1992 Soviet General Elections

The Soviet Elections of 1992 were the first elections to the Chamber of Deputies under the Gorbachev Constitution of 1991. The elections resulted in a landslide victory for Gorbachev's Bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, with Gorbachev easily winning more than half of the 480 seats available. Of the seats that Vladimir Kryuchkov's conservative bloc won, many were marginal though the election proved that the Old Guard were still holding on to the traditionally industrious regions, as well as areas where the Kholkozes were prevalent. Other minor figures in the election were Boris Yeltsin's Bloc, which ran on a platform of transforming the Soviet Union into an even more liberalised state, and regional leaders such as Heydar Aliyev and Leonid Kravchuk. The 1992 elections are widely seen as the point of no return for the Soviet Union, turning it into a democratic state after decades of authoritarian rule.

Lead up to the Elections
After winning the power struggles of 1986-1987, Mikhail Gorbachev forced many liberalising reforms through the Soviet government, aligning the rest of the Soviet Bloc at the same time. By 1991 he and his supporters felt confident enough to push a new constitution through. While in the process of drafting, it was popularly dubbed the "Gorbachev Constitution" and was supposed to pass in November 1990, but due to the radical nature of the reforms failed to pass the first time. After much closed door negotiation, Vladimir Kryuchkov agreed to the constitution, allowing for the first free and fair elections to occur in 1991.

Results
480 seats in the re-organised Chamber of Deputies were up for election, of which the Gorbachev Bloc won 280. The Kryuchkov Bloc won 114, with 53 unpledged deputies winning seats as well. Leonid Kravchuk's Ukrainian Bloc won 15 seats, and Yeltsin's Liberal Bloc won 13 seats. Heydar Aliyev's Bloc swept his native Azerbaijan, winning almost every deputy available.