Alexander Korzhakov - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alexander Vasilyevich Korzhakov (born January 31, 1950 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

), was a KGB

KGB

The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

general who served as Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

's bodyguard

Bodyguard

A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...

, confidant, and adviser for 11 years. Member of State Duma at 1997. He was the head of the Presidential Security Service (PSB)

Presidential Security Service (Russia)

The Presidential Security Service is a federal government agency concerned with the tasks related to the protection of the President of Russia. It traces its origin to the USSR's Ninth Chief Directorate of the KGB and the beginning it was led by KGB general Alexander Korzhakov.-Structure and...

in 1993-1996, State Duma

State Duma

The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...

deputy, and retired Lieutenant-general. Korzhakov had been Yeltsin's bodyguard since 1985, and on August 19, 1991, he stood next to his boss on top of a tank during Yeltsin's historic speech.

Being the Chief of the Security Service, Korzhakov was widely criticized for interfering in Government business. In 1996, he was finally sacked after losing a power struggle with the Prime Minister. He then successfully ran for a seat in the State Duma

State Duma

where he received immunity from prosecution. In 1997, Korzhakov published a biography based on his experience at the very top of Russian politics. In the biography he contends that he and the Security Service "governed the country for three years".

Early life

Alexander Korzhakov was born in Moscow to a worker family. After graduating at secondary school, he worked as an assembly worker. In 1969–1970 he served as a private in the Kremlin Regiment

Kremlin Regiment

Kremlin Regiment is a unique military regiment, a part of Russian Federal Protective Service with the status of a special unit. The regiment ensures the security of the Kremlin and its treasures and guards the highest state officials...

. In 1970–1989 he served in the KGB

KGB

9th Chief Directorate, "Protection of Higher Party and Government Officials". As a KGB official, he became a member of the Communist Party

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

in 1971, being a member of the Party bureau of subdivisions and member of the committee of the Komsomol

Komsomol

The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...

for the 9th administration.

In 1978 he was transferred into a KGB subdivision, which dealt with personal protection. In 1980 he graduated "by Correspondence" from a Moscow Law Institute ( Moskovskiy Yuridichesky Institut, Zaochny fakultet). Following service in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

in 1981–1982, he was one of president Yuri Andropov

Yuri Andropov

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...

's personal bodyguards in 1983–1984. In 1985 he became one of three personal bodyguards of Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

, who at the time was the leader of the Communist Party

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...

organization in Moscow

Moscow

. When, in 1987, Yeltsin was removed from his party position, Korzhakov kept the friendship and in 1989 was retired from KGB for his support of Yeltsin - officially, Korzhakov was discharged from the KGB due to "health and age reasons". After his retirement he became a private body guard of Yeltsin, albeit officially worked as the Chief of Security of a co-operative named "Plastic".

In 1989 gave a notice about the resignation from the Communist Party and was expelled for "non-payment of the party dues".

After the incident on September 28, 1989, when Boris Yeltsin fell from a bridge, Korzhakov set up a unit of former KGB agents to protect Yeltsin. Following the election of Yeltsin in June 1991 as President of the RSFSR, Korzhakov became the Chief of Yeltsin's Security Service, which was later transformed into the Presidential Security Service when the Soviet Union was dissolved. He was responsible for the protection of Yeltsin during the August coup attempt in 1991

Soviet coup attempt of 1991

The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...

and on October 4, 1993, when the White House of Russia was stormed.

Head of the Security Service

Being the head of the Presidential Security Service, Korzhakov was frequently accused of interfering in governmental affairs, as the Service gathered evidence on high government officials engaged in corruption

Political corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

, bribe-taking, and squandering money. He was regarded as one of the hard-liners of Yeltsin's team, a strong backer of the war in Chechnya

Chechnya

The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

, and an opponent to holding the presidential election in 1996.

In December 1994, Korzhakov organized an armed raid on the Moscow headquarters of Most Bank headed by Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky is a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.-Life and career:Gusinsky was born in Moscow....

, an ally with Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov

Yuriy Luzhkov

Yury Mikhaylovich Luzhkov is a Russian politician who was the Mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010. He was also vice-chairman and one of the founders of the ruling United Russia party....

, who was a potential rival to Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential elections. Soon after the raid, Luzhkov denied he had any desire to run for president - and Gusinsky quickly moved with his family to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Running up to the 1996 Presidential election, there were serious doubts that President Boris Yeltsin would allow elections to take place. On May 5, 1996, Korzhakov explicitly called for postponing the elections. However, the elections took place as planned and Yeltsin finished first in the June 16, 1996, initial round of the Presidential elections with about 35% of the vote, scheduled to compete with Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov

Gennady Zyuganov

Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov is a Russian politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union , deputy of the State Duma , and a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...

in the runoff on July 3, 1996.

During Korzhakov's reign, it is believed that the Presidential Security Service acquired documents which implicated first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais

Anatoly Chubais

Anatoly Borisovich Chubais is a Russian politician and business manager who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration. From 1998 to 2008 he was the head of the state owned electrical power monopoly RAO UES. The 2004 survey by...

in illegal financial transactions during the privatization period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. On June 19, 1996 Sergey Lisovsky (a wealthy advertising and showbusiness magnate) and Arkady Yevstafyev (a close aide to former first deputy prime minister Anatoly Chubais) were arrested while leaving the White House of Russia, allegedly carrying a case containing 500 thousand dollars. After being questioned for 11 hours by Presidential Security Service, Lisovsky and Yevstafyev were released. Tipped off by Chubais, television networks started to broadcast updates on the unfolding scandal through the night, portraying the arrests as a coup attempt by Korzhakov. The next day, June 20, 1996, Korzhakov was abruptly dismissed by Yeltsin at the urging of Chubais.

According to one view, the firings of Korzhakov were the result of a battle between factions within the President's inner circle - between a group that wanted to take power by force and a group that wanted to win the election "legitimately." Others saw the events in the context of an ongoing struggle between three groups: the former heads of the power ministries, representatives of the energy complex, and representatives from financial circles.

The biography

In his biography, Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk
Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk
Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk is a 1997 memoir book by Aleksandr Korzhakov, former head of Boris Yeltsin's security. In it Korzhakov describes eleven years of his service and the personality of his patron, first president of Russia. Yeltsin is portrayed as a heavy-drinker who hides his health...

(1997), Korzhakov describes how the Russian Political elite views democracy - an overwhelmingly negative evaluation of Russian politics. Naturally, the book has been severely critizised, however, only few people have accused the author of inventing or distorting the major facts.

The 1993 storming of the Parliament

An important contribution of the biography is its description of the anti-democratic mentality inside the Kremlin

Kremlin

A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...

. Korzhakov explains the severely negative outlook of Yeltsin, and the ruling elite as a whole, towards the democratic institutions. Korzhakov recounts certain developments in March, 1993, when the Russian parliament was only inches away from impeaching the president. Aware of this danger, Yeltsin ordered Korzhakov to prepare the arrest of all deputies in the case of impeachment. Referring to documents never published before, Korzhakov asserts that Yeltsin had even planned to use chemical gases in order to "smoke" the deputies from the building. The Parliament was eventually stormed by the Russian army on 4 October 1993 and the rebellion suppressed by force.

The 1996 Presidential Election

As regards to the presidential election in 1996, as well as in 1993, Yeltsin had - according to Korzhakov - no intention of leaving the Kremlin and was prepared to take any actions to insure his continued stay. Yeltsin felt free to express his contempt toward democratic principles in Korzhakov's presence. Some episodes the author relates are almost resonant of the Nixon years and the published Watergate tapes

Watergate tapes

The Watergate tapes, a subset of the Nixon tapes, are a collection of recordings of conversations between Richard Nixon and his fellow conspirators plotting a break in to the Watergate Hotel. U.S. President Richard Nixon and various White House staff started communicating on February 1971 and...

. According to Korzhakov, in the summer of 1996, Yeltsin and his prime minister, Victor Chernomyrdin debated the very serious possibility of canceling the presidential election. Korzhakov adds several significant details which possibly confirm the view that the Kremlin violated many democratic rules during the presidential election campaign in 1996. He also fully explains, with much elaboration, the story about how Anatoly Chubais' people tried to illegally take 500 thousand dollars from the Kremlin.

The Yeltsin family

Democratic institutions such as the Parliament and the courts played an extremely limited role in the life of the Kremlin and had no influence over the decision making process. Instead, Yeltsin's family emerges, according to Korzhakov, as a leading political institution in Russia. Korzhakov concludes, "when it came to making decisions, Yeltsin was motivated not by the interest of the state, but by his own family clan".

The people around Yeltsin

Korzhakov contends that the Kremlin was run by various unconventional leaders such as body guards like Korzhakov, himself. In the book, Korzhakov confessed that he and the FSB

FSB (Russia)

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...

chief Mikhail Barsukov

Mikhail Barsukov

Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov is a former Russian intelligence and government official...

, another member of Yeltsin's guard, "governed the country for three years".

Korzhakov paints an interesting portrait of the people around Yeltsin, few of whom are depicted as being more elevated in moral virtue and intellect than the author. Korzhakov describes the atmosphere surrounding Yeltsin as thick with unbridled favoritism, a fertile ground for intrigues among those struggling for the president's ear.

Even the idea of murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

hangs over the Kremlin. The requests and promises of people in the Kremlin to murder their political rivals are
interspersed throughout the book. For example, Boris Berezovsky, the financial mogul, asked Korzhakov to murder Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Gusinsky

, another financial tycoon, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, singer and Duma deputy Iosif Kobzon, and others (Novy Vzglyad

Novy Vzglyad

Novy Vzglyad, is a weekly newspaper published in Moscow, Russia. It used to be well known for its commentaries on politics and social issues in 1990s.-History:...

newspaper, 19 October 1996).

Meanwhile, Korzhakov, himself, had vowed to kill Berezovsky. At the same time, General Alexander Lebed threatened to shoot Korzhakov who only reversed the same threat upon Lebed.

Korzhakov also contends that during his State Duma election campaign in the aftermath of his ousting from the Kremlin in June 1996, his political adversaries wanted to kill his main rival in the parliamentary election in Tula in order to render the election invalid.

Legacy

Following the replacement of Korzhakov, the Presidential Security Service was reorganized under Anatoly Kuznetsov, a professional without any political ambitions or interests, effectively depriving the Service its unique political influence.

In January 1997, Korzhakov won, as an independent candidate, a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

over 10 other candidates with 26.86 percent of the vote in Tula

Tula, Russia

Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...

, south of Moscow, filling a vacancy left by Alexander Lebed. In the State Duma he quickly became a member of the defence committee. The same year, he worked as a consultant of the artistic motion picture Shizofreniya by director Viktor Sergeyev. Korzhakov is today a member of the Putin-loyal United Russia

United Russia

United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...