Where did Yeltsin serve? The first president of Russia Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin. Yeltsin's policy. Achievements of Boris Yeltsin
February 1 marks the 81st anniversary of the birth of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation.
In 2003, a monument to Yeltsin was unveiled in Kyrgyzstan on the territory of one of the Issyk-Kul boarding houses; in 2008, a memorial plaque to the first Russian president was installed in the village of Butka (Sverdlovsk region).
On the 80th anniversary of the birth of Boris Yeltsin in Yekaterinburg, a monument to him was unveiled on the street named after him - a ten-meter obelisk stele made of light Ural marble. The architect and author of the memorial obelisk is Georgy Frangulyan, who is also the author of the tombstone for Yeltsin.
The monument was erected near the Demidov business center, where it is planned to open the Yeltsin Presidential Center.
Since 2003, the Sverdlovsk region has annually hosted international competitions among national women's volleyball teams for the Boris Yeltsin Cup. In 2009, the tournament was included in the official calendar of the International Volleyball Federation.
Since 2006, the All-Russian junior tennis tournament “Yeltsin Cup” has been held annually in Yekaterinburg.
From January 28 to February 6, 2011 in Kazan, the Tennis Academy hosted the first International Tennis Tournament of the ITF series “Yeltsin Cup” for boys and girls under 18 years old under the patronage of the Boris Yeltsin Foundation.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
First President of the Russian Federation
The first President of the Russian Federation (twice elected to this post in 1991 and 1996), former Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR (1990-1991), former First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee (1985-1987) and the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU (1976-1985), in 1981 -1990s was a member of the CPSU Central Committee, in 1986-1988 - a candidate for the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, left the party at the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU. Since 1987, he had been in conflict with the party leadership, including the General Secretary of the Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev, who later became president of the USSR. The conflict intensified after Yeltsin was elected president of the RSFSR in 1991. Yeltsin won his victory over Gorbachev after suppressing a coup attempt by members of the State Emergency Committee in August of the same year. He was one of the initiators of the liquidation of the Soviet Union and banned the activities of the CPSU. He supported the privatization of state property in the country under a voucher scheme and the transition to a market model of the economy, including the loans-for-shares auctions of 1995-96. He gave orders for the use of weapons during the parliamentary crisis of 1993 and for the entry of troops into Chechnya in 1994. In 1999, he voluntarily transferred presidential powers to his successor Vladimir Putin before the expiration of his presidential term. He died of cardiac arrest in April 2007.
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931 in the village of Butka, Talitsky district, Sverdlovsk region. In 1955 he graduated from the construction department of the Ural Polytechnic Institute named after Kirov. After university, he worked in his specialty, going from a foreman to the head of the Sverdlovsk DSK. In 1961, Yeltsin joined the CPSU, and in 1968 he was invited to party work, becoming the head of the construction department of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU. In 1975, Yeltsin was appointed secretary, and in 1976, first secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU.
In 1981, Yeltsin was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee, and in April 1985 he was appointed head of the construction department of the CPSU Central Committee. In July of the same year, Yeltsin became secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for construction issues. In December 1985, Yeltsin headed the Moscow City Committee (MGK) of the party, and in 1986 he became a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. In November 1987, after a number of critical speeches against the party leadership, Yeltsin was removed from his post, and in the spring of the following year he was removed from the list of candidates for membership in the Politburo, remaining a member of the Central Committee. In December 1987, Yeltsin was appointed to the minor position of first deputy chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee.
In 1989, Yeltsin became a deputy of the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. At the congress he was elected a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In May 1990, at the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, Yeltsin was elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. In July 1990, at the XXVIII (last) Congress of the CPSU, Yeltsin left the party. He criticized the Communist Party and personally its leader, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev. As a result of the referendum, the majority of the population of the RSFSR supported the introduction of the post of President of Russia, which created a situation of dual power and conflict between two presidents - the USSR and the RSFSR. On June 12, 1991, Yeltsin was elected the first president of Russia.
During the days of the rebellion on August 19-21, 1991, Yeltsin suppressed a coup attempt undertaken by members of the State Emergency Committee. He issued a number of decrees that expanded the powers of the President of the RSFSR in the sphere of managing the armed forces, internal affairs bodies, reassigning a number of union ministries and departments to the President of the RSFSR, as well as documents, according to which all property on the territory of Russia came under the jurisdiction of the republic. After the suppression of the putsch, Yeltsin signed a decree on the dissolution of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, and on November 6 of the same year - a decree on the termination of the activities of the structures of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR in Russia and the nationalization of their property. After the liquidation of the Soviet Union as a result of the signing of the Bialowieza Accords, which was attended by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Soviet President Gorbachev resigned and transferred control of strategic nuclear weapons to Yeltsin.
In 1992-1993, a group of economists-young reformers, with the support of the President of Russia, carried out economic reform and carried out voucher privatization. Despite the global changes in the country's economy, its results were assessed ambiguously in the press, as well as the results of the loans-for-shares auctions held by Yeltsin's decree in 1995. Designed to replenish the budget, they became a way by which large businessmen divided the main Russian enterprises among themselves. Despite a number of positive consequences of this, the majority of the population assessed the privatization of large state property extremely negatively.
In 1992-1993, a conflict arose and escalated between Yeltsin and deputies of the Supreme Council and the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation. It led to the bloody events of September-October 1993 in Moscow, when supporters of the Supreme Council attempted to seize the Ostankino television center, and troops loyal to Yeltsin shot at the parliament building.
During Yeltsin's presidency, the first war in Chechnya occurred in 1994-1996, which became an attempt to forcefully resolve the conflict related to the division of powers between the center and the regions. The fighting was characterized by a large number of casualties among the population, military and law enforcement officers. During the war, the first major terrorist attacks on Russian territory occurred, resulting in a large number of casualties - an attack by Shamil Basayev’s militants on the Stavropol city of Budennovsk and Salman Raduev’s militants on the Dagestan city of Kizlyar. In 1996, shortly after Yeltsin was re-elected to a second term, the Khasavyurt peace agreements were signed, ending the bloodshed.
In 1996, Yeltsin was re-elected president of Russia. The media wrote then that his victory prevented the possibility of “communist revenge”: the elections were held in two rounds, and Yeltsin’s rival was the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov, who sharply criticized all the major Russian innovations that occurred under Yeltsin.
In 1998, the press wrote about the government crisis in Russia. That year, Yeltsin dismissed four heads of government of the Russian Federation one after another - Viktor Chernomyrdin, Sergei Kiriyenko, Yevgeny Primakov, Sergei Stepashin. A number of publications noted that the change of prime ministers was due to the fact that Yeltsin was looking for a suitable successor. After Security Council Secretary Vladimir Putin was appointed acting chairman of the Russian government, Yeltsin introduced him as the person he would like to see as the new president. On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin addressed the Russians with New Year's greetings on television, in which he announced his early resignation as President of Russia and the appointment of Putin as acting head of state. Having become president of the Russian Federation in May 2000, Putin first signed a decree providing personal security guarantees to his predecessor.
Yeltsin was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st degree, as well as the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Order of Gorchakov (the highest award of the Russian Foreign Ministry), the Order of the Royal Order of Peace and Justice (UNESCO) , medals "Shield of Freedom" and "For Dedication and Courage" (USA), Order of the Knight Grand Cross (Italy's highest state award). He is a Knight of the Order of Malta and was awarded the highest award in Belarus - the Order of Francis Skaryna. In April 2001, Yeltsin was awarded the Nikita Demidov honorary badge (the highest award of the International Demidov Foundation) for his contribution to strengthening Russian statehood.
The first president of Russia published three books: “Confession on a Given Topic” (1991), “Notes of the President” (1994) and “Presidential Marathon” (2000). Among his hobbies were hunting, as well as music, literature, and cinema. Yeltsin is a master of sports in volleyball, and later became interested in tennis (during his reign, this sport received the status of a “presidential sport” in Russia).
Yeltsin was married; he met his wife Naina Iosifovna while studying at the institute. The Yeltsins have two daughters - Elena and Tatyana. Elena, according to media reports in 2005, is the wife of the head of the Aeroflot company Valery Okulov, they have three children. The youngest daughter, Tatyana, bore the surname Dyachenko during Yeltsin's reign and was her father's adviser. The media called her the “real informal leader” of the president’s entourage. In December 2001, she married Valentin Yumashev, taking his last name. She has three children from three marriages. According to some reports, Tatyana Yumasheva is one of the richest women in Europe, but no documentary evidence of this was provided. Among the family members of the first president, the media also named Yumashev’s daughter from his first marriage, Polina, who married the chairman of the board of directors of the Russian Aluminum company.
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin(1931−2007) - Soviet statesman and party leader, the first popularly elected president in the history of Russia (1991−1999). He held the posts of first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU (1976−1985), secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1985−1986), first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU (1985−1987), and was a member of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1989−1990).
Early years and education of Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931 in the village of Butka, Ural Region (now Tarlitsky District, Sverdlovsk Region). As Yeltsin wrote in his memoirs, his family was dispossessed. In the village of Butka, Yeltsin was born in a maternity hospital, and his family lived in the neighboring village of Basmanovskoye, it was reported in the biography of the first president, which he wrote Boris Minaev.
Boris Nikolaevich came from a simple family; Yeltsin was Russian by nationality.
Father - Nikolai Ignatievich Yeltsin(1906−1977) - builder by profession. He was repressed and served his sentence during the construction of the Volga-Don Canal. The biography of Boris Nikolayevich on the Yeltsin Center website says that the president’s father received three years in the camps, and was released in 1937.
Mother - Klavdia Vasilievna Yeltsina(nee Starygina, 1908−1993) - worked as a dressmaker.
After the amnesty, Nikolai Ignatievich returned to his native village, where he began working as a builder. When Boris was about 10 years old, the family moved to the city of Berezniki, Perm region.
At school, Boris Yeltsin proved himself to be an active student, studied well and was the head of the class. True, teachers complained about his restlessness and pugnacity, as reported in Yeltsin’s official biography. According to other sources, the future president’s studies did not work out, and he was even expelled from school with a “wolf ticket”, after which he transferred to another educational institution.
And also, as often happened with wartime children, there was an accident with a weapon. Yeltsin tried to disassemble the grenade, but the attempt ended dramatically - he lost two fingers on his left hand. However, how Boris Yeltsin actually lost his fingers - historians have different versions and the story with the grenade was refuted.
In this regard, Boris Nikolaevich did not serve in the army, and after school he immediately entered the Ural Polytechnic Institute, where he received an education as a civil engineer. During his student years, Yeltsin played sports and received the title of Master of Sports in volleyball. In his autobiography, Yeltsin reported that in 1952, “due to illness, I missed a year of study.”
Boris Yeltsin's career in the CPSU
Boris Nikolaevich’s work biography began after graduating from university in 1955 at the Sverdlovsk Construction Trust. From 1957 to 1963, Yeltsin was a foreman, senior foreman, chief engineer, and head of the construction department of the Yuzhgorstroy trust.
Boris Nikolaevich joined the ranks of the CPSU and began to energetically move up the career ladder. He was appointed chief engineer and then director of the Sverdlovsk house-building plant. As a representative of the plant, Yeltsin often attended district party conferences. In 1963, Boris Nikolaevich became a member of the Kirov district committee of the CPSU, and then was elected to the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU. In this job, Yeltsin dealt with housing construction issues.
In 1968, Yeltsin took on a new position in his career - head of the construction department of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU. The son of a repressed builder made a rapid career under the “bad” Soviet regime, which Boris Nikolaevich would later fight so successfully.
Former Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for Defense Issues Yakov Ryabov in an interview with SP, he recalled how he invited Boris Yeltsin to this post.
“It so happened that several of my friends studied with him. I first asked their opinion about Boris. They said that he was power-hungry, ambitious, and was ready to step over even his own mother for the sake of his career. But he will crumble into pieces of any task from his superiors, but he will complete it. I directly told my friends that this is exactly the kind of person I need - he will oversee construction, not ideology. But I expressed these complaints to Boris at the meeting. He immediately jumped up: “Who told you?!” I explained to him that this was the wrong approach: “You need to think about how to eradicate shortcomings, and not about who told them about them.” But then he still identified these people and did not give them a chance,” Ryabov recalled about the start of Yeltsin’s career.
“Later, I confess, I helped Yeltsin become secretary of the regional committee for construction. And when he left for Moscow, he recommended him to his place, then already the first secretary of the regional committee. I thought he had changed enough. And his strong-willed qualities were needed by the region. Brezhnev I was also surprised: “Why him?” Not a member of the Central Committee, not a deputy, not even a second secretary.” But I said that Yeltsin could handle it. Now it’s both sad and embarrassing to remember this mistake of mine,” Ryabov also noted.
In 1975, Boris Yeltsin was elected secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, and a year later - first secretary, that is, in fact, the main person of the Sverdlovsk region. He worked in this position for 9 years and proved himself to be an ambitious and demanding worker. During his leadership in the Sverdlovsk region, milk coupons were abolished, new poultry farms and farms were opened. Under him, the construction of the Sverdlovsk metro and the construction of sports and cultural facilities took place.
In 1985, B.N. Yeltsin was invited to work in Moscow, in the central apparatus of the party, his official biography says. Since April 1985, Boris Nikolaevich became the head of the construction department of the CPSU Central Committee, and soon became the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for construction issues.
In December 1985, Boris Nikolaevich headed the Moscow City Party Committee and gained popularity. He energetically took up personnel policy, personally traveled on public transport and inspected food warehouses.
In the fall of 1987, Yeltsin began to sharply criticize the slow pace of perestroika and even announced the formation of a personality cult Mikhail Gorbachev. As a result, Boris Nikolaevich lost his position as First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, in February 1988 he was removed from the list of candidates for membership in the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and appointed First Deputy Chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee.
During this period, Yeltsin almost committed suicide, then repented a lot, wrote a letter to Gorbachev asking him to leave him in his post. In 1988, Yeltsin spoke at the 19th Party Conference with a request for “political rehabilitation,” but again did not receive support from the leadership of the CPSU Central Committee.
“An important point: he criticized not only Ligacheva, but criticism of Gorbachev was also visible. That is, he opposed two leading political figures in the country. In the Western press, based on rumors circulating in the USSR, the following version of events was considered: supposedly there was an agreement between Gorbachev and Yeltsin (perhaps an agreement not with Gorbachev himself, but with one of his assistants) that he would speak with this criticism. In order to disguise the conspiracy with Gorbachev’s people, he had to criticize Gorbachev himself a little - hint, disassociate himself from him. And Gorbachev, they say, should have supported him. But Yeltsin overestimated the possibility of support from the progressive wing of the Politburo, and they allegedly went into the bushes,” the president of the Panorama information and research center commented on Yeltsin’s famous speech. Vladimir Pribylovsky.
Yeltsin's disgrace led to an increase in his popularity, and he quickly realized that he had only won as a result of a perfect combination. In 1989 B.N. Yeltsin won 91.5% of the votes in Moscow in the elections of people's deputies of the USSR. At the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR (May-June 1989), he became a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and at the same time co-chairman of the opposition Interregional Deputy Group (MDG).
In May 1990, at a meeting of the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin was elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR.
State Emergency Committee and Boris Yeltsin's rise to power
In 1990, Boris Yeltsin, as Chairman of the Supreme Council, signed the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Russia.
At the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU in July 1990, Yeltsin announced his resignation from the party.
With the support of the Democratic Russia party, on June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first president of the RSFSR, gaining 57% of the vote.
On August 19, 1991, the formation of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP) was announced. The news said that the country's president, Mikhail Gorbachev, was ill and the vice president had taken over his duties. Gennady Yanaev- Chairman of the State Emergency Committee. Boris Yeltsin led the resistance, addressed the citizens of Russia, speaking from a tank in front of the Moscow White House, called the actions of the State Emergency Committee a coup, then promulgated a number of decrees on the non-recognition of the actions of the State Emergency Committee. After the failure of the Emergency Committee and Gorbachev’s return from Foros, on August 24, 1991, Mikhail Sergeevich announced his resignation as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. “I immediately saw and understood - this is a different Gorbachev. He was morally broken and demoralized. Therefore, for the next two or three months he became a hostage, literally a prisoner of Yeltsin,” he recalled after the State Emergency Committee Ruslan Khasbulatov in an interview with SP.
When, at the end of 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev was actually removed from power, Boris Yeltsin, together with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, signed an agreement on the collapse of the USSR in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. From that moment on, Boris Yeltsin became the leader of independent Russia.
Vice President of Russia Alexander Rutskoy persuaded Gorbachev to arrest Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich. But Gorbachev suggested not to panic, declaring that the agreement in Belovezhskaya Pushcha had no legal basis and that by the New Year there would be a Union Treaty. 25 years later, Mikhail Sergeevich explained why he did not arrest them; according to Gorbachev, the situation “smelled like civil war.”
Later, Mikhail Gorbachev said that it was Russia that led the collapse of the Soviet Union, accusing then-President Boris Yeltsin of responsibility for what happened. “The union could have been saved. The republics needed a renewed Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union was caused by the participants in the Belovezhskaya Accords, guided by personal ambitions and a thirst for power. This is, first of all, the then leadership of Russia,” the media quoted Gorbachev’s statement at the end of 2016.
Boris Yeltsin - the first president of Russia
Already on November 6, 1991, the government of the RSFSR was formed, which Yeltsin personally headed until June 1992. His first deputy was appointed Yegor Gaidar. A Leningrad economist has become the new chairman of the State Property Committee of Russia Anatoly Chubais.
The Yeltsin Center website reports that Boris Nikolayevich, at the head of the “first government of reforms in history,” signed a package of ten presidential decrees and government orders that outlined concrete steps towards a market economy.
In the fall of 1991, Yegor Gaidar’s “economic program” was born. President Yeltsin announced its main provisions on October 28 in a keynote speech at the V Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation. It assumed privatization, price liberalization, commodity intervention, and conversion of the ruble. Proclaiming this course, Boris Yeltsin assured his fellow citizens that “it will be worse for everyone within about six months.” This will be followed by “a reduction in prices, filling the consumer market with goods, and in the fall of 1992, stabilization of the economy and a gradual improvement in people’s lives.”
In 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin approved a decree on price liberalization from January 2, 1992. In January 1992, the decree “On Free Trade” was signed. This document effectively legalized entrepreneurship and led to many people taking up small-scale street trading in order to survive in the difficult economic conditions caused by market reforms.
Yeltsin’s biography on Wikipedia states that back in the spring of 1991, as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and a candidate for President of Russia, Boris Nikolayevich visited Checheno-Ingushetia and expressed support for the sovereignty of the republic, repeating his famous thesis: “Take as much sovereignty as you can bear.” " In July 1991 Dzhokhar Dudayev proclaimed the independence of the Chechen Republic. Subsequently, the war in Chechnya ran like a red thread through the years of Yeltsin’s rule and became another sad result of the biography of the first president of the Russian Federation. On November 30, 1994, B. N. Yeltsin decided to send troops into Chechnya and signed secret decree No. 2137 “On measures to restore constitutional legality and order on the territory of the Chechen Republic.”
Both throughout the post-Soviet space and in Russia, the years after the collapse of the USSR were very difficult. Many people call these years the “dashing 90s.” But, for example, Naina Yeltsina thinks differently:
“In my opinion, the 90s should be called not dashing years, but saints, and we should bow to those people who lived in that difficult time, who created and built a new country in difficult conditions, without losing faith in it,” Boris’s wife was quoted in the news Yeltsin.
At the same time, she admitted that in the 1990s, when the country collapsed, life was extremely difficult.
“But still they tried to create a new country, strengthen democracy, freedom of speech. And this became the basis for the further development of democracy and the country,” Naina Iosifovna emphasized. “Yes, Gaidar went for shock therapy, but, like surgeons with a seriously ill patient - and this is exactly what the collapsed country was like - shock therapy was necessary in order to suddenly move to a new level,” Naina Yeltsina summarized.
1993 - White House shooting
The reforms of Yeltsin and Gaidar quickly brought the country to the threshold of disaster, hyperinflation began, and non-payment of wages and pensions took on unprecedented proportions. Yeltsin's decrees initiated voucher privatization and loans-for-shares auctions, which in the near future led to the concentration of most of the state property in the hands of the oligarchs.
An internal political conflict also began as a result of the constitutional crisis and the confrontation between the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and opponents of the socio-economic policy of the new president represented by the majority of people's deputies and members of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, led by Vice President Alexander Rutsky and Ruslan Khasbulatov.
On September 21, 1993, the decree “On phased constitutional reform in the Russian Federation” (decree No. 1400) was promulgated, which dissolved the Supreme Council and the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation. President Yeltsin scheduled elections to the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly, for December 11–12, 1993. The Federation Council was declared the upper house of the Federal Assembly.
Wikipedia describes in detail, day by day, the events that took place in Moscow from September 21 to October 4, 1993. These events are called differently: “Execution of the White House”, “Execution of the House of Soviets”, “Black October”, “October Uprising of 1993”, “Decree 1400”, “October Putsch”, “Yeltsin’s Coup of 1993”. Yeltsin gave the order to storm the building of the Supreme Council using tanks, on the morning of October 4, troops were sent into Moscow, followed by shelling of the House of Soviets with tanks - footage of this video appeared on the news of all television channels in the world.
As a result of the confrontation, which was accompanied by armed clashes on the streets of Moscow and subsequent military actions, at least 158 people were killed and 423 were wounded or received other bodily harm (of which on October 3 and 4 - 124 killed, 348 wounded).
Boris Yeltsin defeated his opponents. The position of vice president was abolished, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation were dissolved, and the powers of people's deputies were terminated. Instead of the previously existing form of government of the Soviet republic, a presidential republic was established.
Famous Russian philosopher and sociologist Alexander Zinoviev assessed the events of October 1993 as the completion of the “anti-communist coup in Russia” that began in August 1991. According to him, as a result of this coup, “the Soviet (communist) social system was destroyed and in its place the post-Soviet system was hastily slapped together.”
“Yeltsin succeeded as a political leader only thanks to the support of parliament and received carte blanche for beneficial changes. Only after the president used his emergency powers not for the good of the country - he destroyed the state and the economy, deprived the majority of residents with radical reforms - was the parliamentary majority forced to go into opposition to the “reforms”. It was the collapse of the reforms that forced the Yeltsin regime to undertake a violent coup in order to destroy the powerful opposition represented by the highest body of state power in the country (which was the Congress of People's Deputies), achieve impunity and impose a strictly authoritarian regime on the country, protecting the new ruling layer and comprador nomeklatura-oligarchic capitalism.” , - recalled the events of 1993 Victor Aksyuchits.
Boris Yeltsin's alcoholism, dancing and scandals
There is a well-known irony in the fact that, having played a huge role in the history of Russia, becoming its first president, Boris Yeltsin will remain in the memory of his descendants for his addiction to alcohol and the stories (and film footage) where he demonstrated this to the fullest. It’s sad that people who have been deprived of much by Yeltsin are looking for really funny videos on video hosting sites with the headings “Drunk Yeltsin”, “Dancing Yeltsin”, “Yeltsin conducting”, etc. The footage of the drunken Boris Nikolayevich, however, is impressive.
There was a lot of talk about Yeltsin’s drunkenness back in the 80s; even then the future president’s addiction to alcohol became noticeable. Inexplicable and strange incidents happened to him. For example, the sensational fall from a bridge into the Moscow River. This incident was never fully investigated. According to Yeltsin himself, he decided to visit his friend at the dacha Sergei Bashilov. Wanting to walk, he let the driver go with the official car. Suddenly, unknown people attacked him, forced him into a Zhiguli car, put a bag over his head, and then threw him off a bridge into the Moscow River. Yeltsin managed to escape. This version was questioned at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. What actually happened remains unclear.
In the same 1989, Boris Nikolaevich was invited to the USA. There, Boris Yeltsin spoke to the American public, as they wrote in the media, while drunk. Yeltsin himself explained that he took a large dose of sleeping pills because he suffered from insomnia. They also wrote that in Baltimore, Boris Nikolayevich, having descended from the plane along the ramp, urinated on the wheel, and then went to shake hands with those greeting him.
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin died on April 23, 2007. He was buried in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
The first President of Russia was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st degree, as well as the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Order of Gorchakov (the highest award of the Russian Foreign Ministry), and the Order of the Royal Order of Peace and Justice ( UNESCO), medals “Shield of Freedom” and “For Dedication and Courage” (USA), the Order of the Knight Grand Cross (the highest state award of Italy) and others.
Boris Nikolaevich wrote three biographies: “Confession on a Given Topic” (1990), “Notes of the President” (1994) and “Presidential Marathon” (2000).
According to the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), 67% of Russians assessed Yeltsin’s historical role in 2000 negatively, and 18% positively. In 2007, after Yeltsin’s death, 41% of Russian residents were negative, and 40% were positive.
Characteristics of Yeltsin's reign include attacks on monuments to Yeltsin and the fact that the existence of the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg causes constant discontent in society.
In 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that “you can evaluate the activities of the first president any way you like,” but under him the people received freedom and “this is a huge historical merit of Boris Nikolayevich.” “Yeltsin believed with his heart in the ideals that he defended,” Putin emphasized.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin said that his ancestors were poor peasants. The family lived in a small house, and on the farm there were only a cow and a horse, which soon died. The president's grandfather worked as a stove maker, and his father worked as a builder. In fact, the president’s parents were kulaks, their last name was not Yeltsin, but Yeltsin, and Boris Yeltsin’s father served time in a camp under Article 58 of the political system. The invented biography helped Yeltsin make a career as a party functionary. When the USSR ceased to exist, Boris Yeltsin began to confirm his kulak origin and in every possible way scolded the Bolsheviks for their oppression. However, this is what most Soviet leaders did.
Top row in the center - Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin came from an ancient Yeltsin family. The distant ancestor of the future president, Elizariy, nicknamed Yelets, fled from Veliky Novgorod, occupied by the Muscovites, to the Northern Urals in 1495, where he settled. After Nikon's church reform, his descendants retained the old faith and became schismatics. In the Ural village of Butka, the Yeltsin family arrived in exile after dispossession.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin’s grandfather, kulak Ignatius, who according to documents was Yeltsin, owned two mills and 12 hectares of land, five of which he rented out. Property seized from the family included a grain thresher, a reaper, several cows and five horses. After the family was dispossessed in 1930, the elder Yeltsin was sent into exile, which was located 15 miles from his home. Ignatius did not accept his fate and went on the run. It was this period in the life of his ancestor that Boris Yeltsin had in mind when he talked about the fact that he was engaged in laying stoves. After the collapse of the USSR, Yeltsin argued that the Soviet government did not like bright, independent personalities and tried in every possible way to suppress them. Including his relatives.
Yeltsin's father
According to documents, until 1920, Boris Yeltsin’s ancestors bore the surname Yeltsyn. According to the most common version, the father of the future president, Nicholas, fought on the side of the whites during the Civil War, and after the defeat of the counter-revolution he tried to hide this fact in his biography. It is interesting that according to documents, Nikolai Yeltsin was born in 1899, but Nikolai Yeltsin was born in 1906, as a result of which he could not take part in the war due to his age.
In 1993, a case opened against Nikolai Yeltsin was discovered in the Kazan archives of the FSB. However, due to confusion with the date of birth, the security officers were never able to complete Boris Yeltsin’s father. My father, together with his brother Adrian, worked on the construction of an aircraft plant in Kazan. In the spring of 1934, the operative officer of the OGPU of the Tatar Republic, Ismagilov, asked the local prosecutor for permission to arrest six employees, among whom was Nikolai Yeltsin. The sanction was given, and they were arrested under Article 58, accused of counter-revolutionary activities, namely, spreading rumors among the workers that corrupted the collective.
As it turned out later, all the accused came from families of kulaks. After a quick investigation and trial, they were given three years in the camps. Boris Yeltsin's father was sent to build the Volga-Don Canal, and two years later he was released from the camp for good behavior. In 1937, the family, in which another son was born, returned to the Urals.
When Boris Yeltsin graduated from the Ural Polytechnic Institute, he was offered the position of foreman in the construction of industrial facilities. However, he refused, deciding to “touch everything with his own hands.” I set myself the task of mastering 12 construction specialties in a year—one every month—and I accomplished my plan.
Boris Yeltsin was a versatile person. He received the profession of mason, concrete worker, carpenter, carpenter, painter-plasterer, and dump truck driver. The Yeltsin phenomenon, apparently, lay in the fact that he constantly needed to take new heights. The years of Yeltsin's reign cannot be called calm. But he also has merits that cannot be taken away. So, it was he who in May 1999 brought to power the “dark horse” Vladimir Putin, who at that time was not yet a public leader.
Yeltsin's party career began in 1968 as head of the construction department of the Sverdlovsk regional party committee. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, industrial and civil construction in Sverdlovsk was on the rise. Over half a million square meters of housing were rented out annually, mines and new factory workshops were built, and under Yeltsin they began designing a metro.
He tirelessly inspects construction sites. The eternal rush to deliver objects for the holidays is Yeltsin’s element, who himself looks for the most difficult areas of work in order to bring them out of the breakthrough. Yeltsin is already 37. He is as healthy as a bull, athletic, and full of energy. From morning to evening, Boris Yeltsin wanders around construction sites, knows how to find a common language with foremen and ordinary workers, and knows how to give a hard time to careless subcontractors. Everything is on the verge of a foul, since the proud Yeltsin has a significant drawback - rudeness with his subordinates, often turning into outright rudeness.
The regional committee driver recalled that Boris Yeltsin could throw his wife Naina Iosifovna out of the car outside the city in any bad weather and at any time of the day if she allowed herself to make a “disrespectful” remark to her husband about excessive libations. The meek Naina had to get home on foot or by hitchhiking. In the family, everything was subordinated to the interests of the head of the family. In the evening, Naina Iosifovna met him, took off her shoes, slipped him soft slippers and led him to the already set table.
In 1975, at the instigation of the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee, Yakov Ryabov, Yeltsin was appointed one of the secretaries of the regional committee. When Ryabov was taken to Moscow, he managed to do the impossible: he convinced Brezhnev that Yeltsin could not be better nominated for the vacant position of the owner of Sverdlovsk.
In the future, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin did not even remember Ryabov’s role in his promotion, believing that everything happened only thanks to his talents. Back in 1968, Yeltsin somehow miraculously managed to slip through the KGB sieve. Someone decided to “not notice” that he came from a family of repressed people: his grandfather was a kulak, his father was an enemy of the people.
Yeltsin shouldered the honorary burden of the first secretary of the regional committee on his shoulders at the age of 45. He had neither experience nor special knowledge, but he had fantastic ambitions and an insane capacity for work.
Former employees of the regional committee say that Yeltsin was completely unaware of the democratic principles of leadership. He recognized only his own will, and it was impossible to convince him otherwise. He still demanded from people what he did himself, and that applied to everything.
A doctor at the Sverdlovsk Special Hospital recalls that she could not persuade him not to go to Talitsa with a sore leg for morning milking. We had to leave at three o'clock in the morning. Yeltsin’s answer was laconic and rude: “You don’t understand. When I arrive, there are cows standing there that haven’t been milked, their udders are covered in shit, and the milkmaids are drunk. I’ll disperse them all, and you won’t have to go into this area for a month.”
Boris Yeltsin loved to maintain among the people the myth of a stern but fair leader. Along with expressiveness and impulsiveness, he often used subtle calculations.
Yeltsin and society
For example, in Sverdlovsk there was a shortage of fresh vegetables and fruits, and there were not enough collective farm markets. Residents of one of the districts often wrote complaints to the regional committee, demanding that a market be built. As a result, the decision to build the market was made, but Boris Yeltsin did not sign the papers immediately, but postponed it for an indefinite time. A few months later, when I came to a meeting with residents of the area, I began asking about problems and requests. He listened carefully to those gathered and right on the spot, “meeting the wishes of the workers,” signed the decision prepared in advance on the construction of the market.
Yeltsin was one of the first in the country to appreciate the power of public opinion. He participated in weekly live broadcasts on local television, answering calls to the studio. He restored order right there, live. This was perhaps the most popular program in the region, because what could be more interesting than a public flogging of the authorities.
The years of Yeltsin's rule were marked by many campaigns in Sverdlovsk. Thus, he was perhaps the first in the USSR to begin building youth residential complexes (youth residential complexes), and introduced the concept of “collective responsibility”, when for absenteeism or other serious violation of one employee the entire team was deprived of bonuses.
After Yeltsin, Sverdlovsk residents were left with new urban districts - South-Western and Kirovsky, dozens of objects and buildings. Boris Yeltsin invariably attributed all the successes of the region to his own account, although workers were driven from the entire region for construction in order to meet strict deadlines.
During the same period, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin began to touch the bottle more and more often. In the late 1970s, Yeltsin could drink a glass of vodka with lunch or dinner. And in moments of special emotional disposition, he could show his subordinates a “double-barreled shotgun” when he poured vodka from two bottles at once into his wide-open mouth. In 1982, he had his first heart attack, and had to give up demonstration performances.
In memory of Nicholas II
In Sverdlovsk, in the basement of the Ipatiev House, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II was shot along with his family and servants. The authorities were alarmed by the fact that on the day of the death of the royal family, people, approaching the house, crossed themselves and lit candles. These actions were called “morbid interest” in KGB reports and qualified as “anti-Soviet demonstrations.”
Andropov turned to the Politburo with a proposal to demolish Ipatiev’s mansion. The decision on this was sent to Sverdlovsk in 1975. However, the mansion under the first secretary of the regional committee, Ryabov, was not demolished. There were rumors that Ryabov wanted to keep him and even involved Brezhnev in this. Representatives of the All-Union Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments also opposed the demolition of the house.
The mansion was demolished in 1977 by executive Boris Yeltsin, who needed to earn points in front of Moscow. Within a couple of days, nothing remained of the ancient building. Boris Yeltsin, who was skilled in apparatus games, managed to “present a gift” and report to Moscow on the implementation of a decree that had already been forgotten by everyone. They say that Boris Nikolaevich really wanted to go to Moscow and could not miss such a chance. His zeal was noticed and appreciated.
In August 2000, Nicholas II and his family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as "Royal Passion-Bearers". On July 16, 2003, the Temple on the Blood was built on the site of Ipatiev’s former house. President Boris Yeltsin was unable to attend the consecration ceremony.
Hidden Epidemic
In 1979, an anthrax epidemic broke out in Sverdlovsk. Despite the numerous deaths and the official status of the diagnosis of anthrax, it was not allowed to be included in the death certificates of citizens. The standard entries were different: acute respiratory infections, pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, poisoning with an unknown poison, sepsis, heart attack and others.
A couple of weeks later, mass vaccination of the population began, and it is still unknown what kind of vaccine it was or what its composition was. Some people became disabled, some died.
Until now, no one knows the exact number of victims of this tragedy: the official figure is 64 people, according to other sources, more than 100 people died. Environmentalists are convinced that it was not anthrax that was to blame, but the leak of “research materials” from a secret laboratory. Historians consider Boris Yeltsin to be guilty of this tragedy, who did not take the necessary measures, did not prevent the tragedy, hiding the whole truth from the residents.
The departure of Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin remained at the helm of Russia until the last day of the 20th century, and during a televised New Year's greeting on December 31, 1999, he announced his resignation. Boris Yeltsin asked for forgiveness from his fellow citizens and said that he was leaving due to “the totality of all problems,” and not just because of his health. The famous quote “I'm tired, I'm leaving,” attributed to Boris Nikolaevich, is not true.
At the time of Yeltsin’s resignation, 67% of citizens had a negative attitude towards him; the president was accused of ruining Russia and promoting liberals to power. Yeltsin was supported by 15% at that time. But researchers and politicians assess the years of the leader’s reign positively, noting the main achievement of this era - freedom of speech and the building of a civil society.
After Boris Yeltsin resigned as president, he continued to participate in the country's public life. In 2000, he created a charitable foundation and periodically visited the CIS countries. In 2004, former head of presidential security Alexander Korzhakov published a book of memoirs, “Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk,” where he presented interesting facts from the biography of Boris Yeltsin.
Personal life of Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin's personal life changed when he was still studying at the Polytechnic Institute. In those years, he met Naina Girina, whom he married immediately after graduating from university. At birth, the girl received the name Anastasia, but at a conscious age she changed it to Naina, since that’s what she was called in the family. Boris Yeltsin's wife worked as a project manager at the Vodokanal Institute.
The wedding of the Yeltsin couple took place in the house of a collective farmer in Upper Iset in 1956, and a year later the family was replenished with a daughter, Elena. Three years later, Boris and Naina became parents again, and they also had a youngest daughter, Tatyana. Later, the daughters gave the president six grandchildren. The most popular of them was Boris Yeltsin Jr., who at one time was the marketing director of the Russian Formula 1 team. And his brother Gleb, born with Down syndrome, became the European champion in swimming among people with disabilities in 2015.
In many publications, Boris Nikolaevich paid tribute to his wife, each time emphasizing her care and support. But some journalists, including Mikhail Poltoranin, argued that Naina Yeltsin not only provided moral support for the first president of Russia, but also influenced personnel policy in the country’s leadership.
Death of Boris Yeltsin
Recently, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin suffered from a disease of the cardiovascular system. It is also no secret that he was diagnosed with alcoholism. In mid-April 2007, the former president was admitted to the hospital due to complications from a viral infection. According to the doctors, his life was not in danger, the disease progressed predictably. However, 12 days after hospitalization, Boris Yeltsin died in the Central Clinical Hospital. Yeltsin's death occurred on April 23, 2007.
The official cause of death was cardiac arrest as a result of dysfunction of internal organs. Yeltsin was buried with military honors at the Novodevichy cemetery, and the funeral process was broadcast live on all state television channels. A tombstone was erected at the grave of Boris Yeltsin. It is made in the form of a boulder, painted in the colors of the national flag.
To mark the anniversary of the birth of Boris Yeltsin in 2011, documentaries “Boris Yeltsin. Life and Fate" and "Boris Yeltsin. First,” in which, in addition to the memoirs of the president’s contemporaries, rare footage of interviews with Yeltsin himself was presented.
Prime Minister: |
Ivan Stepanovich Silaev Oleg Ivanovich Lobov (acting) himself Yegor Timurovich Gaidar (acting) Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin Sergei Vladilenovich Kirienko Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin (acting) Evgeniy Maksimovich Primakov Sergei Vadimovich Stepashin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin |
Successor: |
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin |
Predecessor: |
Nikolai Matveevich Gribachev |
Successor: |
Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov |
Predecessor: |
Ivan Stepanovich Silaev Oleg Ivanovich Lobov (acting) |
Successor: |
Egor Timurovich Gaidar (acting) Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin |
CPSU (1961-1990) |
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Education: |
Ural Polytechnic Institute named after. S. M. Kirova |
Profession: |
Civil Engineer |
Birth: |
February 1, 1931, p. Butka, Butkinsky district, Ural region, RSFSR, USSR (now Talitsky district of Sverdlovsk region) |
Buried: |
Novodevichy Cemetery |
Nikolai Ignatievich Yeltsin |
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Klavdiya Vasilievna Starygina |
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Naina Iosifovna Girina |
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Elena Borisovna Okulova Tatyana Borisovna Yumasheva |
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Autograph: |
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In the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU
In the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
In the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU
Presidency
Domestic policy
President of the RSFSR
Collapse of the USSR
1991-1992
Political crisis
Termination of the activities of the Supreme Council
October events of 1993
Constitutional reform
Chechen conflict
Resignation
Economic reforms of the 1990s
Demographic situation
Foreign policy
Yeltsin government
Vice President
Heads of government
Foreign Ministers
Ministers of Defense
Yeltsin after resignation
Death and funeral
Boris Yeltsin's assessments
"Yeltsinism"
Personal qualities
Public opinion about Yeltsin
Attitudes towards Yeltsin in the West
Perpetuation of memory
Awards and titles
Books by B. N. Yeltsin
(February 1, 1931, Butka village - April 23, 2007, Moscow) - Soviet party and Russian political and statesman, the first President of Russia. He was elected President twice - on June 12, 1991 and July 3, 1996, and held this position from July 10, 1991 to December 31, 1999.
He went down in history as the first elected President of Russia, one of the organizers of resistance to the actions of the State Emergency Committee, a radical reformer of the socio-political and economic structure of Russia. He is also known for his decisions to ban the CPSU, his policy of abandoning socialism, decisions to dissolve the Supreme Council, suppress the armed resistance of its defenders and storm the House of Soviets of Russia using armored vehicles in 1993, the start of the military campaign in Chechnya in 1994 and its completion in 1996, the re-introduction of troops and the bombing of Chechnya in September 1999, which served as the beginning of the second Chechen military campaign.
Childhood and youth
Born in the village of Butka, Talitsky district, Ural (now Sverdlovsk) region, into a family of dispossessed peasants.
Yeltsin later recalled:
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“...The Yeltsin family, as it is written in the description that our village council sent to the security officers in Kazan, rented land in the amount of five hectares. “Before the revolution, his father’s farm was kulak, he had a water mill and a windmill, he had a threshing machine, he had permanent farm laborers, he had up to 12 hectares of crops, he had a self-tying reaper, he had up to five horses, up to four cows...” He had, he had, had... That was his fault - he worked a lot, took on a lot. And the Soviet government loved modest, inconspicuous, low-profile people. She did not like strong, smart, bright people and did not spare them. In 1930, the family was “evicted.” My grandfather was deprived of his civil rights. They imposed an individual agricultural tax. In a word, they put a bayonet to the throat, as best they knew how to do. And the grandfather “went on the run”..." |
Yeltsin spent his childhood in the city of Berezniki, Perm Region, where he graduated from school (modern school No. 1 named after A.S. Pushkin). According to his own statement, he did well in his studies, was the head of the class, but had complaints about his behavior and was pugnacious. According to other sources, he did not shine with good grades either at school or at college. He had conflicts with teachers, after the seventh grade he was expelled from school with a “wolf ticket” due to a conflict with the class teacher, however, he achieved (by reaching the city party committee) that he was allowed to enter the eighth grade at another school.
He did not serve in the army due to the absence of two fingers on his left hand, which he lost as a result of a grenade explosion while studying it with hammer blows.
In 1950 he entered the Ural Polytechnic Institute named after. S. M. Kirov to the Faculty of Construction, in 1955 he graduated with the qualification “civil engineer”. Topic of the thesis: “Television tower.” During his student years, he was seriously involved in volleyball, played for the city’s national team, and became a master of sports.
Professional and party activities
- In 1955, he was assigned to the Uraltyazhtrubstroy trust, where in a year he mastered several construction specialties, then worked on the construction of various objects as a foreman, site manager, and chief management engineer. In 1961 he joined the CPSU. In 1963 he was appointed chief engineer, and soon - head of the Sverdlovsk house-building plant.
- In 1963, at the XXIV conference of the party organization of the Kirov district of the city of Sverdlovsk, he was unanimously elected as a delegate to the city conference of the CPSU. At the XXV regional conference he was elected a member of the Kirov district committee of the CPSU and a delegate to the Sverdlovsk regional conference of the CPSU.
In the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU
In 1968, he was transferred to party work in the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, where he headed the construction department. In 1975, he was elected secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, responsible for the industrial development of the region.
In 1976, on the recommendation of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, he was elected first secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU (the de facto leader of the Sverdlovsk region), holding this position until 1985. By order of Yeltsin, a twenty-story building of the regional committee of the CPSU was built in Sverdlovsk, the tallest building in the USSR, which received the nickname “White Tooth” and “member of the CPSU” in the city. He organized the construction of a highway connecting Sverdlovsk with the north of the region, as well as the relocation of residents from barracks to new homes. Organized the execution of the Politburo decision on the demolition of the Ipatiev house (the site of the execution of the royal family in 1918), which was not carried out by his predecessor Ya. P. Ryabov, and achieved the adoption of the Politburo decision on the construction of the metro in Sverdlovsk. He significantly improved the food supply of the Sverdlovsk region and intensified the construction of poultry farms and farms. During Yeltsin's leadership, milk coupons were abolished in the region. In 1980, he actively supported the initiative to create the MZhK.
While at party work in Sverdlovsk, Boris Yeltsin received the military rank of colonel.
1978-1989 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (member of the Council of the Union). From 1984 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1988 he was a member of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces. In addition, in 1981, at the XXVI Congress of the CPSU, he was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee and served on it until leaving the party in 1990.
In 1985, after the election of M. S. Gorbachev as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, he was transferred to work in Moscow (on the recommendation of E. K. Ligachev), in April he headed the construction department of the CPSU Central Committee, and in June 1985 he was elected secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for construction issues.
In the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU
In December 1985, he was recommended by the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee for the post of first secretary of the Moscow City Committee (MGK) of the CPSU. Having arrived at this position, he fired many senior officials of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU and the first secretaries of district committees. He gained fame thanks to numerous populist steps, such as trips on public transport, inspections of stores and warehouses, widely covered on Moscow television. Organized food fairs in Moscow. In recent months, he began to publicly criticize the party leadership.
At the XXVII Congress of the CPSU in February 1986, he was elected as a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, and remained in this position until February 18, 1988.
After a series of conflicts with the leadership of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, on October 21, 1987, he spoke quite sharply at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee (criticized the work style of some members of the Politburo, in particular E.K. Ligachev, the slow pace of “perestroika”, the influence of R.M. Gorbacheva on husband; among other things, he announced the emergence of Gorbachev’s “personality cult”), after which he asked to be relieved of his duties as a candidate member of the Politburo. After this, he was criticized, including by those who previously supported him (for example, the “architect of perestroika” A. N. Yakovlev). After a series of critical speeches, he repented and admitted his mistakes:
The plenum adopted a resolution to consider Yeltsin’s speech “politically erroneous” and invited the Moscow City Committee to consider the issue of re-electing its first secretary. The transcript of Yeltsin's speech was not published in a timely manner, which gave rise to many rumors. Several forged versions of the text appeared in samizdat, much more radical than the original.
On November 9, 1987, he was admitted to the hospital. According to some evidence (for example, the testimony of M. S. Gorbachev, N. I. Ryzhkov and V. I. Vorotnikov) - due to an attempt to commit suicide (or to simulate a suicide attempt) (“case with scissors”).
On November 11, 1987, at the Plenum of the Moscow City Committee, he repented again, admitted his mistakes, but was released from the post of first secretary of the Moscow City Committee. However, he was not completely demoted, but remained in the ranks of the nomenklatura.
On January 14, 1988, he was appointed first deputy chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee - Minister of the USSR.
February 18, 1988 - by decision of the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, he was relieved of his duties as a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (but remained a member of the Central Committee).
In the summer of 1988 he became a delegate from Karelia to the XIX All-Union Party Conference. On July 1, he addressed the party conference with a request for “political rehabilitation during his lifetime”:
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You know that my speech at the October Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee was recognized as “politically erroneous.” But the questions raised there at the Plenum were repeatedly raised by the press and raised by the communists. These days, all these questions were practically heard from this rostrum, both in the report and in speeches. I believe that my only mistake in my speech was that I spoke at the wrong time - before the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution. I am acutely concerned about what happened and ask the conference to cancel the decision of the Plenum on this issue. If you consider it possible to cancel, you will thereby rehabilitate me in the eyes of the communists. And this is not only personal, it will be in the spirit of perestroika, it will be democratic and, it seems to me, will help it by adding confidence to people. |
Election as People's Deputy of the USSR
On March 26, 1989, he was elected People's Deputy of the USSR in national-territorial district No. 1 (Moscow city), receiving 91.53% of the votes of Muscovites, with a turnout of almost 90%. Yeltsin was opposed by ZIL General Director Evgeniy Brakov, supported by the authorities. During the elections at the Congress, Yeltsin did not enter the Supreme Council, but deputy A.I. Kazannik (later appointed Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation by Yeltsin) refused his mandate in favor of Yeltsin. From June 1989 to December 1990 - member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was elected chairman of the USSR Armed Forces Committee on Construction and Architecture, and therefore became a member of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces. One of the leaders of the Interregional Deputy Group.
In 1989, a number of scandals occurred: in the summer of 1989, B. N. Yeltsin, invited to the USA, allegedly spoke while drunk - reprint of a publication about this incident from an Italian newspaper La Repubblica in Pravda was perceived as a provocation by the party elite against the “dissident” Yeltsin, led to mass protests and the resignation of the newspaper’s editor-in-chief V. G. Afanasyev. According to Yeltsin himself, the incident is explained by the dose of sleeping pills that Yeltsin drank in the morning, suffering from insomnia. In September 1989, Yeltsin fell from a bridge in the Moscow region. He also got into a car accident: on September 21, the Volga car in which Yeltsin was driving collided with a Zhiguli, Yeltsin received a hip bruise.
On April 25, 1990, during an unofficial visit to Spain, he was in a plane accident, suffered a spinal injury and was operated on. A month after the incident, during the elections of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, hints appeared in the press that the accident was organized by the KGB of the USSR. It has been suggested that the numerous rumors that arose in connection with this accident influenced the outcome of the elections.
On May 29, 1990, he was elected (on the third attempt, with 535 votes against 467 from the “Kremlin candidate” A.V. Vlasov) Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. During Yeltsin's chairmanship, the Supreme Council adopted a number of laws that influenced the further development of the country, including, on December 24, 1990, the Law on Property in the RSFSR.
On June 12, 1990, the Congress adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR, providing for the priority of Russian laws over union ones. This sharply increased the political weight of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, who previously played a secondary, dependent role. The day of June 12 in 1991 became, according to the resolution of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, a state holiday of the Russian Federation.
On July 12, 1990, at the XXVIII, the last congress of the CPSU, Yeltsin criticized the Communist Party and its leader Gorbachev, and announced his resignation from the party.
On February 19, 1991, B. N. Yeltsin, in a televised speech, criticized the policies of the USSR government and for the first time demanded the resignation of M. S. Gorbachev and the transfer of power to the Federation Council, consisting of the leaders of the union republics.
On February 21, 1991, at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, a “letter of six” was announced (deputy chairmen of the Supreme Council S.P. Goryacheva and B.M. Isaev, chairmen of both chambers V.B. Isakov and R.G. Abdulatipov and their deputies A A. Veshnyakov and V. G. Syrovatko), which criticized the authoritarian style of B. N. Yeltsin in directing the work of the Supreme Council. R.I. Khasbulatov (first deputy chairman) actively spoke out in his defense and the deputies did not attach much importance to this letter.
Presidency
Domestic policy
President of the RSFSR
On June 12, 1991, he was elected President of the RSFSR, receiving 45,552,041 votes, which amounted to 57.30 percent of those who took part in the vote, and significantly ahead of Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov, who, despite the support of the Union authorities, received only 16.85 percent votes. Together with B.N. Yeltsin, Vice President Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy was elected. After his election, the main slogans of B. N. Yeltsin were the fight against the privileges of the nomenclature and the maintenance of Russian sovereignty within the USSR.
These were the first popular presidential elections in Russian history. USSR President Gorbachev was not popularly elected, but was elected as a result of voting at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.
On July 10, 1991, B. N. Yeltsin took the oath of allegiance to the people of Russia and the Russian Constitution, and took office as President of the RSFSR. After taking the oath, he gave a keynote speech, which he began energetically and emotionally, with an understanding of the solemnity of the moment.
One of Yeltsin's first presidential decrees concerned the liquidation of party organizations at enterprises. Yeltsin began negotiating the signing of a new union treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev and the heads of other union republics.
Putsch
On August 19, 1991, after the announcement of the creation of the State Emergency Committee and the isolation of Gorbachev in Crimea, Yeltsin led the opposition to the conspirators and turned the House of Soviets of Russia (“White House”) into a center of resistance. Already on the first day of the putsch, Yeltsin, speaking from a tank in front of the White House, called the actions of the State Emergency Committee a coup, then promulgated a number of decrees on the non-recognition of the actions of the State Emergency Committee. On August 23, Yeltsin signed a decree to suspend the activities of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, and on November 6 - to terminate the activities of the CPSU.
After the failure of the putsch and Gorbachev’s return to Moscow, negotiations on a new Union Treaty reached a dead end, and Gorbachev began to finally lose the levers of control, which gradually went to Yeltsin and the heads of other union republics.
Collapse of the USSR
In December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, secretly from USSR President Gorbachev, held negotiations with the President of Ukraine Leonid Makarovich Kravchuk and the head of the Belarusian parliament Stanislav Stanislavovich Shushkevich on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 8, 1991, in Viskuli, the presidents of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia signed the Belovezhskaya Agreement. It was signed in spite of the referendum on the preservation of the USSR, which took place on March 17, 1991. On December 8, an agreement on the creation of the CIS was signed in Minsk, and soon the majority of the union republics joined the Commonwealth, signing the Alma-Ata Declaration on December 21.
According to Yeltsin's opponents, the Belovezhskaya Agreement destroyed the USSR and caused a number of bloody conflicts in the post-Soviet space: Chechnya, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Tajikistan.
Alexander Lukashenko believes that the most negative consequence of the collapse of the USSR was the formation of a unipolar world.
According to Stanislav Shushkevich, in 1996, Yeltsin said that he regretted signing the Belovezhskaya Agreement.
On December 25, 1991, Boris Yeltsin received full presidential power in Russia in connection with the resignation of USSR President Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev and the actual collapse of the USSR. After the resignation of M. S. Gorbachev, B. N. Yeltsin was given a residence in the Kremlin and the so-called nuclear suitcase.
1991-1992
The economic problems of the early 1990s were compounded by a political crisis. In some regions of Russia, after the collapse of the USSR, separatist sentiments intensified. Thus, in Chechnya they did not recognize the sovereignty of Russia on its territory, in Tatarstan they decided to introduce their own currency and refused to pay taxes to the republican budget. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin managed to convince the heads of regions to sign the Federative Treaty; on March 31, 1992, it was signed by the President and the heads of regions (except for Tatarstan and Chechnya), and on April 10, it was included in the Constitution of the RSFSR.
In January 1993, an assassination attempt was to be made on Yeltsin. Mentally ill Russian Army Major Ivan Kislov repeatedly tried to kill the president, but was ultimately detained.
Political crisis
On December 10, 1992, the day after the Congress of People's Deputies did not approve the candidacy of Yegor Timurovich Gaidar for the post of Chairman of the Government, B. N. Yeltsin sharply criticized the work of the Congress of People's Deputies and tried to disrupt its work, calling on his supporters to leave the meeting. A political crisis began. After negotiations between Boris Yeltsin, Ruslan Khasbulatov and Valery Zorkin and multi-stage voting, the Congress of People's Deputies on December 12 adopted a resolution to stabilize the constitutional system, and Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was appointed Chairman of the Government.
After the Eighth Congress of People's Deputies, at which the decree on stabilizing the constitutional system was canceled and decisions were made that undermined the independence of the government and the Central Bank, on March 20, 1993, Boris Yeltsin, speaking on television with an appeal to the people, announced that he had signed a decree on the introduction "special management regime". The next day, the Supreme Council appealed to the Constitutional Court, calling Yeltsin’s appeal “an attack on the constitutional foundations of Russian statehood.” The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, without yet having a signed decree, recognized Yeltsin’s actions related to the televised address as unconstitutional and found grounds for his removal from office. The Supreme Council convened the IX (Extraordinary) Congress of People's Deputies. However, as it turned out a few days later, in fact, another decree was signed, which did not contain gross violations of the Constitution. On March 28, the Congress attempted to remove Yeltsin from the post of president. Speaking at a rally on Vasilyevsky Spusk, Yeltsin vowed not to implement the decision of the Congress if it was nevertheless adopted. However, only 617 deputies out of 1033 voted for impeachment, with 689 votes required.
The day after the failure of the impeachment attempt, the Congress of People's Deputies scheduled for April 25 an all-Russian referendum on four issues - on confidence in President Yeltsin, on approval of his socio-economic policy, on early presidential elections and on early elections of people's deputies. Boris Yeltsin called on his supporters to vote “all four yes,” while the supporters themselves were inclined to vote “yes-yes-no-yes.” According to the results of the confidence referendum, he received 58.7% of the votes, with 53.0% voting for economic reforms. On the issues of early elections of the president and people’s deputies, 49.5% and 67.2% of those who took part in the voting voted “for”, respectively, however, no legally significant decisions were made on these issues (since, according to the current laws, for this “ more than half of all eligible voters had to speak in favor). The contradictory results of the referendum were interpreted by Yeltsin and his circle in their favor.
After the referendum, Yeltsin focused his efforts on developing and adopting a new Constitution. On April 30, the presidential draft of the Constitution was published in the Izvestia newspaper, on May 18, the start of the work of the Constitutional Conference was announced, and on June 5, the Constitutional Conference met for the first time in Moscow. After the referendum, Yeltsin practically stopped all business contacts with the leadership of the Supreme Council, although for some time he continued to sign some of the laws he adopted, and also lost confidence in Vice-President A.V. Rutsky and relieved him of all assignments, and on September 1, he temporarily removed him from positions on suspicion of corruption, which was subsequently not confirmed.
On the evening of September 21, 1993, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, in a televised address to the people, announced that he had signed decree No. 1400, ordering the termination of the activities of the Supreme Council and the Congress of People's Deputies, and to schedule elections for December 11-12 to the newly created representative body of power, the Federal Assembly Russian Federation. The Constitutional Court, which met on the night of September 21-22, found in the decree a violation of a number of articles of the Constitution in force at that time, and established the existence of grounds for removing the president from office. The Supreme Council, by its resolution, announced the termination of Yeltsin’s presidential powers “in connection with a gross violation” of the Constitution, regarding this step as a coup d’etat, and the temporary transfer of powers to Vice President Rutskoi.
The Supreme Council announced the convening of the X (Extraordinary) Congress of People's Deputies on September 22. According to the speaker of the Supreme Council R.I. Khasbulatov, those executive authorities that submitted to Yeltsin detained deputies from the regions and prevented their arrival in other ways. In reality, the Congress was able to open only on the evening of September 23. At the same time, the quorum, which required 689 deputies, was not achieved at the Congress. According to the leadership of the Supreme Council, 639 deputies were present, the presidential side spoke only of 493. Then it was decided to deprive the deputy status of those who did not appear at the White House, after which they announced that a quorum had been reached. After this, the congress adopted a resolution on Yeltsin’s removal from office, in accordance with Articles 6 and 10 of the law “On the President of the RSFSR”. The confrontation between the president and the law enforcement forces loyal to him and supporters of the Supreme Council escalated into armed clashes. On October 3, Yeltsin declared a state of emergency. Supporters of the Supreme Council took control of one of the buildings of the Moscow City Hall on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment and tried to enter one of the buildings of the Ostankino television center. Yeltsin declared a state of emergency and, after consultation with Viktor Chernomyrdin and Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, gave the order to storm the building of the House of Soviets. The storming of the city hall building, the Ostankino television center and the storming of the House of Soviets building with the use of tanks led to numerous casualties (according to official data - 123 dead, 384 wounded) among supporters of the Supreme Council, journalists, law enforcement officers, and random people.
After the dissolution of the Supreme Council, Yeltsin for some time concentrated all power in his hands and made a number of decisions: on the resignation of A.V. Rutsky and the actual abolition of the post of vice president, on the suspension of the activities of the Constitutional Court, on the termination of the activities of Councils at all levels and changes in the system local self-government, on calling elections to the Federation Council and popular vote, as well as by its decrees cancels and changes a number of provisions of existing laws.
In this regard, some well-known lawyers (including the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Doctor of Law, Prof. V.D. Zorkin), statesmen, political scientists, politicians, journalists (primarily from among Yeltsin’s political opponents) noted that the country has established dictatorship. This is what, for example, the former chairman of the Supreme Council and an active participant in the events (among Yeltsin’s opponents), Prof. R.I. Khasbulatov:
In February 1994, the participants in the events were released in accordance with the State Duma's resolution on amnesty (they all agreed to the amnesty, although they were not convicted).
October events of 1993
From a legal point of view, the events of October 1993 contradicted the Constitution in force at that time. Before these events, serious disagreements arose between the President and the Supreme Council. Back in March 1993, Yeltsin planned to introduce the so-called OPUS (special order of governing the country) in the event that deputies expressed no confidence in the president. However, this was not necessary.
On September 21, Decree 1400 was issued. On the same day, the Constitutional Court declared the decree unconstitutional and the Supreme Council appointed A. V. Rutsky as acting President, but in fact, B. N. Yeltsin continued to serve as President. Since September 22, by order of Yeltsin, the building of the Supreme Council was blocked by the police and cut off from water and electricity. Thus, the deputies found themselves in a state of siege.
The demonstrations of citizens on the streets on October 3-4, which followed the storming of the Moscow mayor's office and the Ostankino television center by Rutskoi's supporters on October 3, were brutally suppressed. In the early morning of October 4, troops were brought into Moscow, followed by shelling of the House of Soviets, and after 5 p.m., the surrender of its defenders. During these events, 123 people died on both sides, according to the investigation, including not a single deputy.
Constitutional reform
On December 12, 1993, elections to the Federation Council and the State Duma took place, as well as a national referendum on the adoption of the draft new Constitution. On December 20, the Russian Central Election Commission announced the results of the referendum: 32.9 million voters voted “for” (58.4% of active voters), 23.4 million voted against (41.6% of active voters). The Constitution was adopted because, in accordance with the decree of President Yeltsin dated October 15, 1993 No. 1633 “On holding a popular vote on the draft Constitution of the Russian Federation” in force during the referendum, an absolute majority of votes is required for the new Constitution to enter into force. Subsequently, there were attempts to challenge the results of this vote in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, but the Court refused to consider the case, explaining this by the lack of rights to change several fundamental articles of the Constitution.
The new Constitution of the Russian Federation gave the President significant powers, while the powers of the Parliament were significantly reduced. The Constitution, after its publication on December 25 in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, came into force. On January 11, 1994, both chambers of the Federal Assembly began work, and the constitutional crisis ended.
At the beginning of 1994, Yeltsin initiated the signing of an agreement on social harmony and an agreement on the division of powers with Tatarstan, and then with other subjects of the Federation.
According to O. A. Platonov, Yeltsin and his inner circle in 1993-1994. They also did not rule out the possibility of restoring the monarchy in Russia with the proclamation of the minor (at that time) great-grandson of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, Georgiy Mikhailovich, as monarch. If this project were to be implemented, Yeltsin and his associates were assigned the role of a “collective regent” under George; This move was seen by supporters of the idea of restoring the monarchy as one of the “legitimate” opportunities to maintain power, “without the risk of elections.”
Chechen conflict
Back in September 1991, Dudayev’s people defeated the Supreme Council of Checheno-Ingushetia in Grozny, the chairman of which was Dokku Zavgaev, a supporter of the State Emergency Committee. The Chairman of the Supreme Council of Russia Ruslan Khasbulatov then sent them a telegram “I was pleased to learn about the resignation of the Armed Forces of the Republic.” After the collapse of the USSR, Dzhokhar Dudayev announced the secession of Chechnya from the Russian Federation and the creation of the Republic of Ichkeria.
And even after this, when Dudayev stopped paying taxes to the general budget and banned employees of the Russian special services from entering the republic, the federal center officially continued to transfer money to Dudayev. In 1993, 140 million rubles were allocated for the Kaliningrad region, and 10.5 billion rubles for Chechnya.
Russian oil continued to flow into Chechnya until 1994. Dudayev did not pay for it, but resold it abroad. Dudayev also got a lot of weapons: 2 missile launchers of the ground forces, 42 tanks, 34 infantry fighting vehicles, 14 armored personnel carriers, 14 lightly armored tractors, 260 aircraft, 57 thousand units of small arms and many other weapons.
Thus, a representative of the Yabloko party in 1999 accused Yeltsin of the fact that there were numerous cases of kidnappings in the Chechen Republic: “He, President Yeltsin, is guilty of the fact that in the year when the entire world community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights and he, President Yeltsin, declared a year of human rights protection in Russia; in Russia, at the turn of the third millennium, the slave trade was revived, serfdom was revived. I mean those 500 of our guys who are captured and every day this number of prisoners, unfortunately, does not decrease, but increases... It is he, President Yeltsin, who is to blame for the fact that one of my constituents received a call from Chechnya, from Grozny, and offered to ransom their son for 30 thousand dollars, or exchange him for one of the captured Chechens in Russian prisons, convicted Chechens.”
On November 30, 1994, B. N. Yeltsin decided to send troops into Chechnya and signed secret decree No. 2137 “On measures to restore constitutional legality and order in the territory of the Chechen Republic,” the Chechen conflict began.
On December 11, 1994, on the basis of Yeltsin’s decree “On measures to suppress the activities of illegal armed groups on the territory of the Chechen Republic and in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict zone,” the deployment of troops into Chechnya began. Many ill-considered actions led to heavy casualties among both military and civilians: tens of thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were injured. It often happened that during a military operation or shortly before it, an order to clear out came from Moscow. This gave the Chechen fighters the opportunity to regroup their forces. The first assault on Grozny was ill-conceived and led to heavy casualties: over 1,500 people died or went missing, and 100 Russian soldiers were captured.
In June 1995, during the seizure of a hospital and maternity hospital in Budyonnovsk by a detachment of militants led by Sh. Basayev, Yeltsin was in Canada and decided not to stop the trip, giving Chernomyrdin the opportunity to resolve the situation and negotiate with the militants, returning only after all the events were completed , fired the heads of a number of law enforcement agencies and the governor of the Stavropol Territory. In 1995, in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the legality of Decrees No. 2137 and No. 1833 (“On the main provisions of the military doctrine of the Russian Federation” in terms of the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in resolving internal conflicts) was challenged by a group of deputies of the State Duma and the Federation Council. According to the Federation Council, the acts it challenged constituted a unified system and led to the unlawful use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, since their use on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as other measures prescribed in these acts, are legally possible only within the framework of a state of emergency or martial law. The request emphasizes that these measures resulted in illegal restrictions and massive violations of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. According to a group of deputies of the State Duma, the use of the acts they challenged on the territory of the Chechen Republic, which resulted in significant casualties among the civilian population, contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the international obligations assumed by the Russian Federation. The Constitutional Court terminated the proceedings on the compliance of Decree No. 2137 with the Constitution of the Russian Federation without considering the merits, since this document was declared invalid on December 11, 1994.
In August 1996, Chechen militants drove federal troops out of Grozny. After this, the Khasavyurt agreements were signed, which are considered by many to be treacherous.
1996 presidential elections
By the beginning of 1996, B. N. Yeltsin, due to the failures and mistakes of economic reform and the war in Chechnya, had lost his former popularity, and his rating had dropped significantly (to 3%); however, he decided to run for a second term, which he announced on February 15 in Yekaterinburg (although he had previously repeatedly assured that he would not run for a second term). The main opponent of B. N. Yeltsin was considered the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation G. A. Zyuganov, who advocated changing the constitutional system, revising economic policy, sharply criticized Yeltsin’s course and had a fairly high rating. During the election campaign, Yeltsin became more active, began to actively travel around the country giving speeches, and visited many regions, including Chechnya. Yeltsin’s election headquarters launched an active campaign and advertising campaign under the slogan “vote or lose,” after which the gap in ratings between Zyuganov and Yeltsin began to rapidly decrease. Shortly before the elections, a number of populist legislative acts were adopted (for example, Yeltsin’s decree on the abolition of conscription into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation since 2000; this decree was soon changed by Yeltsin in such a way that references to the transition to a contract basis and the timing of the transition disappeared from it ). On May 28, B. N. Yeltsin and V. S. Chernomyrdin held negotiations with the Chechen delegation led by Z. A. Yandarbiev and signed a ceasefire agreement. The election campaign led to the polarization of society, dividing it into supporters of the Soviet system and supporters of the existing system.
A number of journalists, political scientists and historians (including Doctor of Historical Sciences V. A. Nikonov, who was at that time deputy chairman of the “All-Russian Movement to Support B. N. Yeltsin” and headed the press center of B. N.’s election headquarters Yeltsin) believe that the 1996 campaign cannot be called a democratic election, due to the widespread use of “administrative resources” (“to the fullest” - V. Nikonov), repeated exceeding by the election headquarters of B.N. Yeltsin the established limit on the funds spent, falsifications , and also due to the fact that almost all the media, with the exception of a few small-circulation communist newspapers, openly supported B.N. Yeltsin.
According to the results of the first round of voting on June 16, 1996, B. N. Yeltsin received 35.28% of the votes and advanced to the second round of elections, ahead of G. A. Zyuganov, who received 32.03%. A. I. Lebed received 14.52%, and after the first round, B. N. Yeltsin appointed him Secretary of the Security Council and made a number of personnel changes in the Government and law enforcement agencies. In the second round on July 3, 1996, B. N. Yeltsin received 53.82% of the votes, confidently ahead of Zyuganov, who received only 40.31%.
Between the first and second rounds of voting, B. N. Yeltsin was hospitalized with a heart attack, but managed to hide this fact from voters. He did not appear in public, but television showed several previously unaired videos of Yeltsin's meetings, filmed several months earlier, which were intended to demonstrate his “high vitality.” On July 3, Yeltsin appeared at the polling station of the sanatorium in Barvikha. Yeltsin refused to vote at his place of residence on Osennaya Street in Moscow, fearing that he would not be able to withstand the long walk along the street, stairs and corridor of this site.
Second term of President Yeltsin
After the elections, B. N. Yeltsin withdrew from governing the country for a long time due to poor health and did not appear before voters for some time. He appeared in public only at the inauguration ceremony on August 9, which was greatly abbreviated due to Yeltsin's poor health.
Persons who led and financed Yeltsin's election campaign were appointed to senior government positions: Anatoly Chubais became the head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Potanin became the first deputy chairman of the government of the Russian Federation, Boris Berezovsky became the deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
In August 1996, he authorized the Khasavyurt agreements, and in October he decided to relieve A.I. Lebed from all positions. On November 5, 1996, Yeltsin underwent coronary artery bypass surgery, during which V. S. Chernomyrdin acted as President. B. N. Yeltsin returned to work only at the beginning of 1997.
In 1997, B. N. Yeltsin signed a decree on the denomination of the ruble, held negotiations in Moscow with A. A. Maskhadov and signed an agreement on peace and the basic principles of relations with the Chechen Republic. In March 1998, he announced the resignation of the Chernomyrdin Government and, on the third attempt, under the threat of dissolution of the State Duma, nominated S.V. Kiriyenko. After the economic crisis of August 1998, when, two days after Yeltsin’s decisive statement on television that there would be no devaluation of the ruble, the ruble was devalued and depreciated 4 times, Kiriyenko dismissed the Government and offered to return Chernomyrdin. On August 21, 1998, at a meeting of the State Duma, the majority of deputies (248 out of 450) called on Yeltsin to voluntarily resign; only 32 deputies spoke in his support. In September 1998, with the consent of the State Duma, Boris Yeltsin appointed E. M. Primakov to the post of Chairman of the Government.
In May 1999, the State Duma unsuccessfully tried to raise the question of Yeltsin's removal from office (the five charges formulated by the initiators of impeachment mainly related to Yeltsin's actions during his first term). Before the vote on impeachment, Yeltsin dismissed the Primakov Government, then, with the consent of the State Duma, appointed S.V. Stepashin as Chairman of the Government, but in August dismissed him too, presenting for approval the candidacy of V.V. Putin, little known at that time, and declared him his successor. After the aggravation of the situation in Chechnya, the attack on Dagestan, the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow, Buinaksk and Volgodonsk, B. N. Yeltsin, at the suggestion of V. V. Putin, decided to conduct a series of counter-terrorism operations in Chechnya. Putin's popularity increased, and at the end of 1999, Yeltsin decided to resign, leaving Putin as acting head of state.
Resignation
On December 31, 1999 at 12 noon (which was repeated on the main television channels a few minutes before midnight, before the New Year's televised address), B. N. Yeltsin announced his resignation from the post of President of the Russian Federation:
Yeltsin explained that he was leaving “not for health reasons, but for the totality of all problems,” and asked for forgiveness from Russian citizens.
“Having finished reading the last sentence, he sat motionless for several more minutes, and tears poured down his face,” recalls TV cameraman A. Makarov.
Chairman of the Government V.V. Putin was appointed acting President, who immediately after B.N. Yeltsin’s announcement of his own resignation addressed a New Year’s address to the citizens of Russia. On the same day, V.V. Putin signed a decree guaranteeing Yeltsin protection from prosecution, as well as significant material benefits for him and his family.
Socio-economic policy
Economic reforms of the 1990s
In October 1991, Boris Yeltsin, speaking at the Congress of People's Deputies, announced the beginning of radical economic reforms and until June 1992 he personally headed the Government of the RSFSR that he formed.
One of the first serious economic decisions made by B. N. Yeltsin was a decree on free trade. After the collapse of the USSR, Boris Yeltsin began implementing radical economic reform in the country, often referred to as “shock therapy.” On January 2, 1992, a decree on price liberalization in Russia came into force. However, problems with providing the population with food and consumer goods have been replaced by problems associated with hyperinflation. Citizens' cash savings have depreciated, and prices and exchange rates have increased several times over the past few months; Hyperinflation was stopped only in 1993. Other decrees of Yeltsin initiated voucher privatization and loans-for-shares auctions, which led to the concentration of most of the former state property in the hands of a few people (the so-called “oligarchs”). In addition to hyperinflation, the country was faced with problems such as a decline in production and non-payments. Thus, non-payment of wages, as well as pensions and other social benefits, has become widespread. The country was in a deep economic crisis. Corruption has increased significantly in all echelons of government.
Criticism
During his presidency, Boris Yeltsin was subject to criticism, mainly related to the general negative trends in the country's development in the 1990s: the economic downturn, a sharp decline in living standards, the state's refusal of social obligations, population decline and worsening social problems. Most of these processes were launched back in the late 1980s and were caused by the crisis of the Soviet economic system. At the same time, a number of researchers note that with greater competence of the country’s leadership, even in unfavorable conditions (falling oil prices), such large-scale economic (Russian GDP in 1990-98 decreased by 40%) and social upheavals could have been avoided.
During Yeltsin's presidency (especially in the second half of the 90s), he was often accused of actually transferring the main levers of economic management into the hands of a group of influential entrepreneurs (the so-called oligarchs) and the corrupt top of the state apparatus, and all economic policy came down to lobbying the interests of that or another group of persons depending on their current influence.
On January 2, 1992, the so-called “shock therapy” began and government price regulation was abolished. Opponents of this reform warned before it began that it would lead to large losses in the economy, and that the state was given a major role in the recovery of the US economy (after the Great Depression) and the development of the Japanese economy in the post-war period.
By the end of 1992, the differentiation of residents into rich and poor increased sharply. 44% of the population fell below the poverty line.
By 1996, industrial production had decreased by 50%, agricultural production by a third. The GDP loss was approximately 40%.
The decline in industrial production was uneven. A relatively favorable situation was observed in the fuel and energy complex and ferrous metallurgy. In other words, the more raw material-based the industry was, the smaller the decline in production. The mechanical engineering and high-tech industries were hit the hardest. The volume of light industry production decreased by 90%.
In almost all indicators, there was a reduction of tens, hundreds and even thousands of times:
- combines - 13 times
- tractors - 14 times
- metal-cutting machines - 14 times
- VCRs - 87 times
- tape recorders - 1065 times
There have been significant changes in the structure of industry that are negative. Thus, they were expressed in a significant increase in the share of extractive industries and a decrease in the share of mechanical engineering and light industry.
The share of raw materials in the structure of exports has sharply increased: if in 1990 it was 60%, then in 1995 it increased to 85%. Exports of high-tech products decreased by 7 times.
Agricultural production fell by about a third. If in 1990 the gross grain harvest amounted to 116 million tons, then in 1998 a record low harvest was recorded - less than 48 million tons. The number of cattle fell from 57 million in 1990 to 28 million in 1999, and sheep from 58 to 14 million, respectively.
The budget during Yeltsin's reign was reduced by 13 times. From 25th place in 1990 in terms of living standards, Russia moved to 68th place in 2000.
As a result of privatization carried out in 1992-1994, a significant part of state property passed into the hands of a narrow circle of people, since many did not understand what to do with vouchers. Enterprises of strategic importance were sold at bargain prices: for example, the ZIL plant was sold for $250 million, while its price, according to expert research, was at least a billion dollars.
By 1999, unemployment in Russia stood at 9 million people.
Russia's external debt has increased sharply. In 1998, it amounted to 146.4% of GDP, which was one of the reasons for the default. The default led to the impoverishment of most of the population, loss of public trust in the state, and a drop in living standards. According to experts, the default hit the middle class the hardest.
In 1999, the Duma impeachment commission stated that Yeltsin deliberately pursued policies aimed at worsening the standard of living of citizens, accusing the president of genocide:
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The difficult living conditions of the people of Russia and the significant reduction in their numbers were the result of those measures that were implemented since 1992 under the leadership and with the active participation of President Yeltsin... There are serious reasons to believe that the reduction in population was also included in the intention of the president. In an effort to ultimately achieve changes in the country's socio-economic structure and ensure, with the help of the emerging class of private owners, the strengthening of their political power, President Yeltsin consciously went to worsen the living conditions of Russian citizens, inevitably leading to an increase in the mortality rate of the population and a reduction in its birth rate... |
At the same time, a member of the commission, deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Viktor Ilyukhin, said: “Yeltsin deliberately did not allow even a minimal improvement in the material condition of the dying peoples of Russia.”
Accusations of destroying the country's defense capabilities
On May 8, 1992, the concept of conversion was revised. In the new edition of the concept, 60% of defense enterprises switched to self-financing. The conversion began to proceed at a very fast pace, as a result of which the state defense order decreased by 5 times from 1991 to 1995.
In 1999, a deputy from the Yabloko faction, A. G. Arbatov, said that since 1992, a sharp reduction in defense spending began, which was not accompanied by transformations in the army in the military-industrial complex. According to Arbatov, before 1997, military reform was a “profanation,” and after the 1998 default, “in real terms, the military budget decreased threefold over the period 1998-1999.” Arbatov said that the blame for this lies with Yeltsin: “in no other area has the President concentrated such enormous powers in his hands as in managing the security forces. And in none of them were the results so disastrous.” At the same time, Arbatov noted that Yeltsin should bear moral, not legal responsibility.
Demographic situation
Since 1992, the demographic situation began to deteriorate sharply. Back in 1991, natural growth was positive; in 1992 it became negative. If in 1992 the natural population decline was 1.5 ppm, then in 1993 it was 5.1 ppm. In 1994, depopulation reached the bottom - 6.1 ppm. The number of people under 15 years of age fell from 24.5% in 1989 to 23% in 1995, people over 65 years of age increased from 18.5 to 20.2%, respectively.
One of the factors behind the population decline was the reduction in social support for the population by the state.
Life expectancy has fallen: from 63 to 56 years for men, from 76 to 70 for women.
Demographic losses (including unborns) amounted to over 10 million people.
The incidence of syphilis increased 25 times (and the incidence in the Far East increased 200 times, among children - 77 times), AIDS - 60 times.
Infant mortality has doubled. The highest infant mortality rate was achieved in 1992 - 19.9 per 1000 children.
The population of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and the Magadan Region decreased the most, where the population decline was 35.1% and 26.5%, respectively, in 1991-1994.
Foreign policy
Yeltsin's foreign policy aimed at recognizing Russia as a sovereign state and was aimed, on the one hand, at establishing relations with Western countries and overcoming the consequences of the Cold War, and on the other hand, at building new relations with the former Soviet republics, most of which became members of the CIS.
After the creation of the CIS in 1991, in December 1993 Yeltsin was elected its chairman. During the reign of B. N. Yeltsin, summits of the heads of state of the CIS were held several times a year. In March 1996, Yeltsin, together with the President of Belarus A. G. Lukashenko, the President of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev and the President of Kyrgyzstan A. A. Akaev, concluded an agreement on deepening economic and humanitarian integration, and in April 1996 - an agreement on the alliance of Russia and Belarus. This association has changed its name and status several times, but has not yet been fully implemented and exists more “on paper.” In the last years of his reign he advocated the creation of a single economic space.
At the end of January 1992, Boris Yeltsin launched disarmament initiatives and announced that from now on the weapons of the former USSR would not be aimed at US cities.
In 1993, while on a visit to Poland, Boris Yeltsin signed a Polish-Russian declaration in which he “sympathized” with Poland’s decision to join NATO. The declaration stated that such a decision does not contradict the interests of Russia. Similar statements were made by Yeltsin in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Strobe Talbot, First Deputy Secretary of State of the United States in 1994-2001, a direct participant in the negotiations, pointed out in his memoirs that in his foreign policy “Yeltsin agreed to any concessions, the main thing was to have time between glasses...”. It is B. N. Yeltsin’s passion for alcohol that explains B. Clinton’s success in achieving his political goals. Here's what Talbot writes about this in his book:
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Clinton saw Yeltsin as a political leader wholly focused on one big task: driving a stake through the heart of the old Soviet system. Supporting Yeltsin to succeed in this task was, in Clinton's (and my own) eyes, the most important goal, justifying the need to come to terms with many far less noble and sometimes downright stupid things. Moreover, the Clinton-Yeltsin friendship made it possible for the United States to achieve specific, difficult goals that could not be achieved through any other channels: the elimination of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Baltics, obtaining Russian consent to NATO expansion, the involvement Russia's peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. |
Yeltsin’s well-known foreign policy steps were also the following:
- Withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany;
- He opposed the bombing of Yugoslavia and threatened to “redirect” Russian missiles to the United States.
Yeltsin government
Vice President
- Rutskoy, Alexander Vladimirovich - from June 1991 to October 1993
Heads of government
- Silaev, Ivan Stepanovich - from June 1990 to September 1991
- Lobov, Oleg Ivanovich - and. O. Chairman from September to November 1991
- from November 1991 to June 1992, President B. N. Yeltsin himself headed the Government
- Gaidar, Egor Timurovich - and. O. Chairman from June to December 1992
- Chernomyrdin, Viktor Stepanovich - from December 1992 to March 1998
- Kirienko, Sergey Vladilenovich - from April to August 1998
- Primakov, Evgeny Maksimovich - from September 1998 to April 1999
- Stepashin, Sergey Vadimovich - from May to August 1999
- Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich - from August 1999 to May 2000
Foreign Ministers
- Kozyrev, Andrey Vladimirovich - from October 1990 to January 1996
- Primakov, Evgeny Maksimovich - from January 1996 to September 1998
- Ivanov, Igor Sergeevich - from September 1998 to February 2004
Ministers of Defense
- Kobets, Konstantin Ivanovich - from August to September 1991
- Grachev, Pavel Sergeevich - from May 1992 to June 1996
- Rodionov, Igor Nikolaevich - from July 1996 to May 1997
- Sergeev, Igor Dmitrievich - from May 1997 to March 2001
Yeltsin after resignation
Participation in public events
- On January 6, 2000, no longer being President, he led the Russian delegation during a visit to Bethlehem, planned during his reign
- On May 7, 2000, he took part in the inauguration ceremony of the new President V.V. Putin
- In November 2000, he created the Yeltsin Charitable Foundation.
- On June 12, 2001, he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st degree.
- In 2003, he was present at the opening of a monument to himself on the territory of one of the Issyk-Kul boarding houses. One of the peaks in the Ala-Too mountains, crowning the Kok-Zhaiyk (Green Glade) mountain gorge in one of the most beautiful places in Kyrgyzstan, is also named after him. After resigning, he visited Lake Issyk-Kul several times with his friend, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev.
- In 2004, Yeltsin’s name was given to the Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University, the decree on the founding of which Yeltsin signed in 1992.
- September 7, 2005 - while on vacation in Sardinia, he broke his femur. Delivered to Moscow and operated on. On September 17, 2005 he was discharged from the hospital.
- February 1, 2006 - awarded the Church Order of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy, 1st degree (ROC) in connection with his 75th anniversary.
- On August 22, 2006, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga awarded Boris Yeltsin the Order of Three Stars, 1st class, “for recognition of Latvia’s independence in 1991, as well as for his contribution to the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Baltic countries and the building of a democratic Russia.” At the award ceremony, Boris Yeltsin said that USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev’s resistance to democratic sentiments in the Baltic states was a “gross mistake.” The award ceremony coincided with the 15th anniversary of the State Emergency Committee. Vike-Freiberga emphasized that Yeltsin was awarded for his decisive actions during the putsch, which allowed Latvia to restore its independence. The Russian communities of Latvia, in turn, made a statement that by agreeing to accept the order, Boris Yeltsin thereby “betrayed the Russian residents of Latvia” and “solidarized with the undemocratic national policy” of the country.
- On December 2, 2006, he appeared in front of the public with his wife and granddaughter Maria at the tennis finals of the Davis Cup, where Russia defeated Argentina.
- March 25 - April 2, 2007 traveled to Jordan to visit holy places. In Jordan, Boris Nikolaevich rested on the Dead Sea, then visited Israel - the place on the Jordan River where, according to legend, Jesus Christ was baptized.
Opinions and assessments of his position in retirement
According to a book published in 2009 by Mikhail Kasyanov, appointed Chairman of the Government by Putin in May 2000, initially, after his resignation, Yeltsin was keenly interested in what was happening, invited ministers to his dacha, asked how things were going; however, Putin soon “politely asked” Kasyanov to arrange for members of the government to stop bothering Yeltsin, citing the fact that doctors do not recommend such meetings; according to Kasyanov, in essence, it was an order: “no one else should go to Yeltsin”; In addition, at the insistence of Putin, in 2006 the format of the celebration of Yeltsin’s 75th anniversary was changed in order to control the contingent of invited persons.
Death and funeral
Boris Yeltsin died on April 23, 2007 at 15:45 Moscow time in the Central Clinical Hospital as a result of cardiac arrest caused by progressive cardiovascular and then multiple organ failure, that is, dysfunction of many internal organs caused by a disease of the cardiovascular system - Sergei Mironov, head of the Medical Center of the Administration of the President of Russia, said in an interview with RIA Novosti. At the same time, in the news television program “Vesti” he reported another cause of the ex-president’s death: “Yeltsin suffered a rather severe catarrhal viral infection (cold), which hit all organs and systems very hard.” Yeltsin was hospitalized 12 days before his death. However, according to cardiac surgeon Renat Akchurin, who performed the operation on the ex-president, “nothing foreshadowed” Yeltsin’s death. At the request of Boris Yeltsin's relatives, an autopsy was not performed.
B. N. Yeltsin was buried in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was open all night from April 24 to 25, so that everyone could say goodbye to the ex-president of Russia. " Someday history will give the deceased an impartial assessment“,” noted Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, who did not participate in the funeral service and funeral.
Yeltsin was buried on April 25 at the Novodevichy cemetery with military honors. The funeral was broadcast live by all state channels.
Boris Yeltsin's assessments
"Yeltsinism"
The period of Yeltsin’s rule in the assessments of critics of his regime is often referred to as Yeltsinism. Thus, Yu. Prokofiev and V. Maksimenko give the following definition of the concept of “Yeltsinism”:
Personal qualities
Political scientists and the media characterized Yeltsin as a charismatic personality, noted the unusual and unpredictability of his behavior, eccentricity, lust for power, tenacity, and cunning. Opponents argued that Yeltsin was characterized by cruelty, cowardice, rancor, deceit, and a low intellectual and cultural level. It was suggested that Yeltsin was a protege of the West to destroy the USSR. In 2007, journalist Mark Simpson wrote in The Guardian: “A perpetually drunken scoundrel who reduced most of his people to unimaginable poverty while simultaneously enriching his clique fantastically. A president who robbed an entire generation by stealing their pensions, sent living standards into free fall and cut the average life expectancy of Russian men by decades... A man who began his career as a populist with campaigns against the relatively modest corruption of party functionaries later became the head of the country in an era of such widespread corruption and banditry as has no parallel in history. He not only kowtowed to Western interests, but also presided over the near-final destruction of his country as a political and military force on the world stage. He trampled Russia into the mud so that we wouldn’t have to do it ourselves.”.
On the occasion of Yeltsin’s death, The Times journalist Rod Liddle paid much attention to the former president’s addiction to alcohol in his article: “No one else in Russian history has managed to save the state hundreds of liters of formaldehyde by reliably preserving themselves not just during their lifetime, but also in power.”.
Public opinion about Yeltsin
According to the Public Opinion Foundation, 41% of Russian residents assess Yeltsin’s historical role negatively, and 40% positively (in 2000, immediately after his resignation, this ratio looked more depressing - 67% versus 18%).
According to Levada Center, 67% in 2000 and 70% in 2006 assessed the results of his reign negatively, 15% and 13%, respectively, positively.
As the British magazine The Economist wrote, “Even before he left office, most Russians across the country, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, felt nothing but contempt for their president - partly due to galloping inflation, unpaid wages, the plunder of the people's property by the oligarchs, but even more due to humiliation "to which, in their opinion, he subjected the country with his drunken clown antics."
TV polemics noted that “under Yeltsin, a lot of journalists were really killed.”
Attitudes towards Yeltsin in the West
A number of Western politicians and the media have very mixed assessments of Yeltsin's activities. Yeltsin is credited, in particular, with the final destruction of the USSR, the implementation of economic reforms, and the fight against the communist opposition. Yeltsin is blamed, in particular, for the incompetence of his government, the creation of a class of “oligarchs” through the sale of state assets for next to nothing, the war in Chechnya, the rise of corruption and anarchy, the decline in the standard of living of the population and the decline of the economy, as well as the transfer of power to Vladimir Putin, since According to a number of Western sources, Putin's rule is "less democratic" and represents a "return to authoritarianism."
Former US President Bill Clinton believed that Yeltsin “he did a lot to change the world. Thanks to him, the world has changed for the better in many ways.”. Clinton gives high marks to Yeltsin's ability to make “certain compromises.” According to Clinton, under Yeltsin “Russia was truly developing democratic pluralism with a free press and an active civil society”. Clinton recalled expressing his doubts about Putin to Yeltsin in 2000: Clinton was not sure that Putin was “as committed to the principles of democracy and willing to adhere to them in the same way as Yeltsin.”
The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal wrote in an editorial: “Yeltsin’s worst enemy was himself. Drunken antics not only undermined his health, but also became symptoms of the incompetence of the Kremlin authorities. In 1992, he briefly embraced the limited market reforms that gave capitalism a bad name in Russia. He created the “oligarchs” through a loan-for-equity scheme (essentially selling off the best assets to “his people” for pennies) and through a bungled privatization that was aggressively pushed through by his advisers, who got rich off it. He failed to strengthen political institutions and the rule of law. The Chechen war, which began in 1994, was a military and political fiasco. Russia has never, neither before nor since, known such freedom as in Yeltsin’s 1990s.”, Putin, according to the publication, eliminated Yeltsin’s best achievements.
An editorial in The Washington Post said: “This man's contribution to history is controversial, but his steps in defense of freedom will not be erased from human memory. Frequently ill, often appearing tipsy, he [Yeltsin] allowed corruption and anarchy to flourish within government structures and beyond. The Russians felt his stupid antics as a shame. Over the next seven years, Putin reversed most of the liberal reforms that his predecessor had fought for."
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl called Yeltsin a “great statesman” and a “faithful friend of the Germans.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Yeltsin “was a great personality in Russian and international politics, a courageous fighter for democracy and a true friend of Germany.”
Journalist Mark Simpson wrote in The Guardian: “If Yeltsin, having successfully overthrown the communist regime, instead of alcoholic chaos and impotence, had built a strong Russia on its ruins, which would defend its own interests and be an influential force on the world stage, his reputation in the West would have been completely different and some of them would have fallen on him those who now glorify him. He would be hated almost as much as... Putin!”.
The editor of The Nation magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel, disagrees with the idea that Yeltsin's rule was democratic. According to her, “Yeltsin’s anti-democratic policies after August 1991 polarized, poisoned and impoverished this country, laying the foundation for what is happening there today, although responsibility for this rests solely with current Russian President Vladimir Putin.”. Havel believes that the actions of Yeltsin and a small group of his associates to liquidate the USSR “without consultation with parliament” were “neither legal nor democratic.” “Shock therapy”, carried out with the participation of American economists, according to her, led to the fact that the population lost their savings, and about half of Russians found themselves below the poverty line. Havel recalls the shelling of the democratically elected parliament by tanks, which killed and injured hundreds of people. According to her, representatives of the US administration then stated that they “would support these actions of Yeltsin, even if they were of an even more violent nature”. The journalist sharply criticizes the war that started in Chechnya and the 1996 presidential elections (accompanied, according to her, by falsifications and manipulations, and financed by oligarchs who received in return auctions for loans). As Havel summed up, Yeltsin's rule, in the opinion of millions of Russians, put the country on the brink of destruction, and not on the path of democracy. Russia experienced the worst industrial depression in the world in the 20th century. As one of the famous American Sovietologists Peter Reddway wrote in collaboration with Dmitry Glinsky, “for the first time in modern world history, one of the leading industrialized countries with a highly educated society has eliminated the results of several decades of economic development”. Havel believes that during the reforms the American press predominantly distorted the picture of the real situation in Russia.
An editorial in The Guardian on the occasion of Yeltsin's death noted: “But if Yeltsin considered himself the founding father of post-communist Russia, he did not make Thomas Jefferson. The meeting, where the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus worked on a plan for the collapse of the Union, ended in a drunken quarrel. Russia's democratic dawn lasted only two years until the new president ordered tanks to fire on the same parliament that helped him end Soviet rule. Blood began to be shed in the name of liberal democracy, which offended some Democrats. Yeltsin abandoned government price subsidies as dogma, and as a result, inflation rates soared to 2,000%. It was called “shock therapy,” but there was too much shock and too little therapy. Millions of people found their savings evaporated overnight, while the president's relatives and inner circle amassed huge personal fortunes that they still own to this day. Yeltsin’s market reforms led to a greater decline in industrial production than the invasion of Hitler’s troops in 1941... Yeltsin turned out to be a more effective destroyer of the USSR than a builder of Russian democracy.”.
Family
Boris Yeltsin was married and had two daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Wife - Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina (Girina) (baptized Anastasia). Daughters - Elena Okulova and Tatyana Dyachenko.
Perpetuation of memory
- On April 8, 2008, the main street of the business center of Yekaterinburg City, January 9 Street in Yekaterinburg was renamed Boris Yeltsin Street.
- On April 23, 2008, a solemn opening ceremony of the monument to Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, made by the famous sculptor Georgy Frangulyan, took place at the Novodevichy Cemetery. The memorial is a wide tombstone made in the colors of the Russian flag - white marble, blue Byzantine mosaic and red porphyry. An Orthodox cross is engraved on the paving stones under the tricolor. The ceremony was attended by the family of Boris Yeltsin, including the widow Naina Iosifovna, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the elected President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Sobyanin, members of the government, friends, colleagues and people who worked with the first President of the Russian Federation.
- On April 23, 2008, the Ural State Technical University - UPI was named after Boris Yeltsin.
- On the anniversary of Yeltsin’s death in his native village of Butka, a memorial plaque was installed on the wall of the house built by the father of the first president of Russia and one of the streets was renamed “Yeltsin Street.”
- In May 2009, the Presidential Library named after B. N. Yeltsin was opened in St. Petersburg.
- In the city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University was named after B.N. Yeltsin during his lifetime.
- On February 1, 2011, a monument to Boris Yeltsin, the work of architect Georgy Frangulyan, was opened in Yekaterinburg, near the future presidential center in Demidov Plaza
Unusual incidents from the life of Yeltsin
- During the baptism, the drunken priest who baptized Boris almost drowned him in the font, after which they pumped him out and decided to name him Boris as he was strong enough and tenacious enough.
- Yeltsin himself explained the absence of two fingers on his hand this way: as a high school student, he stole a grenade from an armory and, wanting to find out how it worked, took it to the forest, put it on a stone and hit it with a hammer, forgetting to pull out the fuse, as a result of which injured his hand and was left without two fingers. The plausibility of this explanation was often subject to reasonable doubts, for example, S. G. Kara-Murza, in the book “Soviet Civilization,” wrote: “Perhaps this story should be understood as an allegory. There are too many oddities: it is difficult to saw through the grating while a sentry is walking around the church, grenades are not stored with fuses, a grenade that explodes in the hands tears off not only two fingers, but something else.”
- While studying at the institute, he made a two-month trip around the country, moving on the roofs and steps of carriages, and got into trouble playing “borax” with criminals.
- According to Yeltsin himself, while working as a driver on the BKSM-5 tower crane, he negligently forgot to secure the crane after a working day, at night he discovered that it was moving, climbed into the control cabin and stopped the crane at the risk of his life.
- According to Yeltsin himself, when he worked as a foreman at a construction site, criminals were given his subordination. He refused to close their orders for work not done, after which one of the criminals ambushed him with an ax and demanded to close the orders, threatening to kill him if he refused, to which Yeltsin answered him: “Get out!”, and the criminal had no choice but to throw the ax and follow in the direction indicated by Yeltsin.
- When Yeltsin worked as the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, during a working trip to the region on the eve of November 7, Yeltsin and those accompanying him got lost on the road, broke down the car and could not fix it, walked across the field to the village and there, despite the fact that all the residents villages were in a drunken state, they found a tractor on which they were able to return to the road, and a telephone in the administrative building, through which Yeltsin contacted the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate and asked to send a helicopter for him in order to catch him at the podium during the festive demonstration in honor of the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution Revolutions.
- On September 28, 1989, Yeltsin fell into the water from a bridge near the government dacha. According to the stories of his main bodyguard, Korzhakov, Yeltsin told him that unknown people put a bag over his head and threw him off the bridge. However, an official investigation, organized at the initiative of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, did not confirm the fact of the attack. What actually happened is still unknown. For a long time there were rumors about revenge on Yeltsin on the part of the party elite and an attempt to discredit him.
- At the end of 1989, Yeltsin toured the United States with speeches. Reprints from foreign ones appeared in Soviet newspapers that Yeltsin spoke while drunk, and television showed his poorly coordinated movements (which, however, could have been the result of film editing). Yeltsin himself explained his inadequate state by the effect of sleeping pills, which he took to combat stress and insomnia.
- In the spring of 1990, Yeltsin almost died while in Spain. In the small plane in which he flew from Cordoba to Barcelona, the entire power supply system failed. With great difficulty, the pilots landed the plane at an intermediate airfield, and during landing the plane received a strong blow. As a result, one of Yeltsin’s intervertebral discs was crushed, and the fragments pinched the nerve. Spanish doctors performed a complex, many-hour operation, which turned out to be successful, and after three days Yeltsin began to walk. Barcelona residents stood at the hospital doors for hours, brought flowers, and waited for Yeltsin to be taken out for a walk. However, no one from the USSR Embassy or other Soviet organizations visited him.
- According to numerous testimonies of people who worked with Yeltsin, he abused alcohol. When he asked the guards to run for vodka, they went to Korzhakov, who allegedly secretly diluted the vodka and sealed the bottle using a machine that was seized from counterfeit vodka dealers and given to the police museum, and later to Korzhakov. After heart surgery, doctors forbade Yeltsin to drink a lot.
- After drinking alcohol at official receptions during visits, Yeltsin began to behave strangely - in Germany he tried to conduct an orchestra, and on a flight from the USA to Moscow he felt ill and was unable to get off the plane for planned negotiations with the Prime Minister of Ireland at Shannon Airport, which His security service explained it as a “mild illness.”
- Once, when he was president, during an official ceremony he pinched the side of one of the Kremlin stenographers; this episode was shown on television.
Awards and titles
Awards of Russia and the USSR:
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st class (June 12, 2001) - for a particularly outstanding contribution to the formation and development of Russian statehood
- Order of Lenin (January 1981) - for services to the Communist Party and the Soviet State and in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of his birth
- 2 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor:
In August 1971 - for services to the implementation of the five-year plan
In January 1974 - for the successes achieved in the construction of the first stage of the cold rolling shop at the Verkh-Isetsky Metallurgical Plant
- Order of the Badge of Honor (1966) - for the success achieved in fulfilling the tasks of the seven-year construction plan
- Medal "In memory of the 1000th anniversary of Kazan" (2006)
- Medal “For Valiant Labor. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin" (November 1969)
- Jubilee medal "Thirty years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" (April 1975)
- Medal “60 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR” (January 1978)
- VDNKh gold medal (October 1981)
Foreign awards:
- Order of Francis Skaryna (Belarus, December 31, 1999) - for his great personal contribution to the development and strengthening of Belarusian-Russian cooperation
- Order of the Golden Eagle (Kazakhstan, 1997)
- Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 1st degree (Ukraine, January 22, 2000) - for significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian-Russian cooperation
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic decorated with a large ribbon (Italy, 1991)
- Order of Three Stars, 1st class (Latvia, 2006)
- Order of Bethlehem 2000 (Palestinian Authority, 2000)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (France, ???)
- Order of Good Hope, 1st class (South Africa, 1999)
- Medal of Memory of January 13 (Lithuania, January 9, 1992)
- Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Vytis (Lithuania, 10 June 2011, posthumously)
- Order “For Personal Courage” (PMR, October 18, 2001)[
Departmental awards:
- Commemorative medal of A. M. Gorchakov (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, 1998)
- Golden Olympic Order (IOC, 1993)
Church awards:
- Order of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Demetrius Donskoy, 1st degree (ROC, 2006)
- Knight of the chain of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarchate, 2000)
Ranks:
- Honorary citizen of the Sverdlovsk region (2010, posthumously)
- Honorary citizen of Kazan (2005)
- Honorary citizen of the Samara region (2006)
- Honorary Citizen of Yerevan (Armenia) (2002)
- Honorary citizen of Turkmenistan
Books by B. N. Yeltsin
- “Confession on a Given Topic” (Moscow. Publishing house “PIK”, 1990) - a small book in which autobiography, political credo and a story about Yeltsin’s election campaign in the elections of people’s deputies are intertwined.
- “Notes of the President” (1994) - a book written by the current president, it tells about such events of 1990-93 as the presidential elections, the August putsch (GKChP), the collapse of the USSR, the beginning of economic reforms, the constitutional crisis of 1992-93, the events of September 21 - October 4, 1993 (dissolution of the Supreme Council).
- "The President's Marathon" (2000) - a book published shortly after the resignation, it talks about the second presidential election and the second presidential term.
