It is generally considered that the group was created in March 1996 when the political consultant Sergey Kurginyan invited a group of thirteen Russian oligarchs to sign the so-called "Letter of Thirteen" (alternatively named "Come Out of the Dead End!") in an attempt to cancel the Presidential election of 1996. The manifest was published in "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" and suggested that two major candidates — Boris Yeltsin and the Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov — should strike a "political compromise" in order to prevent "the economical collapse." It contained eight tips that described the position of business elites. The letter was called "a provocation" by the Communists and thus ignored.