On 2 August 2 1990, in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, Zinnur Agliullin declared the first political hunger strike in modern Tatar history. He demanded to grant the Tatar ASSR the status of a union republic. This action was started as a “demand” during the visit to Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny of the Russian leader Boris Yeltsin.
Zinnur Agliullin started the political hunger strike and was joined by Nur Gimazov and Samat Afande. The hunger strike was launched near the Naberezhnye Chelny City Executive Committee with many posters and banners. Many thousands of people came to watch and listen to the “democratic” leader of Russia, Yeltsin, who witnessed the political hunger strike for giving the Republic of Tatarstan the status of a Union Republic. The selfless activists of the political hunger strike of 1990 and their comrades carried out large-scale explanatory work with the population, so the political hunger strike awakened the political and national consciousness of the people of Tatarstan (especially the Tatar population).
The general hunger strike lasted 15-20 days, Zinnur Afande’s hunger strike for 12 days, and he was forced to end the hunger strike on the recommendation of doctors. A remarkable moment of the unshakable spirit of the Tatars was an incident during this Political Hunger Strike. Having learned that an action had been launched in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny to demand that the Tatar ASSR be granted the status of a Union Republic, Boris Yeltsin said to bring Zinnur Agliullin to him, but Zinnur Afande’s response to this proposal was categorical: “I am holding a hunger strike, not him. Therefore, Boris Yeltsin should come to me, not I to him! A Tatar will not kneel before a Russian tsar!” We consider this incident to be one of the strongest and most striking manifestations of the spirit of the national democratic trend of that time.
On 30 August 1990, thousands of Tatars came out to rally, demanding the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Tatarstan. As a result, by the will of the people and lobbying of this issue by representatives of the Tatar people, such as Fauzia Bayramova, Fandas Safiullin, Raif Galiev, Marat Mulyukov, Zhemil Safiullin and others, the Supreme Council of the Tatar ASSR proclaimed the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Tatarstan. This happened on 30 August 1990. Zinnur Agliullin himself has repeatedly come under repression for his active political position, and currently, another trial is underway against him.
An interview with Zinnur Agliullin was conducted by the Vice President of the Anti-Imperialist Bloc of Peoples, Deputy Prime Minister of the PNT in exile, Aida Abdrakhmanova.
