Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich (1931–2007)

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin waves from the Russian Parliament in Moscow to demonstrators protesting against the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, 20 August 1991. Yeltsin played a decisive role in putting down the coup by hardliners against Gorbachev.

Russian politician, president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) 1990–91, and first president of the newly independent Russian Federation 1991–99. He directed the Federation's secession from the USSR and the formation of a new, decentralized confederation, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with himself as the most powerful leader. A referendum in 1993 supported his policies of price deregulation and accelerated privatization, despite severe economic problems and civil unrest. He survived a coup attempt later the same year, but was subsequently forced to compromise on the pace of his reforms after far-right electoral gains, and lost considerable public support. He suffered two heart attacks in October and November 1995, yet still contested the June 1996 presidential elections, in which he secured re-election, defeating Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. Yeltsin resigned as president on 31 December 1999, relinquishing his power six months early to his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin, in return for receiving guarantees of immunity from any future prosecution for any of his actions in the Kremlin.

Born in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Yeltsin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) 1961. Brought to Moscow by Mikhail Gorbachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov 1985, he was appointed secretary for construction and then, in December 1985, Moscow party chief. He was re-elected March 1989 and subsequently elected to the Supreme Soviet May 1989. A supporter of the Baltic states in their calls for greater independence, Yeltsin demanded increasingly more radical economic reform. In 1990 he renounced his CPSU membership and was elected president of the RSFSR, the largest republic of the USSR. Advocating greater autonomy for the constituent republics within a federal USSR, Yeltsin prompted the Russian parliament in June 1990 to pass a decree giving the republic's laws precedence over those passed by the Soviet parliament. In the abortive August 1991 coup, Yeltsin supported President Gorbachev. He was instrumental in the creation of the CIS and combined the offices of Russian president and prime minister to push through an ambitious but unpopular programme of price deregulation and accelerated privatization. As the economic situation deteriorated within Russia, his leadership came under increasing challenge, but in April 1992 he persuaded 18 of the 20 autonomous republics in the Russian Federation to sign a federative treaty, and in June appointed the radical reformer Yegor Gaidar to take over as acting prime minister. In December 1992, attempting to ward off a rumoured hardline communist coup, Yeltsin replaced Gaidar with the conservative Viktor Chernomyrdin, but bound Chernomyrdin to retain the reformist core of the earlier cabinet. In January 1993 Yeltsin and US president Bush signed the START II treaty in Moscow. A constitutional referendum April 1993 showed the Russian people to be in support of his economic policies, but in September 1993, faced with increasing resistance to his reforms, he dissolved parliament and called elections to fill a new bicameral legislature. An attempted coup by parliamentary leaders September–October 1993 was successfully thwarted, but unexpected far-right gains in December assembly elections forced him to compromise his economic policies and rely increasingly on the support of the military. From early 1995 he came under criticism for his apparent sanctioning of a full-scale military offensive in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. His hospitalization with a heart condition July, and again in October and November 1995 raised speculation as to his possible successors. In May 1996, less than three weeks before the elections, he negotiated a peace agreement with the Chechen rebels. However the war against Chechnya was renewed and reached such a crisis in December 1999 that despite claims by Chechen guerrillas that they had made some advances, Russian forces claimed to have surrounded the capital, Grozny, and issued an ultimatum to civilians that they must leave or die. After western protests, and in a bid to deflate international pressure on Moscow, the Russian ultimatum was deferred by a week and it was claimed that the Russian military had arranged two safe corridors and a daytime ceasefire to enable civilians to flee without danger. In March 1998 Yeltsin astounded both Russia and the West by sacking the entire cabinet, and appointed as prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko, 35, the Fuel and Energy Minister. Yeltsin put pressure on the Duma to accept Kikiyenko as prime minister, which finally happened after three rounds of voting in April 1998. Thus, Yeltsin took a large step towards reinforcing his credibility in fulfilling his pledge to ensure that Russia was run by a younger,dynamic and market-oriented generation.