Zhirinovsky, Vladimir Volfovich definition of Zhirinovsky, Vladimir Volfovich in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Zhirinovsky, Vladimir Volfovich (vlədyē`mĭr vôl`fəvyĭch' zhĭr'ĭnôf`skē), 1946–, Russian politician, b. Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan). Born into a poor family, he had a mediocre record as a student in Moscow and as a lawyer. In 1989 he was a founder of the Liberal Democratic party, an extreme right-wing Russian nationalist group that has advocated restoring Russia to its previous imperial borders (including Finland and Alaska), and the following year he became its chairman. In 1991 he and his party finished a distant third behind Boris Yeltsin Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich (bərēs` nyĭkəlī`əvĭch yĕlt`sĭn)
..... Click the link for more information. in the Russian Republic's presidential election.

Zhirinovsky later defended the failed 1991 August Coup August Coup, attempted coup (Aug. 18–22, 1991) against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev . On the eve of the signing ceremony for a new union treaty for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, members of the Politburo and the heads of the Soviet military and
..... Click the link for more information. against Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich (mēkhəyēl` sĭrgā`yəvich gərbəchof`)
..... Click the link for more information. and was an outspoken critic of Yeltsin, although he did not join the parliament's bid to oust the Russian leader in 1993. That year, his party won the largest share (about 23%) of the popular vote in the elections, and Zhirinovsky was elected to the new Russian State Duma. In 1995 his party was the runner-up to the Communists in the elections for the Duma. Denounced as a fascist and xenophobic extremist by his opponents, he was nonetheless been popular with many Russians. In 1996 Zhirinovsky again ran for president but received only a small percentage of the vote. In the late 1990s his popularity waned: His party won 6% of the vote in the 1999 parliamentary elections, and he placed fifth in the 2000 presidential election.