Viktor Chernomyrdin

Viktor Chernomyrdin, born in 1938, Russian politician, who was Russia's prime minister from 1992 to 1998. A Communist Party member for 30 years (1961 to 1991), Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was educated at the polytechnical institute in Samara. He worked as an operator at an oil refinery for seven years after serving in the Soviet Red Army. Chernomyrdin was appointed deputy chief engineer of the Orenburg Gas Refinery in 1973 and became deputy minister for the oil and natural gas industry of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1982. He served as minister for the USSR gas industry from 1985 to 1989, and was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1986 to 1990. In 1992 he was named deputy prime minister of Russia and became prime minister later that year.

At that time, the prime minister was chosen by the Congress of People’s Deputies, which met only twice a year. Chernomyrdin was elected to the post over the objections of President Boris Yeltsin, a longtime friend and colleague, who sponsored the candidacy of Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaydar. As the new prime minister, Chernomyrdin criticized Russia's fast pace of privatization and compared it to the drive by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to collectivize agriculture in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Chernomyrdin proposed economic policies emphasizing national self-sufficiency. He endorsed the expansion of the system of state contracts and recommended that private enterprises be prevented from reducing production.

Although many of Chernomyrdin's statements were critical of the previous government, he also made several gestures in support of economic reform. He discussed the possibility of Gaydar's return to office and promised to expel opponents of economic reform from the government. He also announced his intention to raise fuel prices and initiate bankruptcy procedures against unprofitable enterprises.

Chernomyrdin's policies were criticized by both ends of the political spectrum in Russia. In 1993 legislature chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov complained that Chernomyrdin was continuing Gaydar's policy of rapid economic reform, while former economics minister Andrey Nechayev criticized Chernomyrdin for exclusively hiring officials who had worked in the Soviet bureaucracy.

In spring 1995 Chernomyrdin founded a new, centrist political party called Our Home is Russia. In December of that year, legislative elections were held in Russia. The Communist Party, led by Gennady Zyuganov, received the largest share of the vote (22 percent) and became the majority party in the State Duma (lower house of parliament). Chernomyrdin's party received approximately 10 percent of the vote. Despite the Communists' victory, Chernomyrdin remained prime minister. In March 1998 President Yeltsin dismissed Chernomyrdin and his cabinet, charging that they were “lacking in dynamism and initiative, fresh approaches and ideas.” Chernomyrdin, who was succeeded by a young junior minister, Sergey Kiriyenko, announced at the end of the month that he would run for president in the 2000 election.