1950–2025
○ Stroke
Leader of the Soyuz faction who nearly turned a parliamentary session into a constitutional coup
On 17 June 1991, as the concluding speaker of the session, Alksnis told the Supreme Soviet that the Union Treaty was unconstitutional and that deputies must back Pavlov's Cabinet because it 'works for the USSR, for the preservation of this state.'
A Soviet Air Force colonel of Latvian descent who became the most visible hardliner in the USSR Congress of People's Deputies. As co-chairman of the Soyuz faction, he demanded martial law, called for Gorbachev's ouster, and on 17 June 1991 urged an immediate vote on Pavlov's emergency-powers resolution, drawing the accusation that he was staging a constitutional coup. After the Soviet collapse he served two terms in the Russian Duma, was beaten by riot police defending the anti-Yeltsin parliament in 1993, and spent his last decades as an unreconstructed Soviet patriot.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1973–1992Soviet Air Force service (senior engineer-inspector, Baltic MD Air Force HQ)
- 1989–1991People's Deputy of the USSR (Riga district No. 294)
- 1990–1991Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR
- 1990–1991Co-chairman of the Soyuz faction
- 2000–2007Deputy, Russian State Duma (3rd and 4th convocations)
- 2013–2015Head of Tuchkovo urban settlement, Moscow Oblast
Related historical events
- 1987–1991The Baltic Independence Movement and the Baltic WaySoviet deputy opposing Latvian independenceIn 1988, he publicly opposed the Latvian Popular Front's aim of taking Latvia out of the USSR.
- 1991The Novo-Ogaryovo Process and the New Union TreatySoyuz faction leader forcing emergency voteOn 17 June 1991, he called for an immediate vote in the Supreme Soviet on Pavlov’s emergency powers resolution, nearly turning it into a constitutional coup.
- 1991The August Coup and the Collapse of the USSRDeputy who supported the State Emergency CommitteeIn August 1991, he supported the State Committee on the State of Emergency.
Politics for preserving the Union amid its dissolution
Alksnis began political activity in 1988 by publicly opposing the Latvian Popular Front's aim of taking Latvia out of the USSR. Elected a USSR people's deputy in 1989, he advocated preserving the Union and protecting the rights of Russian-speaking residents in 1990. He initiated a Soviet law setting procedures for a republic's secession and addressing the rights of non-indigenous residents, Union property, and defense. Critics called it a law designed to prevent secession in practice. He criticized Gorbachev's course and called for emergency measures to preserve the USSR; in August 1991 he supported the State Committee on the State of Emergency. After the coup failed, he continued to oppose the dissolution of the USSR Congress of People's Deputies and joined an effort to reconvene an emergency Union congress, which failed for lack of a quorum. His politics defended the Union state and the authority of its center, while also embracing coercive solutions to republics' secession demands and political conflict.