The chapters in this part of the book trace the course of Russian politics over the period bounded at one end by the convening of perestroika's centrepiece, the Congress of People's Deputies, and at the other, the dissolution of this same assembly in the wake of the failed coup of August 1991. During this brief epoch, the scope of political life was massively enlarged and its character fundamentally transformed. What had begun as a conflict inside the Soviet tent over the pace and character of reform quickly gave way to the formation of an opposition standing outside of it, offering an alternative group of political leaders and an alternative vision for the country's future. Chapter 7, which focuses on this question, locates the genesis of this (initially reluctant) opposition in the context of a regime (‘above’) that systematically blocked its reformist initiatives and an emergent mass movement (‘below’) that radicalized the would-be reformers and summoned them to supply the leadership that the movement required.

The dynamic interaction between leaders and movement entered a new stage during the Russian elections of 1990, the topic of Chapter 8. During the electoral contest, the country's democratic movement situated itself – tentatively, uneasily – within a political–territorial and cultural space: Russia. Its opposition to the communist system took on the character of a national liberation struggle directed against the Soviet order and aimed at the establishment of a sovereign Russian state.