The parliament of Tatarstan, 1990–2005: vain hopes, or the Russian way towards parliamentary democracy in a regional dimension

Abstract

SUMMARY In this article, Izmail Sharifzhanov examines a short period of Tatar parliamentary history—its last fifteen years (1990–2005). These years were crucial ones indeed: first, they coincided with tremendous events in Russian history on the threshold of the twenty-first century and, second, they had decisive consequences for Tatar history itself. They aroused great enthusiasm among the Tatar people: for the first time in its tsarist and Soviet history it could hope to achieve real national sovereignty, but it proved, as usual, that these expectations were vain. Moscow and the local bureaucratic elite did their utmost to restrain a radical national movement and establish their power in the republic. The parliament again lost its initial rebellious spirit and political independence.