Word: yeltsin
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There was, in fact, little beauty in Yeltsin's career, though there was much drama and passion. Yeltsin, born in 1931, was a tough, disciplinarian Communist Party chief from Sverdlovsk, in the Urals. He made his career in Moscow under Gorbachev but constantly fretted that he was not given the authority he deserved. In mid-1991 Yeltsin became President of the Russian republic, then just a part of the Soviet Union. His finest hour came a few months later, when, with Gorbachev isolated in the Crimea, Yeltsin faced down a junta of ham-fisted communist leaders who were trying...
There is also much blood in Yeltsin's legacy. Thousands of dead--in Chechnya, in the Russian parliament's revolt in October 1993 and in other smaller conflicts. The destruction of the Russian parliament was in many ways the turning point in his presidency. As rebels moved across Moscow, meeting little resistance, close aides went to his office to ask for instructions. They found Yeltsin sitting in a darkened room, seemingly paralyzed by depression or despair. After the parliament's revolt was crushed, Boris the populist disappeared. The man who had once expressed near physical revulsion at the luxury (very...
...West managed for most of his rule to overlook the dark side of Yeltsin's personality and presidency. The 100,000 or so deaths during the first Chechen war were regrettable, Western officials said. His character was sometimes a problem, but things were never boring with Boris, they added indulgently. He insulted the West but never broke with it. He was firmly and uncompromisingly anticommunist...
When I spoke to Boris Yeltsin by phone on New Year's Eve, shortly after he announced his resignation, he conveyed a mixture of relief that a tough choice was behind him and confidence that it was the right choice for his country...
...manner of his leaving the presidency was vintage Yeltsin--bold, blunt, even defiant, but rooted in his core belief in the right and the ability of the Russian people to choose their own leaders and their own course for the future...