Who was Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin?
Boris Yeltsin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1961. He was named first secretary of Sverdlovsk Oblast by General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev; quickly gained a reputation as an aggressive reformer in1976. He became first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU; worked to speed the flow of consumer goods and to arrest corrupt officials in 1985. He became a member of the Poliburo in 1986. He was expelled from the Moscow city committee for criticizing the slow pace of perestroika, Gorbachev’s reform efforts; was expelled from the Politburo in 1987.
Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party after the congress of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic named him chairman in 1990. He won direct election to the newly created post of president of the Russian republic; helped defeat the coup attempt against Gorbachev by Communist hardliners but then distanced himself from Gorbachev; teamed with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus to announce the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. He accelerated the liberalization of the economy and privatization of business in the Russian Federation, but enjoyed only brief success; his efforts were subsequently blamed for poor economic performance in 1992. He dissolved the parliament and called for new legislative elections due to tensions over economic reform and the structure of political power; began to suffer heart problems in 1993. He ordered army troops to defeat the separatist movement in Chechnya in 1994; a cease-fire was negotiated in 1996.
Yeltsin’s Legacy
“If Gorbachev didn’t have a Yeltsin, he would have to invent him,” according to Yeltsin’s autobiography, Against the Grain, 1990. Yeltsin lost his left thumb and forefinger at age 11, when he and a friend accidentally detonated a hand grenade they had stolen from a weapons warehouse. As first secretary of the Moscow city committee, Yeltsin frequently rode the public buses and subways, gaining exposure to the concerns of the city’s residents. Yeltsin used military force to remove about 100 deputies and several hundred armed supporters from the parliament building after he dissolved the Russian parliament in 1993.
Related Sources: 20th Century History; Alan Axelrod, Ph.D.; 2000. The Cold War; Robert T. Mann; 2002. World War I; Alan Axelrod, Ph.D.; 2000. World War II; Mitchell G.Bard,Ph.D; 2000. A Brief History of Russia; Michael Kort; 2008. The Cold War; Robert T Mann; 2002. Soviet Communism; Sidney and Beatrice Webb; 1936.
