Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (February 1, 1931 – April 23,  2007) is a Russian and former Soviet politician who serves as the first president of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999.

He is a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990.

He later stands as a political independent, during which time he is viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism.

Born in Boutka, Ural Oblast, to a poor family, Yeltsin grew up in Kazan, Tatar ASSR.

After studying at the Ural State Technical University, he works in construction.

He joins the Communist Party. rises through its ranks, and in 1976 he becomes First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk Oblast committee.

Initially a supporter of the perestroika reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Yeltsin later criticizes the reforms as being too moderate, and calls for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy.

In 1987 he is the first person to resign from the party's governing Politburo, which establishes his popularity as an anti-establishment figure.

In 1990, he is elected chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet and in 1991 is elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

Yeltsin allies with various non-Russian nationalist leaders, and is instrumental in the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December that year.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the RSFSR becomes the Russian Federation, an independent state.

Through this transition, Yeltsin remains in office as president.

He is later reelected in the 1996 election, which is claimed by critics to be pervasively corrupt.

Yeltsin transforms Russia's command economy into a capitalist market economy by implementing economic shock therapy, market exchange rate of the ruble, nationwide privatization, and lifting of price controls.

Economic volatility and inflation ensue.

Amid the economic shift, a small number of oligarchs obtain a majority of the national property and wealth, while international monopolies come to dominate the market.

A constitutional crisis emerges in 1993 after Yeltsin orders the unconstitutional dissolution of the Russian parliament, leading parliament to impeach him.

The crisis ends after troops loyal to Yeltsin storm the parliament building and stop an armed uprising; he now introduces a new constitution that significantly expands the powers of the president.

Secessionist sentiment in the Russian Caucasus leads to the First Chechen War, War of Dagestan, and Second Chechen War between 1994 and 1999

Internationally, Yeltsin promotes renewed collaboration with Europe and signs arms control agreements with the United States.

Amid growing internal pressure, he resigns by the end of 1999 and is succeeded by his chosen successor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

He keeps a low profile after leaving office and is accorded a state funeral upon his death in 2007.

Yeltsin was a controversial figure

Domestically, he was highly popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although his reputation was damaged by the economic and political crises of his presidency, and he left office widely unpopular with the Russian population.

He received praise and criticism for his role in dismantling the Soviet Union, transforming Russia into a representative democracy, and introducing new political, economic, and cultural freedoms to the country.

Conversely, he was accused of economic mismanagement, overseeing a massive growth in inequality and corruption, and sometimes of undermining Russia's standing as a major world power.

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