Life of boris yeltsin biography

Abstract:

Even after his death in April 2007, Boris Yeltsin remains the most controversial figure in recent Russian history. Although Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the decline of the Communist party and the withdrawal of Soviet control over eastern Europe, it was Yeltsin-Russia’s first elected president-who buried the Soviet Union itself. Upon taking office, Yeltsin quickly embarked on a sweeping makeover of newly democratic Russia, beginning with a program of excruciatingly painful market reforms that earned him wide acclaim in the West and deep recrimination from many Russian citizens. In this, the first biography of Yeltsin’s entire life, Soviet scholar Timothy Colton traces Yeltsin’s development from a peasant boy in the Urals to a Communist party apparatchik, and then ultimately to a nemesis of the Soviet order. Based on unprecedented interviews with Yeltsin himself as well as scores of other Soviet officials, journalists, and busines

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Boris Yeltsin’s Early Years

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931, in Butka, a small Russian village in the Ural Mountains. His peasant grandparents had been forcibly uprooted bygd Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s collectivization of agriculture, and his father was arrested during the Stalin-era purges. In 1937 Yeltsin moved to the factory town of Berezniki, where his father—fresh out of a Gulag prison camp—found work as a laborer. Rebellious even as a youth, Yeltsin lost two fingers while playing with a hand grenade. He left Berezniki for Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in 1949 to attend the Urals Polytechnic Institute. As a student there, he trained to become a civil engineer, played volleyball and met his future wife, Naina Iosifovna Girina, with whom he would have two daughters.

Did you know? Boris Yeltsin was the first freely elected leader in Russia’s 1,000-year history.

Upon graduation, Yeltsin worked as an overseer of residential construction projects.

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Boris Yeltsin

President of Russia from 1991 to 1999

"Yeltsin" redirects here. For the name, see Yeltsin (name).

Boris Yeltsin
Official portrait, c. 1991–1993
In office 25 December 1991 – 31 månad 1999
Prime Minister
Vice President	Alexander Rutskoy(1991–1993)
Preceded by	Office established; Himself (as President of the Russian SFSR) Alexander Rutskoy (acting, disputed)
Succeeded by
In office 10 July 1991 – 25 December 1991
President	Mikhail Gorbachev
Prime Minister
Preceded by	Himself (as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR)
Succeeded by	Himself (as President of Russia)
In office 29 May 1990 – 10 July 1991
Preceded by	Vitaly Vorotnikov (as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR)
Succeeded by	Ruslan Khasbulatov
In office 23 December 1985 – 11 November 1987
Preceded by	Viktor Grishin
Succeeded by	Le