IngentaConnect The Referendum on the Construction of a Nuclear Heating Plant in ...

Authors: Bowker, Mike¹; Grebner, Antje

Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 85, Number 3, 1 July 2007 , pp. 543-559(17)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

Abstract:

A referendum in Voronezh in May 1990 stopped the construction of a nuclear heating plant in the city. The referendum in microcosm showed that the late Gorbachev period was, in many ways, the high point of democracy in Russia. The authorities not only acquiesced in allowing the referendum to go ahead, they also tended, whenever an issue arose, to rule in favour of the most liberal interpretation of the law. It was only after the fall of Gorbachev that the democratic will of the people came under challenge. First, the authorities dismissed the result of the referendum on legal grounds; and second, they argued that the public as a whole was not interested or knowledgeable enough to make such an important and complex decision. Although such challenges highlighted the changing mood in the country, it also showed the weakness of democracy in the late-perestroika period. There was a lack of established procedures in dealing with disputes which meant that decisions were taken in an ad hoc manner. This, in turn, often led to decisions being challenged or overturned at a later date. As the Putin government resumes its commitment to nuclear energy, there is growing pressure for the decision on the Voronezh nuclear heating plant to be reversed.

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The Referendum on the Construction of a Nuclear Heating Plant in Voronezh in 1990: An Example of Grassroots Democracy in the Soviet Union