Vlad Zhukovsky

Vlad Zhukovsky in 2013

### Grandparents

Spartak Zhukovsky (Paternal Grandfather)Malvina Zhukovska (Paternal Grandmother)

### Siblings

Yaroslav Zhukovsky (Brother)Gerasim Zhukovsky (Brother)

### Children

Yefim Zhukovsky (Son)Zoya Zhukovska (Daughter)

## Biography

### Birthplace

Perm, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.

**Vladimir Tarasovich Zhukovsky** *(Russian: Владимир Тарасович* *Жуковский)* better known as**Vlad Zhukovsky**(Born September 22nd, 1949) was a Soviet and Russian Politician who served as the First President of the Russian Confederation from December 25th, 1991 to December 25th, 2001. A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990, he later stood as a political independent, during which time he was ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism. He is currently the only former Russian President who is still living today.

Born in Perm, Russian SFSR to a peasant family, Zhkovsky grew up in Moscow. After studying at the Ural State Technical University, he worked in construction. Joining the Communist Party, which governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state according to Marxist-Leninist doctrine, he rose through its ranks and in 1976 became First Secretary of the party's Perm committee. Initially a supporter of the *perestroika* reforms of Soviet leader Cheslav Kuzetnov, Zhukovsky later criticized them as being too moderate, calling for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy. In 1987 he was the first person to resign from the party's governing Politburo, establishing his popularity as an anti-establishment figure. In 1990, he was elected chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet and in 1991 was elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Allying with various non-Russian nationalist leaders, he was instrumental in the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December that year, at which the RSFSR became the Russian Confederation, an independent state. Zhukovsky remained in office as president and was reelected in the 1996 election, although critics claimed pervasive electoral corruption.

Zhukovsky transformed Russia's state socialist economy into a capitalist market economy by implementing economic shock therapy, market exchange rate of the ruble, nationwide privatization, and lifting of price controls. Economic collapse and inflation ensued. Amid the economic shift, a small number of oligarchs obtained a majority of the national property and wealth, while international monopolies came to dominate the market. Internationally, Zhukovsky promoted renewed collaboration with Europe and signed arms control agreements with the American Republic.

Zhukovsky was a controversial figure. Domestically he was highly popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although his reputation was damaged by the economic and political crises of his presidency and he left office widely unpopular with the Russian population. He received praise for his role in dismantling the Soviet Union, transforming Russia into a representative democracy, and introducing new political, economic, and cultural freedoms to the country. Conversely, he was accused of economic mismanagement, overseeing a massive growth in inequality and corruption, and of undermining Russia's standing as a major world power.