Russia pays tribute to the memory of the first mayor of St Petersburg
St Petersburg held memorable events that were attended, among others, by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
However, the two leaders' schedules did not once coincide. Medvedev devoted his time to the students of St Petersburg State University, while Putin visited the Museum for Democracy, which bears the name of Anatoly Sobchak, the city's first mayor, and attended a memorable concert in the Smolny Cathedral.
Medvedev and Putin have their own memories of Sobchak and his views, but one thing is obvious – both men were his students in the past.
Medvedev thinks that Sobchak had three major features – he was a true teacher, a true resident of St Petersburg, and a true politician. Medvedev admitted that he still remembers the clear-cut formulas of civil law. "You know what happens when a professor gives a definition at a lecture. Maybe it is not ideal, but [for the student] it becomes the primary definition of this or that legal phenomenon. In the same way, what Sobchak said then was to become my first knowledge of civil law," he explained. Medvedev wanted the students to learn as much as possible about Sobchak.
St Petersburg retrieved its name owing to Sobchak in September 1991. He was elected mayor three months earlier, on June 12.
"This was a courageous decision. People tried to persuade him otherwise. They said that people may not support such a decision in conditions of poverty and collapse, but he made it and people supported him," Medvedev said.
However, St Petersburg did not match Moscow in importance even then – all eyes were turned to the capital. Sobchak was aggrieved that people were leaving for Moscow and even hinted to Medvedev when he led Putin's presidential campaign that it would be good if he returned to become mayor.
"Looking me straight in the eye, he said to me: 'You know everything may change so much. We must think of persuading someone from among those who left for Moscow to return here and run our city.' I could not return for obvious reasons, but now the city's mayor is Valentina Matviyenko, who worked in our government at that time."
Medvedev paid special attention to Sobchak as to a politician of the new generation, the like of which did not exist in the Soviet times. In his speeches, Sobchak often quoted the Constitution and other Soviet laws. Medvedev called this the first inoculation against the disdain of law. Having announced a programme for putting an end to legal nihilism during his presidential campaign, Medvedev often mentioned Sobchak: "We still lack such politicians in power at a regional level, not to mention municipal and even federal levels. Up to this day, we have failed to realise that any policy must have a legal dimension."
During his visit to the Sobchak museum, Putin explained his own views on the sort of policy Russia needs. Having called Sobchak a democrat to the core, he also emphasised Sobchak's adherence to the law.
"When we discussed the chances of his election for a second term, he realised that the campaign would be difficult. Saying so, he would always stress: 'After my second term I will not remain in Smolny for another day because that is the law. We must introduce these principles of democracy into the nation's mentality.' I am sure that this would have been the case if he had been elected for a second term," Putin said.
Putin considers his years of working with Sobchak his "university education." At first he was not confident that he would suit Sobchak. Having been invited to work in the mayor's office, Putin told his future boss that he was a career KGB officer. Putin thought that his past would deal a big blow to Sobchak's reputation.
"I don't know how he speaks outside the office, but at work, we heard him say something for the first and last time. After a long pause he said: 'To hell with it! Sometimes I don't want to go into my reception office because I don't know who works there, and I need decent and adequate people,'" Putin recalled.
Somewhat later Putin took Sobchak on his own team in the presidential elections. On February 17, 2000, the former mayor arrived in Kaliningrad as Putin's presidential election representative, but died a sudden death two days later. Putin, who was a very young acting president at the time, said: "I'm the head of state and cannot afford to make strong statements, but I will tell you what I think about this in general. I think that he did not just die, he was driven to death by harassment."
A year after his defeat at the elections, Sobchak was charged with abusing power during his work as the city's mayor. On September 13, 1998, the Prosecutor's Office started criminal proceedings against him on two counts – bribery and abuse of power. On November 10, 1999, the charges were dismissed.
His studies at the legal department and years of close work with Sobchak did not prevent Putin from considering the definition of democracy. He described it as a balance between stability and political development to be determined by civil society, but did not extrapolate much further. He said: "If this balance is upset, we will stagnate or collapse. But at the same time, there is no doubt that the world is permanently changing and that we are permanently changing, and we must be able to react to these changes in order to be competitive. But these changes should be evolutionary rather than revolutionary."
While speaking to Sobchak's merits, both Medvedev and Putin also noted his mistakes. He was carried away by the successes of the new government, but "they were not great in number," Putin explained. "Sobchak was definitely a romantic and an idealist... but it so happened that many seemingly idealistic things he pursued have become the political realities of our life. This is how we live," Medvedev said, trying to justify Sobchak.
Romantics and idealists are like flowers – they do not last long. Perhaps this is what happened to Sobchak, whose name has been given to a type of white tulip.
The president and the prime minister brought bouquets of red roses to Sobchak's grave at the Nikolskoye Cemetery of the Alexanro-Nevskaya Lavra. The grave was covered with tributes to the former leader. The cemetery was visited by high-ranking officials and also grateful citizens– a little more than a hundred. In the evening of February 20, the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Spivakov gave a memorial concert for Sobchak in the Smolny Cathedral.
On Sunday, Putin visited the Mikhailovsky Castle and recalled how he had walked its cold and dilapidated premises together with Sobchak in 1991: "Now I recall this with regret, but at that time I said: 'Anatoly, why are you doing this? We will never be able to repair it.' This is a huge castle and its repairs require enormous funds. The country and the city's economies were in bad shape in 1991. But Sobchak made up his mind and did something about it," Putin said.
Reference
At different times, the following people were members of Sobchak's team: President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, Head of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Naryshkin, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov, Sberbank CEO German Gref, Chairman of the Highest Arbitration Court Anton Ivanov, and Head of the Rosnano State Corporation Anatoly Chubais.
Pierre Sidibe
