The Democratic Choice of Russia (DVR; russian: Демократический выбор России; ДВР; ''Demokraticheskiy vybor Rossii'', ''DVR''), before 1994 Choice of Russia Bloc (VR; russian: Блок «Выбор России»; ВР; ''Blok «Vybor Rossii»'', ''VR'') was a Russian centre-right conservative-liberal political party. Later the party was self-disbanded and most members would merge into the

Union of Right Forces )"Liberty, Property, Legality"(russian: "Свобода, Собственность, Законность") , headquarters = Moscow , newspaper = Just Cause , membership_year = 2007 , membership = 57,410 , ideology ...

Background and establishment

At the elections to the

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

held on December 12, 1993, the Choice of Russia bloc (the predecessor to the Democratic Choice of Russia) received 15.51% of the vote, and consequently, 40 seats in the State Duma. On January 20, 1994, having lost influence over making economic decisions and opposed to the increase of budget expenditure, the leader of the Choice of Russia,

Yegor Gaidar Yegor Timurovich Gaidar (russian: link=no, Его́р Тиму́рович Гайда́р; ; 19 March 1956 – 16 December 2009) was a Soviet and Russian economist, politician, and author, and was the Acting Prime Minister of Russia from 15 Ju ...

, resigned from the government headed by

Viktor Chernomyrdin Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin (russian: Ви́ктор Степа́нович Черномы́рдин, ; 9 April 19383 November 2010) was a Soviet and Russian politician and businessman. He was the Minister of Gas Industry of the Soviet Unio ...

. At that point the Choice of Russia lost its status as a pro-government faction, yet at the same time it continued to support president

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

and Chernomyrdin's government by providing constructive criticism of their policies. On 12–13 June 1994, the founding meeting of the party Democratic Choice of Russia was held. At the meeting, the party's programme was adopted and its governing bodies were set up. Yegor Gaidar was elected as party chairman. In 1995, the party contested the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

in a coalition of (minor) like-minded groups, forming the

Democratic Choice of Russia – United Democrats Democratic Choice of Russia – United Democrats (Russian: Демократический выбор России — Объединенные демократы) was a bloc that contested the 1995 Russian legislative election, winning 3.86% of ba ...

. Later, in 2001, it merged into the

Union of Rightist Forces The Union of Right Forces (SPS; russian: Союз правых сил; СПС; ''Soyuz pravykh sil'', ''SPS''), is a Russian liberal-conservative political public organization and former party, initially founded as an electoral bloc in 1999 and ass ...

Values

The party had valued ideas of both

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

and

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

. This included human rights, self-determination, a market economy, private capital investment, fair competition and the restriction of government regulations in the economy.

Background and establishment

Values

Election results

Presidential election

State Duma elections

References

See also