ABSTRACT
Two personal battles representing the differing directions open to the Russian state were fought between 1990 and 1994. The first, which took place from 1990 to 1991, was fought between Mikhail Gorbachev, representing a weak and divided centre, and Boris Yeltsin, representing a reforming alliance which included important support from the peripheral union republics. After the collapse of the Soviet Union's central institutions, a second battle took place between 1992 and 1994 between Yeltsin, representing a new, quasi-reformist centre, and Ruslan Khasbulatov, representing an alliance of defeated centrists with some peripheral support. In Chechnya, the initial battle between extremist nationalists from the Chechen congress and Doku Zavgayev's leadership was quickly overtaken by a four-year struggle between Khasbulatov and Dudayev.
