The rise of Unity was meteoric given the short time period it had to create an identity, plan its campaign strategy and carry out its ambitious objectives.

On 24 November 1999 he told reporters that in his capacity as premier, he "should not define his political preferences" with respect to election blocs but "as an ordinary citizen" he would vote for Unity.

Unity, backed up by popular support for the Second Chechen War, relied on a campaign of verbal attacks to discredit the Fatherland-All Russia alliance.

In the 19 December 1999 State Duma election, Unity received 23.32 percent of the vote and won 72 of 441 seats, just behind the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

In 2001 the same party has created a formal alliance with three other factions represented in the State Duma: Fatherland-All Russia and People's Deputy and Russia's Regions groups, themselves an alliance composed of single-member district deputies who avoided joining one of the party-based factions in that State Duma Convocation.