Valery Zorkin

Who is Valery Zorkin?

Valery Dmitrievich Zorkin is the first and the current Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

Zorkin was born on 18 February 1943 in Konstantinovka, Oktyabrsky District in Primorsky Krai. In 1964, he matriculated from the Law Department of the Moscow University, in which he lectured until the late 1980s. He also lectured at the Ministry of USSR Internal Affairs, and became a professor. He became recognized as a leading specialist on the legal doctrines of Boris Chicherin. During the last two years of the Soviet Union's existence, he led a group of legal experts working for the Soviet Constitutional Commission, furthering the case of shaping Russia a presidential republic. He left the CPSU after the August coup.

In October 1991 he became a judge of the Constitutional Court of Russia and on 1 November was elected the court's first chairman with unlimited tenure. During the Russian constitutional crisis of 1992-1993, Zorkin and the Constitutional Court collided with President Yeltsin on a number of issues, incl. his decision to ban the CPSU and the National Salvation Front. On 30 November 1992, the court overruled Yeltsin's decision to disband the local branches of the Communist Party.