[3] Contrary to the common practice of the period in the Soviet Union (as well as today's Russian Federation) to keep disabled persons in involuntary commitment at specialised boarding homes (Психоневрологический интернат, ПНИ),[4] Zaslavskiy was able to study, acquiring the academic degree equivalent to a PhD (Candidate of Sciences) in 1985.

Capitalist endeavours, however, were subject to harsh punishment in the communist Soviet Union (going as far as death penalty for foreign currency trading),[10] meaning, even this state-authorised experimental attempt met pressure and strong resistance from university leadership.

[11] After reading in a newspaper about Mikhail Gorbachev's constitutional revision of December 1, 1988[12] making democratic elections possible for the first time, Zaslavskiy decided to pursue a political career.

He gathered prominent support, for instance by cosmonaut Georgy Grechko and human rights defender Andrei Sakharov, and at the election on March 26, 1989, Zaslavskiy took victory over the candidate of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, TV host and anti-Semite Alexander Krutov.

[16]His election to People's Deputies Congress had been received with great interest in America: The founder and chairman of the US National Organization on Disability, Alan A. Reich, had congratulated Ilya Zaslavskiy via phone call in April 1989; shortly after, Senator Bob Dole – himself a war-disabled veteran of WWII – invited the young people's deputy to Washington, D.C.[17] On September 7, 1989, Zaslavskiy, Reich, Dole, and Edward Kennedy, who had sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States Senate,[18] met to discuss disability rights at the Capitol.

[17] When back in Moscow, Ilya Zaslavskiy positioned himself as an opponent to the one-party rule of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

He had the communist party bureaus move to undesirable premises within the district's administration building, and demanded more power over decision-making from the central government, for example, personnel decisions at the local police force.

Within twelve months, 4,500 businesses had been founded in or moved to his district, which constituted approximately half of all private enterprises operating in Moscow at the time; tax revenue tripled to ₽250 million per year.

[22] Due to mounting opposition by the general public to his capitalist reforms,[20] as well as ambiguities regarding governance structures, Zaslavskiy stepped down from his position as a district leader but kept some influence as commissioner of the mayor.

Ilya Zaslavskiy, who was known for his informal conduct at the time (see also section Trivia), commented on the entrenched situation as follows: "It's not correct to say Congress was put on its knees.

Zaslavskiy, who in this season was a member of the Supreme Council, continued his parliamentary work past that date, until the Congress was finally dissolved on December 26, 1991.

After the dismissal of the entire cabinet of ministers by Yeltsin in March 1998,[29] Zaslavskiy was appointed deputy minister for the Russian Ministry of Land Policy, Construction, Housing and Utilities (Минземстроя РФ) under Ilya Yushanov, and after that, deputy chairman of the Federal Agency for Construction and Housing and Utilities (Госстрой РФ) under Anvar Shamuzarov.

[11] In his Russian homeland, as well as internationally, Zaslavskiy garnered attention with his analyses and confident positioning, mainly opposing nationalist and totalitarian political ideologies.

In his speech, Zaslavskiy held the communist regime responsible for the "schizophren[ic]" state of the Soviet civil society, which had been a result of the October Revolution.

The "machine of [the] communist regime" had broken up stable social structures and stifled the society's ability to evolve; consequently only enabling the Nomenklatura to stay in power and act as political Avantgarde.

In Zaslavskiy's view, this "homogenous, destructur[ed]" state of the society was not normal and created a demand for top-down leadership, fostering fascist tendencies.

His public demands, including a basic pension, inclusion into the education system and public transport system, as well as physical rehabilitation,[15] laid the foundation for the developments of the next two decades in his home country: The draft developed under his guidance in the Committee for Veterans and Disabled of the Supreme Soviet was adopted in 1990 as the law On the Basic Principles of Social Protection of Disabled Persons in the USSR by the Congress.

[40] Although the Dissolution of the Soviet Union delayed the implementation, progress did not stop, and the law moved back to attention named On Social Protection of Disabled Persons in the Russian Federation in 1995, adopted by the State Duma, again with Zaslavskiy's vote.

Furthermore, Ilya Zaslavskiy supports the Leo Baeck Foundation and the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund in setting up a Jewish think tank in his country of adoption, Germany.

[11] Ilya Zaslavskiy was known in his constituency for his deliberately informal clothing style: Always without tie, never in a suit, but frequently sporting his signature chequered pullover.