How Collapse of USSR Really Happened - Part Five, Novo-Ogoryevo Prosses and First Presidential Elections in RSFSR

After the referendum Gorbachev invited all republican leaders to sign a new union treaty, but things quickly went wrong. Yeltsin claimed that Gorbachev proposal does not satisfy the requirement, set in referendum question: it does not guarantee rights and freedoms of a person of every nationality sufficiently enough. Gorbachev argued back that it does. Most of other republican leaders such as Kravchuk and Shushkevich were with Yeltsin on this one, eventually Gorbachev became isolated. What was meant to be his hour of triumph ended up a trap he did not know how to get out of.

There was also an issue that some republics did not want to participate in the union at all, but at that stage what mattered most is to get at least some of them to agree.

Negotiations continued whole spring and half of the summer. The lengthy and grueling process was dubbed Novo-Ogoryovo process. 

Yeltsin did propose an alternative federal treaty. In revised proposal the country would be called Union of Sovereign States, but most importantly its parliament will work in a manner similar to European Counsil, called Presidential Counsil. Representatives of the union republics would meet in capital and vote in on every proposed federal law. 

Gorbachev could more of less imagine how it will work in practice. Just like republican leaders now agreeing with Yeltsin on this issue, they will likely keep agreeing with him in this new Presidential Counsil. However, then decisions of majority of this Counsil would be legally binding throughout the USSR as a federal law. It would mean he will de-facto lose all the power and become a figurehead.

However, what choice did he had? Gorbachev pre-sign the USS treaty but said that final ceremony of signing the treaty into force will take place one month later, on 20th of August. Having said that he went on vacation. In reality he possibly wanted to give himself some opportunity to think things through and think of something.

While the Novo-Ogoryovo prosses was underway, Yeltsin successfully run for President of RSFSR against the same Ryzhkov he beat for position of speaker a year ago. 

Gorbachev did not participate as, President of RSFSR was technically below that of President of USSR, it like resigning as President of the US to run for Governor of California or Texas instead. However, reality on the ground progressively made Yeltsin's office a more important of two. 

The fact that Yeltsin held first actual elections where people actually got to vote for president further solidified legitimacy of the office he created. Convoluted Soviet bureaucracy made it hard for an average person or even average bureaucrat to figure out who is in charge and why. Direct presidential elections Yeltsin organized, were a good method of achieving just that.

Needless to say, Yeltsin beat Ryzhkov by wide margin, despite Gorbachev endorsing the latter against Yeltsin.

Back in the days there was also an office of Vice President, Rudskoy was on the same ticket with Yeltsin. They will later fall of in 1993 and Rudskoy would try to have Yeltsin impeached and himself declared President.