The direct and active participants in these events were the deputies from Kalmykia, Kirsan Nikolaevich Ilyumzhinov and Maxim Bembbeevich Mukubenov, as well as four more deputies elected in that national-territorial district: Batyr Chimidovich Mikhailov, Vladimir Stepanovich Babichev, Sanal Alekseevich Badmaev and Vladimir Pavlovich Dordzhiev.

The support and adoption of such decisions by the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR at that time was an act of high civic responsibility and courage. For the first time, the Declaration recognized the equality of all political parties and public organizations. Moreover, the principle of separation of powers was proclaimed, as well as the need to expand the rights of autonomous republics, regions, districts and territories of Russia.
I then had the opportunity to work as a parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper Sovetskaya Kalmykia, and reports about the work of the Congress and interviews with our deputies were published on the front page of the main republican newspaper on a daily basis. Although the original term of my business trip to Moscow was no more than 3-4 days, but thanks to the support of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic B. Mikhailov, who directly called the editor-in-chief, I became an eyewitness and participant in those epochal events. And the atmosphere of those days, sharp discussions and debates and a common victory in the end, all this is for me a living history of our country.
I clearly remember the smiling and happy faces of our deputies. They were then able to overcome the many years of one-party backwardness and understood that only democratic changes could lead the country and the Russian regions to a new level of development.
I always remember the strong handshake of Boris Nikolayevich, who a year later declared this day a holiday - the Day of Russia.

Erdni Shamakov