The Constitution of the Russian Federation was enacted on December 12, 1993 by a public plebiscite. With the breakup of the USSR in late 1991, Russia needed a new constitution to enshrine the democratic values of post- communist Russian society and to establish the legal foundations for its governing institutions.
The Constitution was the product of a three-year struggle between President Boris Yeltsin and his parliament. Throughout the period 1991 through 1993, various draft constitutions circulated. Some allocated the majority of power to a new parliament, while others favored a strong presidential system. Sharp differences also erupted between proponents of a strong central government, versus those who favored the devolution of power to the constituent republics and regions. Finally, the process by which a new constitution would be approved was not clear; some favored the convening of a constitutional congress, while others favored a referendum. The inability to resolve these issues resulted in a stalemate that led to Yeltsin’s dissolution of the parliament and attack on the White House (Russia’s parliament building) in October 1993.
Once ratified in December 1993, the Constitution established a strong presidential republic; some describe it as a superpresidential system. The Congress of People’s Deputies was replaced with a bicameral (two-chamber) Federal Assembly. The upper chamber, the Federation Council, has 178 members-two from each of the eighty-nine republics and regions that comprise the Russian Federation. The Federation Council confirms appointments to the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, authorizes the use of armed forces outside Russia, and considers legislation coming from the lower chamber on the budget, taxes and currency matters, international treaties, and domestic policies.
The lower chamber, the State Duma, is comprised of 450 deputies, one half elected by a plurality in each constituency and the other half from party lists on a proportional basis. The Duma confirms nominations for Prime Minister; can pass a bill of “lack of confidence” in the government and, if such a bill is passed twice in a three- month period, can force the president to announce the resignation of the government or dissolve the Duma itself. It also confirms and dismisses the chairman of the Central Bank, Accounting Chamber, and Commissioner on Human Rights; declares amnesties; and adopts federal legislation.
The President, elected to a maximum of two four-year terms, appoints the Prime Minister, subject to consent of the Duma. The President also names other members of the government, as well as the chair of the Central Bank, judges of the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court, and the Procurator-General. The President has primary responsibility for foreign and defense policy and chairs the Security Council.
The President may dismiss the government without consultation or consent of the Duma. The President can call for a national referendum and can issue decrees that are binding, so long as they are not in conflict with federal law or the constitution. The President can veto legislation, which requires
CONTROL FIGURES
a two-third vote of both houses to be overridden. Under certain circumstances, the President also has the power to dissolve the parliament and force new elections.
The 1993 Constitution establishes federal supremacy over “the subjects” of the Russian Federation. The President has the power to suspend acts of executive officials in the regions and republics. Although Article 72 mentions broad policy areas that are considered “joint federal-regional jurisdiction,” it is the President who mediates disputes between federal and regional governments. No powers or policy matters are designated as exclusively the domain of the subjects of the federation. Despite its flaws, the Constitution of the Russian Federation gained widespread acceptance and provided much needed stability as the country endured wrenching political, economic, and social changes in the decade 1994-2003. See also: FEDERAL ASSEMBLY; REFERENDUM OF DECEMBER 1993
Ahdieh, Robert. (1997). Russia’s Constitutional Revolution. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Sharlet, Robert. (1999). “Constitutional Implementation and State-Building: Progress and Problems of Law Reform in Russia.” In State-Building in Russia: The Yeltsin Legacy and the Challenge of the Future, ed. Gordon B. Smith. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Smith, Gordon B. (1996). Reforming the Russian Legal System. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
GORDON B. SMITH
Influenced by cubism and futurism, constructivism had its roots in the abstract geometric constructions of Vladimir Tatlin. In 1920 the sculptors An-toine Pevsner and Naum Gabo joined Tatlin in the publication of the Realist Manifesto, from which the name constructivism was derived. Like the Futurists, they admired the machine and technology, functionalism, and modern industrial materials. Within architecture the constructivists stressed that form should be determined in the process of construction by the utilitarian aim of the building and the natural characteristics of the building materials. They grouped around the “Union of Contemporary Architects” (OSA) led by the Vesnin brothers (Alexander, Viktor, and Leonid) and Moisei Ginzburg and its journal Sovremennaya arkhitektura (Contemporary Architecture). They argued that the construction of a new environment was not simply a matter of art or technology but entailed rebuilding culture from the bottom up. History had entered into a new creative cycle, and in that period of youth, utilitarian and constructive aspects of style were of paramount importance, and aesthetic simplicity and organizational logic must determine the new style.
This in no way signaled the demise of aesthetic emotion, rather its transformation under the influence of modern economics, technology, and the machine. Ginzburg developed what became known as the Functional Method, whereby the functional requirements of a structure, such as the “diagram of movement,” within the building and the siting of individual living units within a structure, were given priority in spatial composition. To achieve the desired goal, adherents used the pavilion method, which divided a complex into blocks according to their intended use and linked these units by walkways or bridges to satisfy the entire ensemble’s ultimate social function as a work of art. Ginzburg put his theory to best use in a housing complex designed and built between 1928 and 1930 for Narkomfin (the People’s Commissariat of Finance) on Novinsky Boulevard, now House 25, Tchaikovsky Street. See also: CULTURAL REVOLUTION; FUTURISM.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hudson, Hugh D., Jr. (1994). Blueprints and Blood: The Stalinization of Soviet Architecture, 1917-1937. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Lodder, Christina. (1983). Russian Constructivism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Kontrol’nyi tsyfri, or control figures, were originally the preliminary plan targets prepared by the State Planning Commission (Gosplan, established 1921) in 1925-1926. Soon thereafter these targets were coordinated with the mandatory annual plans of the Supreme Council of the National Economy
(VSNKh) and with the associated material balances, which theoretically provided the necessary inputs to produce the obligatory outputs. From early on and throughout the Soviet period, the control figures were approved by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, usually in the summer prior to the plan year. (From 1957 to 1964 regional economic councils also had some role in plan formulation.) Prospective plans were usually expressed in percentage increases from the previously achieved level and published in the main newspapers as ranges for the current five-year and yearly plans. Often these priority targets for around a dozen important commodities were expressed in physical units, such as tons or number of vehicles, but where that was not reasonable, the target was in value terms. Supposedly, the annual control figures were coordinated with the five- year plan then in effect and other directives of the Party and Council of Ministers.
During the five-year plan era the control figures were elaborated by ministries and chief administrations (glavki) for approximately two hundred to three hundred product groups and disaggregated into still more groups and passed down to the ministries (commissariats) and from there to the enterprises. Simultaneously the superior agencies would estimate the correct data to achieve these targets, often by applying established input-output norms to the targets.The subordinate enterprises would then request necessary supplies of labor, capital, and intermediate inputs such as energy, ores, and parts. Their requests, routinely exaggerated, would be pared down at
