ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the analysis of the 1990 campaign that is based on two premises. First, many participants viewed the 1990 contest as a continuation of a struggle that started in 1989. Second, any analysis of the elections must take into account the political structure that was being contested. The chapter suggests that both time-sequential and institutional aspects of the 1990 elections played key roles in the outcome. In addition to electors' clubs, other 'informal' political organizations, the so-called neformalye, played a role by sharing electoral experience. Electoral blocs were established in the RSFSR to endorse and work for candidates at all electoral levels. Declaring that "the Fatherland is in danger!," the patriotic bloc's platform criticized the CPSU, "the guarantor of political and social stability," for assuming a "defensive-capitulationist position." The CPSU, after the crushing defeat it suffered in 1989, prepared carefully for the 1990 elections.
