Excerpts From Yeltsin’s Speech to Lawmakers

Here are excerpts from Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s address to Congress on Wednesday:

On U.S.-Russian Ties

For many years our two nations were the two poles, the two opposites. They wanted to make us implacable enemies. That affected the destinies of the world in a most tragic way. . . . That evil scenario is becoming a thing of the past. Reason begins to triumph over madness. We have left behind the period when America and Russia looked at each other through gun sights, ready to pull the trigger at any time.

Despite what we saw in the well-known American film, “The Day After,” it can be said today: Tomorrow will be a day of peace, a day less of fear and more of hope for the happiness of our children.

The world can sigh in relief. The idol of communism, which spread everywhere social strife, animosity and unparalleled brutality, which instilled fear in humanity, has collapsed. I am here to assure you we shall not let it rise again in our land. . . .

Liberty will not be fooled. There can be no coexistence between democracy and the totalitarian state system. There can be no coexistence between market economy and powers who control everything and everyone. . . . The experience of the past decades has taught us communism has no human face. Freedom and communism are incompatible. . . .

I am formally announcing that without waiting for the treaty to be signed, we have begun taking off alert the heavy SS-18 missiles targeted on the United States of America.

On Reforms

For us, the ominous lesson of the past is relevant today as never before. It was precisely in a devastated country, with an economy in near paralysis, that Bolshevism succeeded in building a totalitarian regime, created a gigantic war machine . . . and an insatiable military industrial complex. This must not be allowed to happen again.

That is why economic and political reforms are the primary task for Russia today. . . .

We must carry through unprecedented reforms in the economy that over these seven decades has been stripped of all market infrastructure; lay the foundations for democracy and restore the rule of law in the country that for scores of years was poisoned with social strife and political oppression; guarantee domestic, social, and political stability, as well as maintenance of civil peace. We have no right to fail in this most difficult endeavor for there will be no second try as in sports. . . .

Today I am telling you what I tell my fellow countrymen: I will not go back on the reforms. And it is practically impossible to topple Yeltsin in Russia. I am in good health, and I will not say “uncle” before I make the reforms irreversible.

We realize our great responsibility for the success of our changes, not only toward the people of Russia, but also toward the citizens of America and of the entire world. Today the freedom of America is being upheld in Russia.

On American POWs

The archives of the KGB and the Communist Party Central Committee are being opened. Moreover, we are inviting the cooperation of the United States and other nations to investigate these dark pages.

I can promise you that each and every document in each and every archive will be examined in order to investigate the fate of every American unaccounted for. As president of Russia, I assure you that even if one American has been detained in my country and can still be found, I will find him. I will get him back to his family.

Some of you who have just risen here to applaud me have also written in the press that until Yeltsin gets things done and gets all the job done, there should be no Freedom Support Act passing through the Congress.

Well, I don’t really quite understand you, ladies and gentlemen. This matter has been investigated and is being investigated. Yeltsin has already opened the archives and is inviting you to join us in investigating the fate of each and every unaccounted-for American. So now you are telling me first do the job and then we shall support you in passing that act. I don’t quite understand you.

On Investment

We have made tangible moves to make contacts between Russian and foreign business communities much easier. Under recent legislation, foreign nationals who privatize a facility or a building in Russia are given property rights to the plot of land on which they are located. Legislation on bankruptcy has been recently enacted.

Mandatory sale of foreign currency to the state at an artificially low rate of exchange has been ended. We are ready to bring our legal practice as much as possible in line with world standards, of course on the basis of symmetry with each country.

We are inviting the private sector of the United States to invest in the unique and untapped Russian market--and I am saying: Do not be late.

Now that the period of global confrontation is behind us, I call upon you to take a fresh look at the current policy of the United States toward Russia and also to take a fresh look at the longer-term prospects of our relations. . . .

Let us together, therefore, master the art of reconciling differences on the basis of partnership, which is the most efficient and democratic way. . . . If this is done, many of the problems which are now impeding mutually advantageous cooperation between Russia and the United States will become irrelevant.

On Russian Identity

Joining the world community, we wish to preserve our identity, our own image and history, promote culture and strengthen moral standards of our people. We find relevant the warning of the great Russian philosopher Berdyaev, who said, “To negate Russia in the name of humankind is to rob the humankind.”

At the same time, Russia does not aspire to change the world in its own image. It is the fundamental principle of the new Russia to be generous and to share experience, moral values and emotional warmth, rather than to impose and coerce.

It is the tradition of the Russian people to repay kindness with kindness. This is the bedrock of the Russian lifestyle, the underlying truth revealed by the great Russian culture. Free and democratic Russia will remain committed to this tenet.

Today, free and democratic Russia is extending its hand of friendship to the people of America. Acting on the will of the people of Russia, I am inviting you, and through you the people of the United States, to join us in partnership in the quest for freedom and justice in the 21st Century.