Gennady Burbulis

Gennady Eduardovich Burbulis
Burbulis in September 2011
First Deputy Prime Minister of RSFSR/Russian Federation
In office 6 November 1991 – 15 June 1992
President	Boris Yeltsin
Prime Minister	Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by	Oleg Lobov
Succeeded by	Yegor Gaidar
Personal details
Born	August 4, 1945 (1945-08-04) (age 71) Pervouralsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Gennady Eduardovich Burbulis (Russian: Геннадий Эдуардович Бурбулис; born August 4, 1945) is a Russian politician. A close associate of Boris Yeltsin, he held several high positions in the first Russian government, including Secretary of State, and was one of the drafters and signers of the Belavezha Accords on behalf of Russia. He was one of the most influential Russian political figures in the late 1980s and early 1990s and one of the main architects of Russian political and economic reform.

Burbulis was born in the Urals city of Pervouralsk on August 4, 1945, the grandson of a Lithuanian emigrant. He graduated from the philosophy department of Ural State University and later was awarded a Candidate of Science (Philosophy) degree. He taught in several institutions of higher education in and around Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg).

In 1987, during the perestroika period, Burbulis organized the Sverdlovsk Podium, an open forum for discussing local and later national social, political and economic problems. In 1989 he was elected to the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union. He was one of the initiators of the Inter-regional Deputies’ Group, the first legally organized opposition in the Soviet Union, which was later credited by some with being one of the prime catalysts for democratic reform.

In 1989, Burbulis became acquainted with Boris Yeltsin, who had been elected to the Congress of People’s Deputies with 90 percent of vote. Burbulis nominated him to the post of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (the Congress’s standing body), which he was elected to on May 29, 1990. Yeltsin appointed Burbulis his authorized representative and deputy chairman of his Higher Consultation and Coordination Council.

On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the RSFSR passed a law on the sovereignty of Russia within the framework of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin declared his candidacy for the newly established post of president and Burbulis organized his election campaign. On June 12, 1991, Yeltsin won the presidency with 57 percent of the popular vote. On July 19, 1991, Yeltsin appointed Burbulis Secretary of State, a position he held until May 8, 1992 when the post was renamed State Secretary to the President of the Russian Federation (which Burbulis held until November 26, 1992). From November 6, 1991 until April 14, 1992, Burbulis was also First Deputy to the Chairman of the Government (Cabinet). Effectively the second leader in the Russian government after Yeltsin, Burbulis was responsible for developing the strategy and overseeing the implementation of political and economic reforms. He also made significant contributions to the shaping of foreign policy and domestic security issues.