A sovereignty referendum was held in Tatarstan, Russia, on 21 March 1992. Voters were asked whether they approved of Tatarstan being a sovereign state.
On 30 August 1990 the Tatar ASSR, then part of the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union, adopted a Declaration of State Sovereignty, elevating its status to that of a union republic with the intention of joining a renewed Soviet Union as its own independent entity. However, a coup attempt precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaving the Tatar ASSR in a state of limbo. Russia refused to recognize Tatarstan's sovereignty and instead wanted it to join a new Federation Treaty. Faced with a hostile central government, growing unrest, and a rise in nationalism, the regional government ordered a referendum be held to decide on the republic's sovereignty.
Campaigning began in February 1992 with voting taking place on 21 March 1992. Voters were given a choice to either vote for or against Tatarstan's sovereignty, however, the question and wording were ambiguous and the opposing sides of the referendum interpreted the word 'sovereignty' differently; Tatar nationalists believing independence and pro-Russian groups believing autonomy. The Russian government opposed the referendum, claiming it was an attempt to have Tatarstan secede. The Tatarstan government denied the referendum was about independence and instead said it was simply to confirm the republic's sovereignty declaration.
Despite Russian attempts to prevent the vote, it went ahead on schedule and the results showed that 62% of voters approved of Tatarstan's sovereign status while 38% opposed it. The vote was peaceful and afterward Tatarstan adopted a new constitution declaring it a "sovereign democratic state" and a "subject of international law". Tatarstan entered in to negotiations with Russia to consider a bilateral treaty. The treaty, signed on 15 February 1994, granted Tatarstan significant autonomy while it agreed to remain part of Russia but with "special status". When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, he sought to undo Tatarstan's autonomy gains. Throughout the decade the bilateral treaty and all references to sovereignty were abolished, ending Tatarstan's special status.
Background In the final years of the Soviet Union, the heavily centralized system of the country began to unravel due to economic and social reforms by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. On 16 November 1988 the Estonian SSR issued a Declaration of State Sovereignty, which asserted that Estonian laws take priority on its territory over Soviet ones. This began the what became known as the "parade of sovereignties". In the following years the other union republics declared their own state sovereignty, with the Russian SFSR doing so on 12 June 1990. Russia's declaration called for the expanded rights of its autonomous republics and other territories and a month after, Russian leader Boris Yeltsin called on the republics to "take as much sovereignty as you can swallow". On 30 August 1990 the Tatar ASSR heeded the call and issued a Declaration of State Sovereignty, becoming among the first ASSRs to do so. Tatarstan, however, took it a step further by omitting any mention of the republic being part of Russia. By 1991 negotiations were underway to form a new treaty that would reconstitute the country as a loose confederation, with Tatarstan saying it would sign the treaty as its own independent entity outside of Russian jurisdiction. However, an attempted coup in August 1991 ended any hopes of preserving the country and the union republics began to declare their independence, with the Soviet Union dissolving on 26 December 1991.
Tatarstan, among Russia's most industrialized and prosperous regions, had long sought to expand its rights, especially over its economy and resources. 1991 was a tumultuous year for Tatarstan, growing tensions between Tatar nationalists, pro-Russian groups, and the republic's leadership over Tatarstan's status resulted in frequent unrest. Tatarstan also faced pressure from the Russian government, which refused to recognize the republic's sovereignty. Asserting itself as not part of Russia, Tatarstan boycotted the June 1991 presidential election and instead held its own parallel presidential election in which its de facto leader Mintimer Shaimiev was the only candidate. Shaimiev, a former Communist Party stalwart and supporter of the attempted coup, used Tatarstan's status limbo to obtain concessions from the Russian government on expanding the republic's powers but Russian officials opposed it, prompting increased tension between the two. Tensions reached a boiling point when Yeltsin began pressuring Shaimiev to endorse the upcoming Federation Treaty slated for 25 March 1992. When he refused Yeltsin attempted to have Shaimiev removed in late 1991. At home Shaimiev was facing increasingly radical Tatar nationalists who were demanding independence. On 29 October 1991 thousands of nationalists attempted to storm the Tatarstan Supreme Soviet after lawmakers refused to declare independence, injuring several people. In February 1992 radical nationalists adopted several resolutions calling for an independence struggle, including up to a "war of liberation". Meanwhile, farther away, Yeltsin's attempt to act tough on secession by sending the military to Chechnya, which had declared independence in November 1991, met with resistance and failed. Feeling emboldened by Yeltsin's apparent weakness and needing to quell nationalist sentiment, Shaimiev announced that a referendum was to be held on 21 March 1992, four days before the treaty.
Conduct
Campaigning on the referendum began immediately after announcement on 21 February. Tatarstan's government and nationalists rallied for a 'yes' vote while pro-Russian groups called on people to vote against it. The Tatarstan government campaigned exclusively on the economic benefits of sovereignty, avoiding any ethnic dimensions. Critics of the referendum charged that Shaimiev only conducted it to preserve his power and that of the former communist elite and was using the nationalist movement as a new base of popular support. However, no organized attempt to boycott the referendum occurred. According to Fandas Safiullin, a former deputy of Tatarstan's parliament, Tatarstan was littered with flyers coming in from other parts of Russia urging a 'no' vote.
Yeltsin and the Russian government, fearful for the country's future after Chechnya's unilateral independence, refused to acknowledge the referendum and the Russian government initially tried to get it pulled by appealing to the Constitutional Court on its legitimacy. The court promptly declared the vote illegal but Tatarstan ignored the ruling and went ahead. Officials from the Russian Prosecutor General's offices were sent to every district to disrupt preparations for the referendum. Despite his opposition, Yeltsin himself did not forcefully try to stop the referendum; in an address he warned voters to vote against it or "blood may be spilled". Nevertheless, the government deployed the Russian Armed Forces to neighbouring regions to conduct military exercises. Reports emerged that the Commonwealth of Independent States sent its own troops to Mari El to intimidate the Tatarstan government, however, the local military command claimed that the troops were defectors from Ukraine who were redeployed.
The referendum question was criticized for being vague and voters on the day of the referendum admitted it was "confusing". The word 'sovereignty' was interpreted differently by the two opposing sides; nationalists believing it to be independence while unionists took it to mean nothing more than autonomy. The Tatarstan government denied the referendum was for independence, instead saying it was to confirm and strengthen the republic's sovereignty declaration of 30 August 1990. This contrasted with Tatar nationalists leaders who contested that "self-rule meant independence". Russian officials insisted the wording of the referendum implied secession and Yeltsin warned that the referendum risked ethnic violence. A day before the referendum, Shaimiev in a speech said "I, as the President of sovereign Tatarstan, declare that we are forever with the Russian people, with Russia. We do not violate the integrity of Russia in any way." In a May 1992 interview after the referendum Shaimiev explained that the wording was deliberately meant to be unclear and that a direct question might have led to undesired outcomes. He claimed that it was suggested to make the question explicitly about secession but he opposed it.
Question The question put to voters was:
Results Despite Russian attempts to halt the vote, the referendum went ahead on schedule with votes tallied the next day. The referendum ended peacefully with 62% of voters endorsing Tatarstan's sovereignty while 38% opposed it. Support for sovereignty was most prevalent in rural areas at 75.3%, while support in urban centers, where a higher percentage of ethnic Russians lived, was 58.7% in favour. The rural Aktanyshsky District, which had the largest percentage of ethnic Tatars in 1989, recorded the strongest support for sovereignty, at 99.59%. Conversely, the opposition to sovereignty performed the best in the city of Bugulma, at 66.04%.
Observers of the vote declared that the referendum was largely free and fair, with few instances of fraud. John J. Nimrod, the United Nations observer, praised the referendum for its participation and stated that "these free and open elections gave the people an opportunity to express their free will". However, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR) claimed that some of its observers were harassed, detained, and prevented from monitoring some polling stations in rural areas by police allegedly searching for drugs.
Results in Kazan Results in the capital Kazan showed only 46.79% of the electorate voted in favour of sovereignty. Six out of seven capital's districts voted against the sovereignty, albeit by narrow margins.
District Yes No Baumansky 47.49% 50.08% Vahitovsky 44.44% 53.09% Kirovsky 43.72% 54.27% Leninsky 44.31% 53.77% Moskovsky 48.44% 49.83% Privolzhsky 53.48% 44.59% Sovetsky 44.56% 53.28%
Aftermath After the results were announced sovereignty supporters celebrated outside the Supreme Soviet building while small groups of pro-Russian supporters marched through Kazan waving the Russian flag. Some pro-Russian groups refused to recognize the legal force of the referendum and the Kazan branch of the DPR proposed declaring the city under "Moscow subordination". The Russian government subsequently postponed the signing of the Federation Treaty to 31 March, claiming "organizational problems". Tatarstan Prime Minister Mukhammat Sabirov warned Russia that force must not be used to maintain unity of the country and called for negotiations on a new relationship. Shaimiev expressed satisfaction with the results and stated his wish to see a bilateral treaty signed by April of that year.