The movement “For The Smolensk People's Front” during the Perestroika period (1985-1991) in the Smolensk Region

This article describes one of the first informal organizations in the Soviet Union known as “For the Smolensk People's Front”. The organization was founded during the Perestroika period in the territory of Smolensk Oblast. This movement played an important role during the pre-election campaign in local councils of people's deputies of the RSFSR in 1989. Under the initiative of “The Smolensk People's Front” they organized the “Democratic Russia” movement in order to unite all Democrats of Smolensk Oblast into one political bloc, because there was a need to create a real alternative and opposition to the Communist Party. Ultimately this and other groups were not formed enough and numerous and could not claim the leadership role of the governance in the country, but they marked the beginning of multiparty system's forming in Russia during the Perestroika period.