By lifting the constitutional ban on political parties in March 1990, the USSR's Congress of People's Deputies opened the way for the next step in the logical sequence of political organizing. It seemed that those amorphous, fluid and ad hoc forms that had hitherto populated Russian political society – informal groups and voters' associations, loose electoral and legislative coalitions – would now give way to the genuine article: political parties. However, the rather motley collection of groups that came forth to claim this title scarcely measured up to the expectations that their leaders, as well as many observers, had entertained for them. While a few managed to attract more than 10,000 members, most numbered their followers in the hundreds. Measuring even their collective roster against that of the multi-million CPSU made them appear all the more insignificant. Their programmes were topheavy with platitudes, neither specifying concrete measures to be implemented nor doing much to distinguish one party from another. It seemed anyone's guess just whom and what they represented.

Much of this confusion resulted from timing. Since the authorities had not removed the prohibition on parties until after the 1990 elections, all the new parties were latecomers, arriving on the scene only after the ball had ended. With neither identifiable constituencies to represent nor upcoming elections to prepare for, the development of Russia's political parties was ingrown. In each instance, it amounted to a collection of leaders and activists consciously pursuing the project of being a political party in the absence of clear connection to events in the world. Congresses were called, platforms debated, charters adopted and officers elected – all to the effect that there were now these ‘parties’.