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biography
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Yeltsin, Boris (Nikolayevich)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1931– )
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| biography:
| Russian president (1991–9), born in Bukta, WC Russia. He studied at the Urals Polytechnic, and began his career in the construction industry. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961, and was appointed first secretary of the Sverdlovsk region in 1976. He was inducted into the Central Committee in 1981 by Gorbachev, and briefly worked under the new secretary for the economy, Ryzhkov, before being appointed Moscow party chief in 1985. A blunt-talking reformer, he rapidly set about renovating the corrupt ‘Moscow machine’, and was elected a candidate member of the Politburo in 1986, but in 1987, at a Central Committee plenum, after he had bluntly criticized party conservatives for sabotaging political and economic reform (perestroika), he was downgraded to a lowly administrative post. He returned to public attention in 1989 by being elected to the new Congress of USSR People's Deputies, and in June 1991 he was elected president of the Russian Federation. Following the attempted coup to oust Gorbachev in August 1991, Yeltsin's political standing greatly increased when he led the protestors who defeated the coup, and following the break-up of the Soviet Union in December 1991 he remained in power as president of the Russian Federation. He continued to press for reform, but met increasing resistance from more conservative elements in the parliament. In 1993 he called for a referendum to measure his support, received a firm vote of confidence, and proposed a new constitution for Russia. Further confrontation with conservative hard-liners followed, leading to his decision to suspend parliament (Sep 1993), and a subsequent conflict involving the shelling of the Moscow parliament building (Oct), from which he emerged with his position strengthened. However, in 1995–6 opposition grew as a result of ongoing economic problems and the war in Chechnya, and although successful in the 1996 elections, continuing ill health caused him major difficulties. At the end of 1999 he surprised the world by announcing his resignation. |
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