Alternate Liberal Leaders of Russia

In OTL, Boris Yeltin was the non-communist opposition leader who came to power after the collapse of the USSR. However, let's just pretend that he gets assassinated before 1991. Who else could lead a non-communist liberal opposition after him during the 1990s.
 
Boris Nemtsov(governor of Novgorod) and Grigori Yavlinsky (deputy chairman and author of 500 days reform) had some political basis in the USSR, so they might work if you want a liberal government, though they're unlikely to be elected. Yegor Gaidar was prime minister by late 1991, so depending on what happens to Yeltsin he might have a shot at being the chief of the liberal camp. The liberals would likely be in opposition since the vice president in 1991 was A. Rutskoy, a man who is generally not viewed as very liberal at all (nor was the RSFR soviet). All of these candidates are possible in the same time frame: the Russian liberal opposition was and is famously purist and tended to fracture. Shevardnadze has little chance of being president of the RSFR (which was Yeltsin's post) since his authority was purely in the central soviet government (which was dissolved in 1991).
 
Boris Nemtsov(governor of Novgorod) and Grigori Yavlinsky (deputy chairman and author of 500 days reform) had some political basis in the USSR, so they might work if you want a liberal government, though they're unlikely to be elected. Yegor Gaidar was prime minister by late 1991, so depending on what happens to Yeltsin he might have a shot at being the chief of the liberal camp. The liberals would likely be in opposition since the vice president in 1991 was A. Rutskoy, a man who is generally not viewed as very liberal at all (nor was the RSFR soviet). All of these candidates are possible in the same time frame: the Russian liberal opposition was and is famously purist and tended to fracture. Shevardnadze has little chance of being president of the RSFR (which was Yeltsin's post) since his authority was purely in the central soviet government (which was dissolved in 1991).

Interesting!
 
Nikolai Ryzhkov
Ryzhkov was a reformer in his own way during the 80s, but by 1991 he was the Communist candidate, and not a very popular one at that (less than 20% of the vote IIRC). He might have a shot at power if Yeltsin croaks at that point, but his window is very narrow. More importantly, I don't see him taking up the mantle of liberal opposition. During the 1990s he was pretty closely aligned with the nationalist-communist crowd.
 
Grigory Yavlinsky
Yury Boldyrev
Vladimir Lukin
Boris Nemtsov
Alexei Navalny
Mikhail Kasyanov
Boris Fyodorov

:)
 
Last edited:
Top