 Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (February 1, 1931 -
April 23, 2007) was, from 1991 to 1999, the first president of the Russian
Federation.
Early Life
Boris Yeltsin was born in the village of Butka, in Talitsky District of
Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. His father, Nikolay Yeltsin, was convicted of
anti-Soviet agitation in 1934 and sentenced to hard labor in a gulag for three
years. After his release he remained unemployed for some time and then worked in
construction. His mother, Klavdiya Vasilyevna Yeltsina, worked as a seamstress.
Boris Yeltsin studied at Pushkin High School in Berezniki in Perm Krai. He was
fond of sports (in particular skiing, gymnastics, volleyball, track and field,
boxing and wrestling) despite losing two fingers when he and some friends
sneaked into a Red Army supply depot, stole several grenades, and tried to
dissect them.
Yeltsin received his higher education at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in
Sverdlovsk, majoring in construction, and graduated in 1955. The subject of his
degree paper was "Television Tower".
From 1955 to 1957 he worked as a foreman with the building trust
Uraltyazhtrubstroi. From 1957 to 1963 he worked in Sverdlovsk, and was promoted
from construction site superintendent to chief of the Construction Directorate
with the Yuzhgorstroi Trust. In 1963 he became chief engineer, and in 1965 head
of the Sverdlovsk House-Building Combine. He joined the ranks of the CPSU
nomenklatura in 1968 when he was appointed head of construction with the
Sverdlovsk Regional Party Committee. In 1975 he became secretary of the regional
committee in charge of the region's industrial development. In 1976 the
Politburo of the CPSU promoted him to the post of the first secretary of the
CPSU Committee of Sverdlovsk Oblast (effectively he became the head of one of
the most important industrial regions in the USSR), he remained in this position
till 1985.
In June 1991 Yeltsin came to power on a wave of high expectations. On June 12
Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president in Russian
history. But Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic
and political crises in Russia in the 1990s. The Yeltsin era was a traumatic
period in Russian history-a period marked by widespread corruption, economic
collapse, and enormous political and social problems. By the time he left
office, Yeltsin was a deeply unpopular figure in Russia, with an approval rating
as low as two percent by some estimates.
Following the dissolution of Soviet Union in December 1991, Yeltsin-vowing to
transform Russia's socialist planned economy into a capitalist market economy
-endorsed a program of "shock therapy," cutting Soviet-era price controls and
introducing drastic cuts in state spending. The reforms immediately devastated
the living standards of much of the population, especially the groups dependent
on Soviet-era state subsidies and welfare entitlement programs. Through the
1990s, Russia's GDP fell 50 percent, vast sectors of the economy were wiped out,
income inequality and unemployment grew dramatically, hyperinflation wiped out
many families' savings, and tens of millions of Russians were plunged into
poverty.
In August 1991, Yeltsin won international plaudits for casting himself as a
democrat and defying the August coup attempt of 1991 by hard-line Communists.
But he left office widely despised as a desperate, ailing autocrat among the
Russian population. As president, Yeltsin's conception of the presidency was
highly autocratic. Yeltsin either acted as his own prime minister (until June
1992) or appointed men of his choice, regardless of parliament. His
confrontations with parliament climaxed in the October 1993 Russian
constitutional crisis, when Yeltsin called up tanks to shell the Russian White
House, blasting out his opponents in parliament. Later in 1993, Yeltsin imposed
a new constitution with strong presidential powers, which was approved by
referendum in December.
After the 1998 Russian financial crisis, Yeltsin was at the end of his political
career. Just hours before the first day of 2000, Yeltsin made a surprise
announcement of his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of Vladimir
Putin.
Resignation
On December 31, 1999, in a surprise announcement made live on Russian
television, Yeltsin said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would take over as acting
president, with elections due to take place on March 26, 2000. Yeltsin asked for
forgiveness for what he acknowledged were errors of his rule, and said Russia
needed to enter the new century with new political leaders. Yeltsin said: "I
want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never came true. And also I would
like to beg forgiveness not to have justified your hopes."
Life After Resignation
Yeltsin's personal and health problems received a great deal of attention in the
global press. As the years went on, he was often viewed as an increasingly
unstable leader, rather than the inspiring figure he was once seen as. The
possibility that he might die in office was often discussed.
Yeltsin maintained a low profile since his resignation, making almost no public
statements or appearances. However, on 13 September 2004, following the Beslan
school hostage crisis and nearly-concurrent terrorist attacks in Moscow, Putin
launched an initiative to replace the election of regional governors with a
system whereby they would be directly appointed by the president and approved by
regional legislatures. Yeltsin, together with Mikhail Gorbachev, publicly
criticized Putin's plan as a step away from democracy in Russia and a return to
the centrally-run political apparatus of the Soviet era.
In September 2005, Yeltsin underwent a hip operation in Moscow after breaking
his femur in a fall while vacationing on the Italian island of Sardinia.
On February 1, 2006, Yeltsin celebrated his 75th birthday. He used this occasion
as an opportunity to criticize a "monopolistic" U.S. foreign policy, and to
state that Vladimir Putin was the right choice for Russia. He also disputed
accusations of corruption and the term "Family."
Death
Kremlin spokesperson Alexander Smirnov confirmed Boris Yeltsin's death on April
23, 2007. Komsomolskaya Pravda and Lenta.ru report that he died of congestive
heart failure. He was 76. According to experts quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda,
recent outbreak of Yeltsin's disease was due to his visit to Jordan from March
25 to April 2. He will be buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery on April 25, 2007,
following a period during which his body will lie in state in the Cathedral of
Christ the Saviour, Moscow. April 25th was declared by President Putin to be a
national day of mourning with flags flown at half-staff and all entertainment
programs suspended for the day.
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