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Congress of People’s Deputies | Soviet government | Britannica
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For the first time, elections to these bodies presented voters with a choice of candidates, including noncommunists, though the Communist Party continued to dominate the system.</p><a class="read-more" href="/place/Russia/Government-and-society#ref422444">Read More</a></li><li><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/43/3843-050-FEE525C7/Russia-political-map.jpg" alt="Russia" data-width="1600" data-height="1149" loading="lazy"></div> <span class="index-xref">In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/The-Gorbachev-era-perestroika-and-glasnost#ref422211" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Russia: The Gorbachev era: perestroika and glasnost</a></span><p class="topic-paragraph">A new parliament, the Congress of People’s Deputies, was convened in the spring of 1989, with Gorbachev presiding. The new body superseded the Supreme Soviet as the highest organ of state power. The Congress elected a new Supreme Soviet, and Gorbachev, who had opted for an executive presidency modeled…</p><a class="read-more" href="/place/Russia/The-Gorbachev-era-perestroika-and-glasnost#ref422211">Read More</a></li></ul></section><section><h3>role of Gorbachev</h3><ul class="list-unstyled"><li><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/85/177585-050-5BE02E0D/Mikhail-Gorbachev-1987.jpg?w=300" alt="Mikhail Gorbachev" data-width="698" data-height="800" loading="lazy"></div> <span class="index-xref">In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Gorbachev#ref277097" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mikhail Gorbachev: General secretary of the CPSU: perestroika to the fall of the Soviet Union</a></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Congress of People’s Deputies was created, with some of its members directly elected by the people in contested (i.e., multicandidate) elections. In 1989 the newly elected Congress of People’s Deputies elected from its ranks a new U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet that, in contrast to its predecessor…</p><a class="read-more" href="/biography/Mikhail-Gorbachev#ref277097">Read More</a></li></ul></section><section><h3>Ukrainian elections</h3><ul class="list-unstyled"><li><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/15/4815-050-F533DB64/Ukraine.jpg" alt="Ukraine" data-width="1600" data-height="1114" loading="lazy"></div> <span class="index-xref">In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Parliamentary-democracy#ref404676" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ukraine: Parliamentary democracy</a></span><p class="topic-paragraph">…legislative body in Moscow, the Congress of People’s Deputies, brought victory to a significant number of noncommunist candidates. Numerous Communist Party candidates, including highly placed officials, suffered defeat, all the more humiliating in those cases when they ran unopposed. (In these cases, voters crossed off the single name on the…</p><a class="read-more" href="/place/Ukraine/Parliamentary-democracy#ref404676">Read More</a></li></ul></section><section><h3>U.S.S.R.</h3><ul class="list-unstyled"><li><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/36/22536-050-E22B1D13/Flag-Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics.jpg?w=300" alt="Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922–91" data-width="1600" data-height="800" loading="lazy"></div> <span class="index-xref">In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union#ref174844" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Soviet Union</a></span><p class="topic-paragraph">…old Supreme Soviet with the Congress of People’s Deputies of the U.S.S.R. The new congress had 2,250 members; one-third of these were elected on a constituency basis, one-third represented the political territories (as in the old Supreme Soviet), and the remaining third came from “all-union social organizations” such as the…</p><a class="read-more" href="/place/Soviet-Union#ref174844">Read More</a></li><li><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/36/22536-050-E22B1D13/Flag-Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics.jpg?w=300" alt="Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922–91" data-width="1600" data-height="800" loading="lazy"></div> <span class="index-xref">In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union/The-Interregnum-Andropov-and-Chernenko#ref306281" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Soviet Union: Political restructuring</a></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Congress of People’s Deputies, which replaced the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet as the highest organ of state power, took place in March 1989. About 88 percent of the deputies were communists, but by then the Communist Party was no longer a monolithic party. The congress elected…</p><a class="read-more" href="/place/Soviet-Union/The-Interregnum-Andropov-and-Chernenko#ref306281">Read More</a></li></ul></section></section></div> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320" data-page="1"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script> <!-- Ortto ebmwprod capture code --> <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"INDEX","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":132596,"pageLength":0,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"INDEX","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>