Elections for a new Russian parliament took an unexpected turn Dec. 12, when almost a quarter of the voters cast ballots for the Liberal Democratic Party headed by Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky.
While the Liberal Democrats will not hold a majority, they did appear to have 68 seats, more seats than the major reform party, Russia's Choice.
The vote shocked Russia's political establishment, which had treated Zhirinovsky as nothing more than a fascist and right-wing extremist.
Zhirinovsky and the Liberal Democrats ran a campaign based on law and order and the restoration of Russia's imperial legacy.
Zhirinovsky said Russia's Jews were responsible for the repression they had suffered. He said he wanted to take Alaska back from the United States. And, he said one of the first things he would do when he was elected president would be to expand Russia's borders to that of the old Czarist empire. That area would include Finland and all the former Soviet Union.
He also called for the partition of Poland between Germany and Russia.
Two days after the election, Zhirinovsky, 47, said he wanted to play a responsible role in the new government. But as the year ended, he was booted out of Bulgaria for insulting the government and barred from Germany.
Political observers said Zhirinovsky's clear, unambiguous campaign promises, even though demagogic, appealed to Russian voters much more than the reformists. The reformist parties split among themselves, and their campaign rhetoric was said to be so vague no one knew what they supported.
President Clinton said he was not surprised by the vote because it reflected the hardship and suffering that the Russian people have endured.
As the year came to a close, it appeared that reform parties would have the most seats in the parliament. However, the success of Zhirinovsky, observers believed, would likely force Boris Yeltsin and the reformers to go slower on the economic reforms they plan to put in place.
