ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the birth of politics in the RSFSR Congress of People's Deputies. Although attention is primarily given to the appearance and influence of deputorial blocs, a summary of activity in the Congress of People's Deputies (CPD) and Supreme Soviet covers the development of Russian politics up until the August 1991 coup. After the first sessions of the new USSR Supreme Soviet and CPD and the 1990 elections, the political spotlight turned to the first sessions of new republican legislatures. Preparations for the first session of the RSFSR CPD were controlled by the apparat of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet and ultimately, of course, by the CPSU's Politburo. Shortly before the session opened in May 1990, RSFSR Deputy Sergei Shakrai, a member of the preparatory commission, argued that it was unclear whether the CPD would become a tool of the apparat or a working institution.
