Encyclopedia of Russian History

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for the liberal electorate with the pro-government

reform party (at first Russia’s Choice, then Union

of Right Forces). Party identification among

Yabloko voters was rather weak, and surveys in-

dicate that they were scattered across the entire po-

litical spectrum.

In the December 1995 Duma election Yabloko

maintained its position, finishing fourth with 6.9

percent of the vote, thirty-one seats on the party

list, and fourteen seats in single-mandate races.

Yabloko established a visible presence in the parlia-

ment through articulate young leaders such as Alexei

Arbatov, deputy chair of the defense committee.

In November 1997 Yabloko’s Mikhail Zadornov,

the head of the Duma’s budget committee, joined

the government as finance minister. In May 1999

Yabloko voted for impeaching Yeltsin because of

his actions in the first Chechen war. In August

1999 former prime minister and anticorruption

campaign Sergei Stepashin chose to join Yabloko

rather than the rival Right Cause. But in the De-

cember 1999 Duma elections Yabloko’s support

slipped to 5.9 percent (yielding sixteen seats, plus

four in the single mandates). It was probably hurt

by Yavlinsky’s criticism of the government’s new

war in Chechnya.

Yabloko mainly existed as a vehicle for its

leader, Yavlinsky. The rise of Vladimir Putin sunk

Yavlinsky’s presidential chances, leaving Yabloko

as a visible but relatively powerless voice of oppo-

sition.

See also: CONSTITUTION OF 1993; YAVLINSKY, GRIGORY

ALEXEYEVICH; YELTSIN, BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yabloko website, English version. (1999). <http://www

.yabloko.ru/Engl/>.

ETER

UTLAND

YAGODA, GENRIKH GRIGOREVICH

(1891–1938), state security official, general com-

missar of state security (1935).

Genrikh Grigorevich Yagoda was a native of

Rybinsk, the son of an artisan and the second

cousin of the revolutionary leader Yakov Sverdlov,

to whose niece he was married. He finished eight

classes of gymnasium in Nizhni Novgorod before

joining an anarchist-communist group (1907), and

later the Social Democratic Party (December 1907).

In 1912 he was arrested and exiled to Simbirsk. Af-

ter returning from exile, he joined the army as a

soldier and corporal in the Fifth Corps (1914–1917)

and was wounded in action. In 1917, Yagoda

worked with the journal, Soldatskaya Pravda, be-

fore taking part in the October Revolution in Pet-

rograd. He entered the Cheka (military intelligence

service) in November 1919 and was attached to the

Special (00) Branch (watchdog of the military), and

by July 1920 was a member of the Cheka Col-

legium. He worked his way up in the Cheka-GPU-

OGPU (Obyedinennoye Gosudarstvennoye Politich-

eskoye Upravlenie, forerunner of the KGB), heading

the Special Branch and later the Secret Political De-

partment (watchdog of the intellectual life). In July

1927 he was the First Deputy Chairman of OGPU,

but was later replaced by Ivan Akulov and demoted

to deputy chairman. During the last two years,

serving under the sickly Vyacheslav Menzhinsky,

Yagoda actually ran the punitive organs. Taking

an active part in working against Josef Stalin’s en-

emies, he was rewarded by being elected as candi-

date member of the Central Committee (1930) and

later as a full member (1934). After Menzhinsky’s

death in May 1934, the OGPU was re-formed as

NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs)

on July 10, 1934, and Yagoda became its first com-

missar, the only Jew to hold this position. In 1935,

when the rank of marshall of the Soviet Union was

introduced in the Red Army, Yagoda received the

equivalent rank of commissar general of state se-

curity, held by only two others (his successors

Nikolai Yezhov and Lavrenti Beria).

For the next two years, Yagoda faithfully served

Stalin and played a major part in organizing the

Great Terror. He worked closely with Andrei

Vyshinsky in organizing the first show trials and

in the slaughters of the Red Army high command.

More than a quarter of a million people were ar-

rested during 1934 and 1935. The Gulag was vastly

expanded under Yagoda’s stewardship, and the use

of slave labor became a major part of the Soviet

economy. Stalin, however, was not satisfied with

Yagoda’s performance and organized a campaign

to remove him, using, among others, Lazar Kagano-

vich, who began to complain about the organs’ lax-

ness toward “Trotskyists.” Stalin’s telegram of

August 25, 1936, from Sochi to members of the

Politburo, sealed Yagoda’s fate. Yagoda was then

appointed as the Commissar of Communications

(1936–1937). Arrested on March 28, 1937,Yagoda

was tried as a member of the “Right-Trotskyist

Bloc” in the last of the show trials. Yagoda and other

YAGODA, GENRIKH GRIGOREVICH

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

defendants had to face Vyshinsky and the hanging

judge, Vasily Ulrikh, with whom Yagoda had

worked closely in the past. The former chief of the

secret police remained stoical despite the obvious

measures used to extract the necessary confessions.

Sentenced to death, he was executed on March 15,

1938, a fate shared by several members of his fam-

ily, but his son miraculously survived. Yagoda has

not been rehabilitated.

See also: PURGES, THE GREAT; SHOW TRIALS; STATE SECU-

RITY, ORGANS OF

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrew, Christopher, and Gordievsky, Oleg. (1990).

KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from

Lenin to Gorbachev. New York: HarperCollins.

ICHAEL

ARRISH

YAKOVLEV, ALEXANDER NIKOLAYEVICH

(b. 1922), secretary of the Central Committee of

the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (March

1986 to mid-1990) and member of the Politburo

(mid-1987 to mid-1990).

Alexander Yakovlev was General Secretary

Gorbachev’s closest advisor and most loyal sup-

porter in the Soviet leadership during the first five

years of perestroika. During the 1960s and early

1970s Yakovlev held a series of responsible posi-

tions in the propaganda department of the Central

Committee. In 1972, while serving as the acting di-

rector of the department, he published a scathing

attack on the growing Russophile tendency within

the Communist Party; this alienated a segment of

the party leadership and led to his exile as ambas-

sador to Canada, where he remained until 1983.

When Gorbachev visited Canada that year as the

head of a delegation from the Supreme Soviet of

the USSR, he was reportedly so impressed with

Yakovlev that he named him the director of the

USSR Academy of Sciences’s major research insti-

tute on international affairs.

With Gorbachev’s selection as General Secre-

tary in 1985, Yakovlev emerged as Gorbachev’s

most influential advisor on both foreign and do-

mestic policies. Yakovlev was often characterized

as the architect of perestroika, but it is impossible

to determine the accuracy of this assertion. He was

named the director of the propaganda department

of the Central Committee in 1985 and was a mem-

ber of the small Soviet delegation to the first sum-

mit conference with President Reagan in November

of that same year. He attended all subsequent sum-

mit meetings.

In early 1986 Yakovlev was named a Secretary

of the Central Committee and soon became locked

in a battle with Secretary Yegor Ligachev for con-

trol of the party’s ideological and cultural policies.

Over the next two years he emerged as an articu-

late supporter of Gorbachev’s new thinking in in-

ternational relations, championed democratization

and glasnost at home, defined the objectives of cul-

tural life in humanist rather than socialist terms,

and challenged orthodox definitions of Marxism-

Leninism. He often proved more radical than

Gorbachev in his definition of democratization, his

enthusiasm for the establishment of cooperatives,

and for private economic activity.

YAKOVLEV, ALEXANDER NIKOLAYEVICH

1697

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

Alexander Yakovlev drew upon his time in the United States

and Canada to help formulate Gorbachev’s reforms. © P

ETER

URNLEY

/CORBIS

Yakovlev’s orientation seemed to change after

the reform of the Secretariat and apparat in the fall

of 1988, which led to his appointment as the di-

rector of the Central Committee’s new commission

on international policy. Over the next two years he

emerged as a social democrat and political liberal

who insisted that the extension of individual free-

dom was the true objective of reform. After his se-

lection as a deputy to the Congress of People’s

Deputies in 1989, he championed the extension of

electoral politics, expressed doubts about the ca-

pacity of the Communist Party to lead reform, and

endorsed a multiparty political system.

With Gorbachev’s selection as President of the

USSR in March 1990, Yakovlev was named to Gor-

bachev’s advisory council and retired from his po-

sitions as Secretary of the Central Committee and

member of the Politburo in mid-1990. Increasingly

disillusioned with the Communist Party, in mid-

1991 he helped to form an alternative, rival polit-

ical movement, publicly repudiated Marxism, and

resigned as Gorbachev’s advisor. In August 1991

he quit the Communist Party and warned of an

impending coup against the President.

See also: CENTRAL COMMITTEE; GORBACHEV, MIKHAIL

SERGEYEVICH; LIGACHEV, YEGOR KUZMICH; PERE-

STROIKA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harris, Jonathan. (1990). “The Public Politics of Alek-

sandr Nikolaevich Yakovlev, 1983–1989.” The Carl

Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies.

Pittsburgh, PA: Center for Russian and East Euro-

pean Studies.

Yakovlev, Alexander. (1993). The Fate of Marxism in Rus-

sia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

ONATHAN

ARRIS

YALTA CONFERENCE

The Yalta Conference was the second wartime sum-

mit meeting between U.S. President Franklin D.

Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston

Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. It met

from February 4 through February 11, 1945, in

the Crimean city of Yalta. A mood of optimism pre-

vailed at the conference because German armies

were in retreat throughout Europe and victory was

assured. The principal agenda item was Germany.

Although there were sharp policy differences be-

tween the three parties, the Yalta Conference

reached agreement on most issues, and the Big

Three came away convinced that allied unity had

been preserved.

Germany, it was agreed, would be divided into

three zones of occupation (a fourth zone was

carved out of the British and American zones for

France). Occupation policy would be made by a

Four Power Allied Control Commission to be lo-

cated in Berlin. Reparations were to be extracted

from Germany, with the details to be determined

by an Allied Reparations Commission in Moscow.

Nazism and German militarism were to be extin-

guished, and war criminals were to be justly and

swiftly punished.

Poland proved to be an intractable problem.

Churchill and Roosevelt sought unsuccessfully to

persuade Stalin to recognize the London-based gov-

ernment in exile, but he continued to support the

government installed by the Soviet Union in Lublin.

At most, the Western leaders secured from Stalin a

commitment to free and unfettered elections as

soon as possible. No decisions were reached re-

YALTA CONFERENCE

1698

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill are shown laughing in the

conference room of Livadia Palace, during the Yalta

Conference. A

SSOCIATED

RESS

. R

EPRODUCED BY PERMISSION

garding Poland’s postwar boundaries, although it

was understood that the eastern boundary would

be the Curzon line. As to the liberated countries in

Eastern Europe, the conferees pledged in a Declara-

tion on Liberated Europe to respect “the right of all

peoples to choose the form of government under

which they will live.”

A secret protocol stipulated that the Soviet

Union would enter the war against Japan within

three months after Germany’s surrender. As com-

pensation, Russia’s losses to Japan resulting from

the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905 would

be restored. These included southern Sakhalin, ad-

jacent islands, and the Kuril Islands. The Soviet

Union also received the lease of Port Arthur, inter-

nationalization of the port of Dairen, and partial

control over the Chinese Eastern and South

Manchurian railroads as concessions.

Regarding the United Nations, it was agreed

that a United Nations conference would be held in

the United States on April 25, 1945. The United

States and Britain agreed to accept Ukraine and Be-

lorussia as original members, thus giving the So-

viet Union three votes in the General Assembly.

Also, important provisions related to the voting

rules of the Security Council were formulated, in-

cluding a provision for the veto power of the five

permanent members.

Because Stalin ultimately succeeded in impos-

ing communist regimes on the peoples of Eastern

Europe, some critics have accused Roosevelt of “sell-

ing out” Eastern Europe. However, the consensus

of scholarly opinion is that the superior military

position of the Red Army at the end of the war vir-

tually guaranteed Soviet predominance, regardless

of the decisions made at Yalta.

YALTA CONFERENCE

1699

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

The “Big Three” at Yalta in February 1945: Winston Churchill, a gravely ill Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Josef Stalin. C

OURTESY OF THE

ARE

OOKS AND

PECIAL

OLLECTIONS

IVISION

THE

IBRARY OF

ONGRESS

See also: POTSDAM CONFERENCE; WORLD WAR II

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buhite, Russell D. (1986). Decisions at Yalta: An Appraisal

of Summit Diplomacy. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Re-

sources.

Clemens, Diane Shaver. (1970). Yalta. New York: Oxford

University Press.

Mastny,Vojtech. (1979). Russia’s Road to the Cold War:

Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism.

New York: Columbia University Press.

Snell, John L. (1956). The Meaning of Yalta: Big Three

Diplomacy and the New Balance of Power. Baton Rouge:

Louisiana State University Press.

OSEPH

L. N

OGEE

YANAYEV, GENNADY IVANOVICH

(b. 1937), USSR vice president, coup plotter.

Gennady Yanayev graduated from Gorky Agri-

cultural Institute in 1959 and earned a history de-

gree from the All-Union Law Institute in 1967.

Before joining the Party in 1962, Yanayev worked

in the agro-industry sector. After securing Party

membership, he soon began working in the Gorky

Komsomol organization (1963–1968). He was pro-

moted to chairman of the USSR Committee of

Youth Organizations (1968–1980) and later to

deputy chair of the Presidium of the Union of So-

viet Friendship Societies (1980–1986). He switched

to working in the All-Union Central Council of

Trade Unions in 1986, becoming chair in 1990.

Yanayev rose following the Twenty-eighth

CPSU Party Congress. In July 1990 he was named

to the Central Committee and Politburo and given

the Central Committee foreign policy portfolio. Fol-

lowing the creation of the Soviet presidency in late

1990, Mikhail Gorbachev nominated Yanayev as

his vice president on December 27. The Congress of

People’s Deputies approved him on the second bal-

lot. He then resigned from his Central Committee

and Politburo posts effective January 31, 1991.

Yanayev disagreed with Gorbachev’s reforms

and was the public face of the group that plotted

the abortive coup of August 19–21, 1991. He went

on international television to claim that, as vice

president, he had assumed the acting presidency of

the Soviet Union. His quivering hands, constant

sniffling, and stilted delivery suggested his lack of

conviction—or his inebriation. Along with Yeltsin’s

appearance atop a tank, Yanayev and his shaking

hands became a central image of the putsch.

Yanayev was arrested immediately following the

coup’s collapse and was amnestied by the Duma in

February 1994. He went on to become a pension

fund consultant.

See also: GOLDEN HORDE

ONALD

STROWSKI

YAROPOLK I

(d. 980), son of Svyatoslav and the grandson of

Igor and Olga; fourth grand prince of Kiev.

The date of Yaropolk Svyatoslavich’s birth is

unknown, but the Primary Chronicle reports that in

968 he and his two brothers were under Olga’s

care. In 970 their father Svyatoslav gave Kiev to

Yaropolk, the Derevlyane lands to Oleg, and Nov-

gorod (after Yaropolk and Oleg rejected it) to their

half-brother Vladimir. Yaropolk married a Greek

woman, a former nun whom Svyatoslav had taken

captive. In 973, after the death of his father,

Yaropolk became the grand prince of Kiev. In 977,

after Oleg killed the son of Yaropolk’s commander

Sveneld while on a hunting trip, Yaropolk avenged

his death by attacking Oleg. The latter died in bat-

tle, and Yaropolk appropriated his domain. When

Vladimir learned of Oleg’s fate, he feared for his

own life and fled to Scandinavia to seek aid from

the Varangians. Yaropolk then appointed his man

to Novgorod and became sole ruler in all Rus. In

980 Vladimir returned to Novgorod and attacked

Yaropolk because the latter had killed Oleg and

refused to divide Oleg’s domain with him. On

June 11, 980, Vladimir’s men treacherously killed

Yaropolk. Vladimir then took Yaropolk’s pregnant

wife to himself, and she gave birth to Svyatopolk,

who would later have Vladimir’s sons Boris and

Gleb murdered. In 1044 Vladimir’s son Yaroslav

“the Wise” exhumed the bodies of Yaropolk and

Oleg, baptized them, and buried them in the Church

of the Mother of God (the Tithe Church) in Kiev.

See also: GRAND PRINCE; KIEVAN RUS; OLGA; PRIMARY

CHRONICLE; SVYATOPOLK I; VLADIMIR, ST.; YAROSLAV

VLADIMIROVICH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dimnik, Martin. (1996). “Succession and Inheritance in

Rus’ before 1054.” Mediaeval Studies 58:87–117.

Vernadsky, George. (1948). Kievan Russia. New Haven:

Yale University Press.

ARTIN

IMNIK

YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH

(c. 980–1054), Yaroslav “the wise”; grand prince

of Kiev which he secured for his family; the main

agent of the so-called Golden Age of Kievan Rus.

Yaroslav’s father was Vladimir Svyatoslavich,

the Christianizer of Rus, and his mother was

Princess Rogneda of Polotsk, of Scandinavian an-

cestry. Vladimir first sent Yaroslav to Rostov, but

around 1010 transferred him to Novgorod. While

there, he developed close ties with the townspeople

and the Varangians of Scandinavia. He also minted

coins and issued two charters granting the Nov-

gorodians special privileges. In 1014 Yaroslav re-

belled against his father by refusing to pay the

annual tribute. He summoned Varangians to help

him fend off the expected punitive attack, but be-

fore Vladimir could set out from Kiev, he died. Svy-

atopolk, his eldest surviving son succeeded him and

decided to consolidate his rule by eliminating his

half-brothers, beginning with Boris, Gleb, and Svy-

atoslav.

After Yaroslav learned of his father’s death and

Svyatopolk’s treachery, he marched south with the

Varangians and the Novgorodians. In 1016 his

forces confronted Svyatopolk and the Pechenegs

around Lyubech and defeated them. Svyatopolk fled

to the Poles, and Yaroslav occupied Kiev. In 1018,

however, Svyatopolk returned with his father-in-

law, Boleslaw I, and forced Yaroslav to flee to Nov-

gorod. In 1019, after the king returned home,

Yaroslav evicted Svyatopolk from Kiev once again

and occupied it a second time. Nevertheless, his rule

was not secure. Taking advantage of his absence

from Novgorod, Bryacheslav Izyaslavich of Polotsk

captured the town and took many captives, forc-

ing Yaroslav to attack him and free the Novgoro-

dians. A greater threat to his power came in 1024,

when Yaroslav’s brother Mstislav of Tmutarakan

attempted to take Kiev from him while he was look-

ing after northern affairs. Yaroslav brought the

Novgorodians against Mstislav, but the latter de-

feated him at Listven west of Chernigov. All the

YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH

1701

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

same, Mstislav did not occupy Kiev but took

Chernigov and the entire left bank of the Dnieper.

In 1026, therefore, Chernigov and Kiev became two

autonomous domains, with Yaroslav, the elder

brother, enjoying seniority in Kiev. When Mstislav

died without an heir around 1034, Yaroslav re-

possessed Chernigov and the left bank. After he im-

prisoned his only surviving brother Sudislav, he

became sole ruler of the entire land except for

Polotsk, which remained independent of Kiev.

Yaroslav also waged war against external en-

emies. In the early 1030s he recaptured the Cher-

ven towns that Boleslaw I had seized. In the 1040s

he strengthened his ties with Casimir I by forming

marriage alliances with him and by sending him

military aid. He was also the first prince of Kiev to

form marriage ties with the Germans and the

French. He was married to Ingigerd, the daughter

of the King of Sweden. In the 1030s and 1040s he

expanded Novgorod’s western and northern fron-

tiers into the neighboring lands of the Lithuanians

and the Chud, where he founded the outpost of

Yurev (Tartu). To the south, Yaroslav encountered

no serious aggression from the Pechenegs after

1036, when they failed to capture Kiev. In 1043,

however, he organized an unsuccessful expedition

against Constantinople. Historians do not concur

on his motive for attacking the Greeks. Neverthe-

less, he restored good relations with them and con-

cluded a marriage alliance with the imperial family

three years later.

Yaroslav made Kiev his political and ecclesias-

tical capital and strove to make it the intellectual,

cultural, and economic center in imitation of Con-

stantinople. He founded monasteries and churches

such as the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev, the met-

ropolitan’s church. Around 1051, evidently in an

unsuccessful attempt to assert the independence of

the Church in Rus from Constantinople, he ap-

pointed Hilarion as the first native metropolitan of

Kiev. Yaroslav promoted the writing and transla-

tion of religious and secular texts, assembled a li-

brary, and brought scribes and master builders

from Byzantium. His secular building projects,

such as the new court and the defensive rampart

around Kiev, its Golden Gate adorned with a chapel,

enhanced the capital’s prestige. Yaroslav issued a

Church Statute and the first version of the first

written code of civil law (Russkaya Pravda). He be-

queathed to each of his sons a patrimonial domain.

In an effort to ensure a peaceful transition of power

in the future, and to keep the land unified, Yaroslav

issued his so-called Testament. In it he outlined the

order of succession to Kiev that his sons and their

descendants were to follow. He designated Izyaslav,

his eldest surviving son, as his immediate succes-

sor. Yaroslav died on February 20, 1054, and was

buried in the Cathedral of St. Sophia.

See also: CATHEDRAL OF ST. SOPHIA, KIEV; GRAND PRINCE;

KIEVAN RUS; HILARION, METROPOLITAN; MSTISLAV;

NOVGOROD THE GREAT; PECHENEGS; SVYATOPOLK I;

VIKINGS; VLADIMIR, ST.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cross, Samuel Hazzard, and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Olgerd

P., eds. (1973). The Russian Primary Chronicle: Lau-

rentian Text. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Acad-

emy of America.

Dimnik, Martin. (1987). “The ‘Testament’ of Iaroslav

‘The Wise’: A Re-examination.” Canadian Slavonic

Papers 29(4):369–386.

Dimnik, Martin. (1996). “Succession and Inheritance in

Rus’ before 1054.” Mediaeval Studies 58:87–117.

Franklin, Simon, and Shepard, Jonathan. (1996). The

Emergence of Rus 750–1200. London: Longman.

Martin, Janet. (1995). Medieval Russia 980–1584. Cam-

bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Vernadsky, George. (1948). Kievan Russia. New Haven:

Yale University Press.

ARTIN

IMNIK

YAROSLAV VSEVOLODOVICH

(d. 1246), grand prince of Vladimir and grand

prince of Kiev.

Before dying in 1212, Yaroslav’s father

Vsevolod Yurevich “Big Nest” gave Yaroslav the

patrimony of Pereyaslavl Zalessky. In 1215

Yaroslav also occupied Novgorod, but lost control

of it in 1216 when he joined Yuri against their

senior brother Konstantin, who defeated them at

the river Lipitsa. After the latter died in 1218, Yuri

replaced him as grand prince of Vladimir. Al-

though Yaroslav helped Yuri campaign against the

Polovtsy and the Volga Bulgars, his main objec-

tive was to assert his rule over Novgorod. He

helped the citizens by marching against the Lithua-

nians, the Chud, and other tribes. In his quest for

more power over the town, he antagonized many

Novgorodians to the point where, in 1224, they

asked Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov for

YAROSLAV VSEVOLODOVICH

1702

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

help. After the latter occupied Novgorod and cur-

tailed Yaroslav’s authority, he developed a lifelong

hatred for Mikhail. In 1232 Yaroslav finally se-

cured his rule in Novgorod; in 1236 he briefly oc-

cupied Kiev. After the Tatars killed his brother Yuri

in 1238, Yaroslav became grand prince of Vladimir

and appointed his sons Alexander “Nevsky” and

Andrei to Novgorod. In 1243 Yaroslav traveled to

Saray, where he was the first prince to submit to

the khan Batu. Although the khan made him the

grand prince of Kiev, Yaroslav did not occupy it.

More important was his acquisition of Batu’s

patent for Vladimir, through which he secured the

town for his heirs. Two years later the Tatars

summoned Yaroslav to Mongolia, to the Great

Khan’s court in Karakorum, where they poisoned

him. He died on September 30, 1246.

See also: ALEXANDER YAROSLAVICH; BATU KHAN; GOLDEN

HORDE; GRAND PRINCE; NOVGOROD THE GREAT;

VSEVOLOD III; YURI VSEVOLODOVICH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fennell, John. (1983). The Crisis of Medieval Russia,

1200–1304. London: Longman.

ARTIN

IMNIK

YAROSLAV YAROSLAVICH

(d. 1271), grand prince of Vladimir, the first inde-

pendent prince of Tver, and the progenitor of the

town’s dynasty.

Yaroslav Yaroslavich became prince of Tver in

1247 when his uncle Svyatoslav gave patrimonies

to all his nephews, the sons of Yaroslav Vsevolodo-

vich. Soon after, Yaroslav’s elder brothers, Alexan-

der “Nevsky” and Andrei, quarreled over succession

to the patrimonial capital of Vladimir. Yaroslav

sided with Andrei. In 1252 the khan Batu sent a

punitive force against them, and they were defeated

at Pereyaslavl Zalessky. Nevertheless, Yaroslav re-

mained at odds with Alexander and had to flee from

Tver two years later. In 1255 the Novgorodians in-

vited him to rule, but he withdrew from the town

after Alexander threatened to attack. Later he was

reconciled with his brother, and, in 1258, he trav-

eled to the Golden Horde and received the patent

for Tver. After Alexander died in 1262, Yaroslav

challenged his elder brother Andrei for control of

Vladimir and sought help from Saray. In 1263

Khan Berke appointed him grand prince of Vladimir.

Following this victory, the Novgorodians asked

him to be their prince; in 1265 he agreed to rule

according to their terms. While waging war against

Novgorod’s enemies and concluding treaties with

German merchant groups on its behalf, he also in-

creased his power over the town. His heavy-handed

measures, however, antagonized the citizens, and

they expelled him in 1270. Yaroslav attacked Nov-

gorod, and, after Metropolitan Cyril intervened, the

townspeople accepted him as prince. Yaroslav was

summoned to Saray but died on September 16,

1271, while traveling from the Tatars.

See also: ALEXANDER YAROSLAVICH; GOLDEN HORDE;

GRAND PRINCE; KIEVAN RUS; NOVGOROD THE GREAT;

POLOVTSY; YAROSLAV VSEVOLODOVICH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fennell, John. (1983). The Crisis of Medieval Russia,

1200–1304. London: Longman.

Martin, Janet. (1995). Medieval Russia, 980–1584. Cam-

bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

ARTIN

IMNIK

YAROSLAV THE WISE See YAROSLAV VLADIMIRO-

VICH.

YAVLINSKY, GRIGORY ALEXEYEVICH

(b. 1952), liberal economist and party leader.

Grigory Alexeyevich Yavlinsky was a promi-

nent advocate of economic reform under Mikhail

Gorbachev and went on to found Yabloko, one of

the few liberal parties to survive the turbulent

1990s. Yavlinsky was a consistent advocate of

market reform, liberal democracy, and partnership

with the West, but his principled stance meant that

he declined repeated invitations from President

Boris Yeltsin to take up a government position.

Yavlinsky was born into a teacher’s family in

Lvov (Ukraine) and studied labor economics in

Moscow, finishing a graduate degree in 1976. He

worked at various research institutes before being

appointed deputy head of the new State Commis-

sion for Economic Reform in 1989. The next year

he coauthored the bold “400 days” reform plan

(later renamed “500 days”), which was never im-

plemented because of the political chaos that pre-

ceded the Soviet collapse.

YAVLINSKY, GRIGORY ALEXEYEVICH

1703

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

During the August 1991 coup, Yavlinsky joined

the defenders of the White House, and afterwards

he became deputy prime minister in the new So-

viet government, which fell when the USSR was

dissolved in December. Rival economist Yegor

Gaidar joined Yeltsin’s team in the Russian Federa-

tion government, and it was he, not Yavlinsky,

who oversaw Russia’s transition to a market econ-

omy. Yavlinsky was left criticizing the program of

what he called “nomenklatura privatization” from

the sidelines.

Yavlinsky’s consuming ambition was to be

elected as president. Intelligent, articulate, and prin-

cipled, he had some important admirers in the

West. But he was less successful in forging alliances

with other politicians (i.e., regional leaders, or re-

tired general Alexander Lebed) that could have

brought him closer to power.

Given the absence of an obvious successor, had

Yeltsin resigned on health grounds, Yavlinsky

would have had a good shot at the presidency.

However, the sickly Yeltsin soldiered on. In the first

round of the presidential election on June 16, 1996,

Yavlinsky placed a disappointing fourth with 7.3

percent. Yavlinsky reportedly received substantial

financial backing from banks such as Most and

Menatep; he was certainly able to mount an ex-

pensive TV ad campaign. Yavlinsky refused to sup-

port Yeltsin in the second round of the election,

thereby deeply angering the Yeltsin camp.

Yavlinsky hung on, waiting for Yeltsin’s res-

ignation. After the August 1998 financial crisis

brought down Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, the

communists in the Duma refused to approve the

return of Viktor Chernomyrdin as prime minister.

Yavlinsky resolved the impasse by proposing

Yevgeny Primakov as a compromise candidate. But

then, in typical Yavlinsky fashion, he refused to

join Primakov’s cabinet.

When Yeltsin resigned in December 1999 he

was able to hand over the presidency to his chosen

successor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who eas-

ily won election in March 2000. Yavlinsky ran once

again, but finished a distant third, with 4.8 per-

cent. He then stood by as Putin went on to intro-

duce many of the reforms that Yavlinsky had

advocated for years: a flat tax on income and prof-

its, land reform, and tighter control over oil rev-

enues.

Yavlinsky comes across as a man of integrity

and ambition who failed to realize his potential. In

the words of one commentator, he was “the best

president Russia never had.”