Yeltsin, Boris | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

FORMER PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA
1931–

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931, and raised in Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) Oblast in the Ural Mountains. Trained as an engineer, Yeltsin rose through local construction and Communist Party posts to become first secretary of his region.

Yeltsin joined the team of young, reform-minded communists under Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), moving to Moscow in 1985 as first secretary of the Moscow Party Committee and a candidate member of the Politburo. When he clashed with Gorbachev over the pace of reform, Gorbachev fired him in October 1987. But rather than sending him back to Siberia, Gorbachev allowed him to remain in Moscow as first deputy chair of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Construction Committee.

Yeltsin and Gorbachev became bitter rivals for power. Yeltsin depicted himself as a populist who, unlike Gorbachev, wanted to place sovereignty with the people, not the Party. He was elected to the first USSR Congress of People's Deputies in 1989, where he was co-chair of the opposition Inter-Regional Group, and resigned from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in July 1990.

Yeltsin built a political base in Russia, the largest of the fifteen Soviet Union Republics. First, he was elected to the Russian Congress of People's Deputies in March 1990 and became chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet in May 1990. Then in June 1991, Yeltsin was popularly elected by popular vote to the new post of Russian president.

Yeltsin's finest hour came in August 1991. When hard-line communists tried to topple Gorbachev, Yeltsin jumped atop a tank and called on Russians to defend democracy. By the time the coup collapsed, Yeltsin had eclipsed Gorbachev as the most powerful political figure in the USSR. In December 1991, Yeltsin met with his counterparts from Belarus and Ukraine, and the three leaders declared an official end to the USSR.

Yeltsin now began the simultaneous tasks of establishing a new state, a market economy, and a new political system. The parliament, still dominated by communists, repeatedly challenged Yeltsin over their relative powers. Fed up with the dispute, Yeltsin dissolved the Supreme Soviet and eventually seized the building by force. Critics accused Yeltsin of turning from democrat to dictator.

Russia's division of powers was codified in a new constitution approved in December 1993. When parliaments under the new system blocked his policies, Yeltsin cut deals with regional governors and leading businessmen. Often ill or inebriated, Yeltsin frequently allowed a coterie of advisors and relatives to run the country.

Despite dismal approval ratings and a massive heart attack concealed from the public, Yeltsin won re-election in 1996. His campaign was bankrolled by the oligarchs—men who had become millionaires thanks to insider-privatization schemes and needed to protect their interests.

Yeltsin's last years in office were marked by his failing health, a declining economy, rising corruption, and frequent turnover in the office of prime minister. On New Year's Eve 1999, Yeltsin abruptly resigned, six months before his term ended. He retired quietly to his home, largely keeping out of politics and public life.

Gorbachev, Mikhail; Russia.

Shevtsova, Lilia. Yeltsin's Russia: Myths and Reality. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999.

Yeltsin, Boris. The Struggle for Russia. New York: Random House, 1994.

Yeltsin, Boris. Midnight Diaries. New York: Public Affairs, 2000.

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