It was formed to represent the interests of Russian immigrants by former refuseniks Natan Sharansky and Yuli-Yoel Edelstein.

The party was formed in 1996 by Sharansky, whose personal image as a dedicated and long-suffering idealist was intended to be the catalyst for an immigrant revolution in Israeli politics.

In the elections, the party was reduced to six seats, but was now the fifth-largest in the Knesset, having campaigned on the popular motto "Ministry of Internal Affairs in our control" (МВД под наш контроль).

[5] On 20 July 1999, shortly after the elections, left-wingers Roman Bronfman and Alexander Tzinker left the party and formed the Democratic Choice faction.

[3] Yisrael BaAliyah left the government on 11 July 2000, in response to suggestions that Barak's negiotations with the Palestinians would result in a division of Jerusalem.