Who was Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin? President Yeltsin: years of rule and results Famous events related to Yeltsin

Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin is a Soviet and Russian politician, the first president of the Russian Federation (1992-1999), who managed to stop the collapse of the country's economy at a time of crisis. He is remembered for his achievements in the industrial sector, and was successful in communication with Western countries and former Soviet republics.

Childhood

Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin was born in a small village in the Ural region on February 1, 1931. His family was originally rural: his paternal grandfather was considered a kulak (a wealthy peasant) and was exiled at one time to Nadezhdinsk. Nikolai Yeltsin was no longer able to inherit his family’s lands and made a living from construction, and Boris’s mother, Klavdia Vasilievna, was a dressmaker.

3 years after the birth of the boy, trouble came to the Yeltsin family - the arrest of his father. He and four other builders were accused of anti-Soviet agitation and sent to serve a labor sentence for 3 years. The prisoner's wife and little son were kicked out of the barracks in which they lived. They found shelter in the house of a doctor from Kazan, Vasily Petrovich Petrov, who was serving his sentence with Nikolai Yeltsin. The doctor's wife provided them with housing.

In 1936, Nikolai was released early, he returned to his wife, and a year later another son appeared in the family. In 1937, the Yeltsins returned to the Urals to the city of Berezniki, where their father built a good career. Here Boris went to school, was a headman and an activist. In the 7th grade, he had a conflict with his teacher, for which the guy was kicked out of school with a bad recommendation. The future president addressed the city party committee, where he spoke about physical and labor punishments from this teacher; Later he was able to continue his studies at another institution and receive a certificate.

student life

Immediately after graduating from school in 1949, Boris entered the Ural Polytechnic Institute named after S. M. Kirov. The Faculty of Civil Engineering was not chosen in vain - the guy was following in the footsteps of his father. In 1955, Yeltsin graduated with a qualification as a civil engineer with a specialty in Industrial and Civil Construction.

During his studies, the guy became seriously interested in volleyball: he played in the Yekaterinburg national team and even became a master of sports of the USSR. In 1952, he was the coach of the women's volleyball team of the Molotov region.

Carier start

According to his assignment after university, he ends up in the construction company “Uraltyazhtrubstroy”, where he already masters in practice the professions of a carpenter, painter, concrete worker, carpenter, bricklayer, glazier, plasterer and machinist. As Boris himself recalls, this path was chosen deliberately: despite the fact that specialists with a diploma could occupy leadership positions, the guy wanted to go through all the steps on his own.

The zeal of yesterday's student could not go unnoticed, and in two years he rose to the rank of foreman in the construction department. By the mid-1960s, Yeltsin headed the Sverdlovsk house-building plant.

During the same period he began his political career. He becomes a member of the CPSU in 1961. After two years of political activity, he becomes a recognized member of the party: he goes to city, district, and then regional conferences of the CPSU as an elected delegate. The efforts of the young party member do not go unnoticed: in 1968, Boris Yeltsin was transferred to party work in the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, where his political career developed by leaps and bounds.

Rise of political power

As head of the construction department, Yeltsin did a lot for the region: agriculture was gaining momentum, new housing complexes and industrial buildings were being built. In 1975 he became responsible for the industrial development of the region, and in 1976 he was made the de facto leader of the Sverdlovsk region.

He held the post of first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU for almost 10 years - until 1985. The most high-profile achievements of the future president include the construction of the Yekaterinburg-Serov highway, a new 20-story building of the regional committee of the CPSU, and achieved the decision to build a metro in Sverdlovsk.

It was Boris Nikolaevich who initiated the creation of experimental villages in the villages of Baltym and Patrushi in order to improve agriculture and improve the quality of life of workers. The Baltym cultural and sports complex designed by Yeltsin became a source of pride for the entire region - the building in the style of Soviet futurism had no analogues in the construction practice of the USSR.

Despite the fact that Boris Nikolaevich never served in the army due to the absence of two fingers on his hand (childhood injury), while at party work he received the military rank of reserve colonel.

Over the next few years, Yeltsin’s influence and power in politics grew: until 1989 he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (member of the Council of the Union), until 1988 - a member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council, a member of the CPSU Central Committee until 1990. In the late 80s and early 90s, he was also remembered for his impudent statements about the current government and criticism of Gorbachev, for which he was removed from a number of official duties.

A negative attitude towards the leader of the USSR was already growing in society, and against this background, the young and lively Boris Nikolaevich had a winning position. Yeltsin's successes and influence were noticed and appreciated. During the collapse of the Union, he and his comrades were able to achieve authority, assume power and prevent a real war from breaking out.

Presidency: first term

Events on the eve of Yeltsin's inauguration unfolded rapidly. On August 19, 1991, First Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev was removed, and power was seized by the so-called GKChP (State Committee for the State of Emergency). The events known today as the "August Putsch" were nothing more than an attempted coup d'état that developed into a full-scale civil war.

Yeltsin's role in this period of time was enormous. With his comrades-in-arms, he became opposed to the illegally acting body and ultimately destroyed the political power of the State Emergency Committee. It was Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, who became the first president in Russian history, who signed the Belovezhskaya Agreement on the liquidation of the USSR. Thus, the impending internal war for the independence of the countries that were once part of the union was prevented.

In his post, Yeltsin did a lot of useful things to restore the economy and moral improvement of the society of the new country. He adopted the Constitution, established relations with the countries of the former union, and entered into dialogue with the leaders of Western countries.

The first president also had outright failures in the conduct of domestic policy. In particular, he failed to stop the armed conflict in Chechnya, which resulted in a multi-year war.

And in order to add to Russia’s image in the international arena, he announced the disarmament of the country in the direction of US cities and approved the deployment of NATO bases in countries neighboring the CIS. For this, critics and historians accuse him of suppressing the military power of the Russian Federation.

Participation in the 1996 elections as a presidential candidate was impulsive and motivated only by a reluctance to allow communists to power. The political program with the slogan “Vote or Lose” was very successful. He visited a large number of cities, appeared on stage with pop stars, and participated in live discussions with young people and students. In a short period of time, Yeltsin’s rating rose from 3-6% to 35%, but the heavy workload during the campaign period affected his health - he suffered a heart attack.

Second term

After the victory, the current president focused on stabilizing the economy and improving the social sphere. The government built a program to eliminate wage arrears and unsuccessfully fought bribery and arbitrariness in the ranks of officials. The reforms also affected the sphere of small/medium businesses: uniform rules were introduced for bankers and entrepreneurs, and a system of benefits was launched for private entrepreneurs who want to develop their own business in difficult crisis conditions.

However, Boris Nikolayevich himself is no longer able to tolerate heavy government burdens, his nerves were fraying, and this ultimately had a negative effect on his heart. Yeltsin underwent bypass surgery. In 1998, a global crisis came, which acutely affected the country: all the mistakes and miscalculations in the economy of the current leader came to the surface. The result was inflation of the national currency, default and collapse in the banking industry.

Boris Yeltsin made his resignation from the presidency symbolic: he remained in power until the last day of the 20th century, and with the advent of the new century, on the air of New Year's greetings on December 31, 1999, he announced his resignation. The reason for this decision was a combination of factors: serious health problems, a crisis in the country and the world, pressure and criticism. Since at the time of Yeltsin’s resignation 67% of citizens had a negative attitude towards him, the president asked for forgiveness from his fellow citizens.

Personal life

Boris Yeltsin's personal life was successful: he met his future wife while still studying at the Polytechnic Institute. Naina (Anastasia) Girina worked as a project manager at the Vodokanal Institute. He married Naina immediately after graduating from university in 1956.

In 1957 and 1960 they had daughters: Elena and Tatyana, respectively. Later, the daughters gave the president five grandchildren.

Boris Nikolaevich remained faithful to his wife until the end of his life. In many publications about his biography, Yeltsin paid tribute to his wife, each time emphasizing her support. Some journalists believe that the wife of the first president of Russia influenced her husband’s political activities, in particular in personnel policy.

Death

Towards the end of his life, the first president of Russia suffered greatly from a disease of the cardiovascular system. It is no secret that he was diagnosed with alcoholism - nervous tension as the leader of the country and constant criticism from ill-wishers affected him.

In mid-April 2007, Boris Nikolaevich 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. Death occurred on April 23, 2007, at the age of 76.

“Cardiac arrest as a result of dysfunction of internal organs” was the wording indicated in the cause of death. The funeral of the first president of Russia took place with full military honors at the Novodevichy cemetery, the process was broadcast live on all state television channels. At the grave of Boris Yeltsin there is a tombstone in the form of a boulder painted in the colors of the national flag.

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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)
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
	Klavdiya Vasilievna Starygina
	Naina Iosifovna Girina
	Elena Borisovna Okulova Tatyana Borisovna Yumasheva
Autograph:

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:

“...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”:

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 laws. 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 election

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 an unfavorable environment (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:

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:

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 populist career 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 the 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.

Yeltsin’s activities are difficult to assess impartially, since too little time has passed since his leadership of the country. Only one thing is certain: he was a man who turned the tide of history and carried out a number of reforms that had ambiguous consequences for Russia.

Yeltsin's domestic and foreign policy

In the field of domestic policy, Yeltsin pursued a course to democratize the country's political system. In 1993, during events caused by an internal political conflict in the leadership of the Russian Federation, Yeltsin managed to defeat the opposition - Vice President Alexander Rutsky and supporters of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation led by Ruslan Khasbulatov. As a result, Yeltsin remained in power, the country continued on its planned course, and all the Soviets were eliminated.

Under Yeltsin, the constitutional foundations of the Russian political system were formed. In December 1993, the Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted, the country turned into a presidential republic. Fundamental legislative codes were adopted.

In the fight against separatism and the collapse of the state, Yeltsin sent troops into the Chechen Republic in 1994. Officially, the operation was called “Restoration of constitutional order in the Chechen Republic” and lasted from December 11, 1994 to August 31, 1996. Later, the Counter-Terrorist Operation was carried out in the North Caucasus (August 7, 1999 - April 16, 2009).

The foreign policy pursued by Russia during the Yeltsin period can be divided into two periods: 1991-1996 - an unsuccessful attempt at rapprochement with the West; 1996-1999 - disappointment in attempts to establish equal relations with Euro-Atlantic states, the formation of a more independent course under Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, as well as a reorientation of relations mainly towards China and India and some other Asian countries.

Yeltsin's reforms

In addition to constitutional reform and measures aimed at forming the constitutional foundations of Russia's political system, other reforms were carried out under Yeltsin aimed at leading the country out of the crisis, but they were not crowned with total success.

In the field of economics, prices were liberalized, foreign trade was liberalized, privatization was carried out, inflation was fought, large agricultural enterprises were split up, and their organizational type changed. The first three points were a kind of “three pillars” of economic reforms.

In addition, reforms were carried out: judicial, local government, land, educational, military, penal system and others.

Results of Yeltsin's activities

None of the reforms aimed at forming the constitutional foundations of the Russian political system were revised and later canceled.

At the end of 1992, the commodity deficit was overcome in Russia, market mechanisms were launched in the Russian economy, but a full-fledged market economy was not created. However, in August 1998, the Russian Government and the Central Bank declared a technical default, which was followed by one of the most severe economic crises in Russia. The reason was Russia's ineffective macroeconomic policy against the backdrop of the difficult economic situation in the country, a sharp decline in world energy prices and the financial crisis in Southeast Asia. In addition, a new class of large owners was created in Russia, while a huge part of the country's population became impoverished, and the number of small enterprises decreased significantly and sharply, the differentiation of incomes of the population grew rapidly. Trends towards economic growth emerged only at the turn of 1998-1999.

The consequences of economic reforms for the agro-industrial complex were expressed in a reduction in acreage, livestock, and agricultural land, and a general regression was observed.

The decrease in funding for science during the reforms led, among other things, to a decrease in the prestige of scientific work; the number of workers employed in academic science decreased by almost a third.

Throughout the 1990s, the country experienced an increase in crime.

However, there is an opinion that the positive dynamics in the Russian economy in the early 2000s were due, among other things, to the manifestation of the long-term consequences of the reforms of the Yeltsin period.

Yeltsin's personality

Yeltsin's political and party career began in 1968 in the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, where he headed the construction department. From 1978 to 1989, Yeltsin was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Boris Nikolaevich’s career took off at the beginning of perestroika. In 1985, he was the head of the construction department of the CPSU Central Committee and the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, and the following year he was a candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Even then he became famous for his democratic views and frequent criticism of the existing system. For harsh statements about the work of Gorbachev and the Politburo, he was removed from his post and was in disgrace. In 1989, Yeltsin was elected People's Deputy of the USSR for Moscow and led the democratic movement in the country.

In March 1990, Yeltsin became Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR. In this post, he tried to carry out radical reforms, but met opposition from the leadership of the USSR. As a result, not only relations between Yeltsin and Gorbachev, but also between the leadership of the RSFSR and the USSR worsened. This was also facilitated by the adoption on June 12, 1990 by the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR. In 1990, Boris Nikolaevich left the CPSU, and on June 12, 1991, he was elected president of the RSFSR. After the August 1991 putsch and the collapse of the USSR, Yeltsin's position as Russian president strengthened, but with the start of economic reforms (carried out by Yegor Gaidar), his rating began to fall.

The media and political scientists assessed Yeltsin as a charismatic person, with power-hungry qualities, unpredictable behavior, and inherent tenacity. Yeltsin's opponents, on the contrary, characterized him as a cruel and vindictive person with a low cultural level. Fixed ideological positions were uncomfortable for Yeltsin, since he preferred to act intuitively. Being a man of an inquisitive mind, Boris Nikolaevich was in an effort to think “freshly”. He experienced health difficulties, which is why he was often absent from work, but he demanded strict punctuality from those around him.

In 2006, President Putin said: “You can evaluate the activities of the first president in any way you like. But, of course, it was precisely at the time when Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin headed Russia that the people of our country, the citizens of Russia received the main thing for which all these transformations were carried out - freedom. This is a huge historical merit of Boris Nikolaevich. How each of us, including me, would have acted under those conditions, one can only guess.”

Five years ago, on April 23, 2007, Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation, died.

The first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, was born on February 1, 1931 in the village of Butka, Talitsky district, Ural region (now Sverdlovsk region).

He graduated from the construction department of the Ural Polytechnic Institute with a degree in civil engineering in 1955.

In 1955-1968 he worked as a foreman, foreman, chief engineer of the construction department of the Yuzhgorstroy trust, chief engineer, and head of the Sverdlovsk house-building plant. In 1961 he joined the CPSU.

From 1968 to 1976 he headed the construction department of the Sverdlovsk regional party committee. In 1975, he was secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, responsible for the industrial development of the region.

In 1976-1985 - first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU.

In 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 1981, at the XXVI Congress of the CPSU, Yeltsin was elected a member of the CPSU Central Committee (he held this position until 1990). In the same year, he headed the construction department of the CPSU Central Committee. In June 1985 - Secretary of the Party Central Committee for Construction Issues.

From December 1985 to November 1987 - first secretary of the Moscow City Committee (MGK) of the CPSU.

From November 1987 to 1989 - First Deputy Chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee - Minister of the USSR. In 1989-1990 - Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet Committee on Construction and Architecture.

On May 29, 1990, at the First Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin was elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR with the active support of the Democratic Russia bloc. He held this post until June 1991. On July 12, 1990, at the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU, he left the ranks of the party.

On June 12, 1991, during a nationwide direct open election, he was elected the first president of Russia. In this post, Boris Yeltsin also served as chairman of the Constitutional Commission of the Russian Federation, chairman of the Extraordinary Commission for Food and chairman of the Supreme Consultative Coordination Council. From November 1991 to May 1993, he headed the Russian government.

On July 3, 1996, during a nationwide direct open election in two rounds, he was elected President of Russia for a second term.

Since May 7, 1992 - Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He headed the Security Council and the Defense Council of the Russian Federation. Military rank - colonel.

From December 1993 to 2000 he was Chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

On December 31, 1999, Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation from the post of President of the Russian Federation and by his decree appointed Vladimir Putin as acting President of the Russian Federation.

On April 5, 2000, the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, was awarded pensioner and labor veteran certificates.

In November 2000, Yeltsin created the charitable “Foundation of the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin” to support young talents in the fields of education, science, art and sports.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st degree; foreign awards: "Royal Order of Peace and Justice" (UNESCO), the "Shield of Freedom" medal "For dedication and courage" (USA), the highest state award of Italy - the Order of the Knight Grand Cross, the Order of Three Stars of the 1st degree (Latvia), the Order of Dmitry Donskoy (ROC) and many others.

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.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Biography and episodes of life Boris Yeltsin. When born and died Yeltsin, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Politician Quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Boris Yeltsin:

born February 1, 1931, died April 25, 2007

Epitaph

You left kindness and love alive,
No matter how many years have passed: we love, remember, mourn...

Biography

He did not serve in the army due to an injury, as a result of which he lost two fingers on his left hand. But this did not prevent him from becoming the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. And yet, the biography of Boris Yeltsin is, first of all, the biography of the first president of Russia. The story is twofold, ambiguous, but one thing cannot be denied - Boris Yeltsin played a big role in the history of democratic Russia.

Boris Yeltsin was born in the village of Butka, in the Sverdlovsk region. At school, he studied averagely, often entered into conflicts, including speaking out against the injustice of teachers towards children. After school, I studied to become a civil engineer and went to work in the construction department. Colleagues noted his responsibility and diligence - if Boris Nikolaevich took on something, he brought it to the end. These qualities of Yeltsin were the reason that Boris Nikolayevich soon began to move up the party ladder - for example, as secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, he carried out many useful events for the region: the massive construction of new houses, the construction of the metro, highways, the abolition of milk coupons, etc. etc. In 1985, significant changes occurred in Yeltsin’s biography - he moved to Moscow, where he headed the construction department, and then became secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Soon he began to often speak out against perestroika policies, which caused him to fall out of favor with his colleagues. It was he who demanded that Gorbachev resign in 1990, and a year later he was elected president of the then RSFSR. However, the RSFSR did not have long to live - two months later, in August 1991, Yeltsin created the State Emergency Committee. Thus the USSR collapsed, the Commonwealth of Independent States appeared, and Yeltsin became the first president of Russia.

Yeltsin lasted only 8 years as president - however, he made the decision to leave on his own. Yeltsin's health deteriorated greatly over the years, leading a young and problematic country was difficult for him, and he, in his own words, decided to give way to younger politicians. In December 1999, Yeltsin resigned, settled with his family in the Moscow region and began to engage in charity work.

Yeltsin had heart problems for a long time. The last few days before Yeltsin's death, the former president was very unwell - he suffered from a virus that affected all his organs, and was hospitalized, almost never getting out of bed. Boris Yeltsin's death occurred on April 23, 2007 - his heart stopped twice and the second time the doctors were unable to “start” it. The next day, a civil farewell ceremony for Yeltsin’s body was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior; on April 25, a farewell ceremony for officials took place. Boris Yeltsin's funeral took place on April 25. When Yeltsin died, many presidents and heads of state offered their condolences to his loved ones and Russian citizens, recognizing Yeltsin’s important role in the fate of the Russian Federation. A year after his death, a monument to Yeltsin was erected at Yeltsin’s grave in the form of a wide tombstone in the shape of the Russian tricolor flag.

Boris Yeltsin was one of the first politicians to condemn Gorbachev's leadership line

Life line

February 1, 1931. Date of birth of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin.
1955 Graduated from the Ural Polytechnic Institute with a degree in civil engineering.
1955-1968 Work in the construction department of the Yuzhgorstroy trust, at the Sverdlovsk house-building plant.
1956 Marriage to Naina Yeltsina.
1957 Birth of daughter Elena.
1968 The beginning of Boris Yeltsin's party activities.
1975-1985 Work as secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU.
1978-1989 Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
1984-1988 Member of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces.
1981 Member of the CPSU Central Committee until 1990.
1985 Secretary of the Party Central Committee for Construction Issues.
1985-1987 First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU.
1987-1989 First Deputy Chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee - Minister of the USSR.
1989-1990 Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet Committee on Construction and Architecture.
May 29, 1990 Election of Yeltsin as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR until June 1991.
June 12, 1991 Election of Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia.
July 3, 1996 Election as President of Russia for a second term.
November 5, 1996 Heart surgery.
May 7, 1992 Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
December 1993 Chairman of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
December 31, 1991 Voluntary termination of the powers of the President of the Russian Federation, transfer of powers to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
April 23, 2007 Date of Yeltsin's death.
April 24, 2007 Farewell ceremony.
April 25, 2007 Funeral of Boris Yeltsin.

Memorable places

1. The village of Butka, where Boris Yeltsin was born and where a memorial plaque was installed in memory of the first Russian president.
2. Ural Federal University named after B. N. Yeltsin in Yekaterinburg (formerly the Ural Polytechnic Institute), from which Yeltsin graduated.
3. Moscow Kremlin, the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.
4. Monument to Boris Yeltsin in Yekaterinburg on Boris Yeltsin Street.
5. Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Boris Yeltsin’s funeral service took place.
6. Novodevichy cemetery, where Yeltsin is buried.

Episodes of life

Boris Yeltsin in his autobiographical book described an accident during which he received a hand injury. According to him, he and other guys made weapons, wanting to go to the front. Boris entered the warehouse where the weapons were stored, stole two grenades there, then went deep into the forest and decided to disassemble the grenade without removing the fuse. The result is an explosion and loss of consciousness. When I got to the hospital, gangrene had already set in and my fingers had to be amputated.

In 1989, the foreign media widely discussed the fact of Yeltsin’s behavior during his trip to the United States. Information appeared in Soviet newspapers that Yeltsin spoke while drunk. However, the footage confirming this could just be the result of film editing. Yeltsin himself explained his slightly inappropriate behavior by saying that he had taken sleeping pills the day before, struggling with insomnia and fatigue.

Boris Yeltsin was known for his cheerful character

Testaments

"Take care of Russia!"

“I did the most important thing in my life. Russia will never return to the past. Russia will now always only move forward.”

Documentary film about Boris Yeltsin “Life and Fate”

Condolences

“President Yeltsin was a historical figure who served his country during a time of momentous change. He played a key role during the collapse of the Soviet Union, helped lay the foundations for freedom in Russia, and became the first democratically elected leader in the country's history."
George Bush, former US President

"Boris Yeltsin will be remembered for his significant contributions to ending the Cold War and his efforts to spread political and economic freedom at home and abroad."
Condoleezza Rise, former US Secretary of State

“At this sad moment, Italy feels especially close to Russia, with which it is bound by fraternal solidarity and friendship.”
Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy

“The leader of the nation in the full sense of the word, a true patriot of his country, an outstanding statesman, whose soul was rooting for Russia and its people, has passed away.”
Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus