been frozen in the dogmas of a totalitarian past, whether Soviet or imported from abroad, will have to bow to the will of the people.

Q. What can the West do to help reform?

A. Of course, the Russian people themselves will determine the fate of our reforms. But the international community can provide an important extra stimulus to accelerate and ease Russia's transformation into a stable, democratic nation with a market economy. We are no longer separated by hostile ideologies or military competition. It is necessary to complete the dismantling of discriminatory barriers to Russian trade and take steps to ensure that Russian industries have access to high-technology markets.

Q. Are you concerned that the powers granted the President by the new constitution might pass to someone who does not share your commitment to reform?

A. Strong power is traditional for the Russian state. It also meets the demands of a transitory crisis period, when there are many destabilizing factors in society. The new constitution and the prerogatives given the President rule out any danger that there might be a scramble for power and anarchy under conditions where a real, civilized, multiparty system is just being created in our country.

Q. Do you plan to run for President again?

A. It is still early to say whether I will run for a second term. I would say only this: in the time left before the next presidential election, I will do my best to prepare politicians capable of leading Russia along the road of democratic changes that we launched in the interests of our country and its people.

Q. You have led the country through some of the most dramatic events of our time. How do you explain your popularity among ordinary Russians? How do you want to be remembered in future history books?

A. I know Russians well and the Russian character. I am part of the people and speak to them in a language they understand. I love Russia and its people, and they feel it. I have been destined to carry out the difficult mission of leading Russia out of a totalitarian past and bringing it into the family of nations of the free world, where every person is the creator of his own happiness and can openly express his thoughts and opinions without fearing the secret police and its agents, recruited under pressure or of their own free will, and where the state serves a person rather than the other way around.

Our road is strewn with obstacles. We have no experience of free enterprise. There are remnants of a slave ideology, with people still ready to serve "the party and the government." Finally, there are the ambitions of many would-be Napoleons, who are often totally indifferent to everything and everybody but themselves. But I won't hide the fact that I would like Russians to remember me as the man who did his best to free his people once and for all from the legacy of the civil war. From now on, let our Russia be a homeland for all its sons and daughters, whatever political camp they may belong to. And may God help us.