Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin

short biography

Boris Yeltsin did not have the most suitable social origin for a career in the CPSU: his grandfather was a kulak, his father spent two years in camps for "anti-Soviet propaganda." He began his career in the 1960s in the construction industry, which provided a fairly convenient launching pad for a political career. Some of Yeltsin's colleagues did not rate his professional qualities highly. Yeltsin, on the other hand, had a pronounced desire for power, an authoritarian leadership style, and an ability to curry favor with his superiors. In the late 1960s, Yeltsin switched to party work. Yeltsin had the qualities of a public politician, which was not the most important for a career in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but became a key quality of Yeltsin in the conditions of the liberalization of political life in the late 1980s.

In the 1970s, Yeltsin was promoted up the party ladder by Yakov Ryabov, who oversaw the construction sector in the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, and later became the head of the regional committee and went to Moscow for promotion, making room for Yeltsin. During the rise in Sverdlovsk, one of Yeltsin's closest associates was Oleg Lobov, whose history of rapprochement with Yeltsin was atypical for Yeltsin. Yeltsin became the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee, bypassing his older comrades, which was also atypical for the nomenklatura rules of the CPSU.

As the first secretary of the regional committee, Yeltsin managed to curry favor with the chief of the KGB Andropov, who, after becoming the head of state, instructed the "party personnel officer" Yegor Ligachev to look closely at Yeltsin. Ligachev "called" Yeltsin to Moscow in 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the CPSU. The authoritarian-executive Yeltsin is instructed by the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union with the task of cleaning out people who are inconvenient for Gorbachev from the city committee. Yeltsin successfully copes with this task, but at the same time begins a feud with Ligachev, who, as Yeltsin's patron, tried to play the role of the boss, which the ascended Yeltsin could not stand.

In the course of the fight against Ligachev, Yeltsin tries to play the card of reforming the political system and criticizing the CPSU, thinking that he is in a trend set by Gorbachev. But Yeltsin was wrong, which weakened his influence in the CPSU. Previously, this would have been the end of Yeltsin's career, but in the late 1980s, as a result of ongoing perestroika, the influence of the CPSU began to decline. For the success of a political career, the qualities of a public politician became necessary, which the majority of party apparatchiks did not possess. Yeltsin was a happy exception. In addition, the opposition halo added popularity to him. With wide public support, Yeltsin becomes the leader of the RSFSR, and the collapse of the USSR makes him the first person in the power hierarchy, which he, in fact, aspired to.

Having gained power, Yeltsin almost immediately makes decisions that contradict his pre-election statements and are aimed at building a new vertical of power using command-administrative methods.

Among the figures close to Yeltsin, immigrants from the Sverdlovsk region, who received leading posts in the government, were Yuri Petrov, Gennady Burbulis and Oleg Lobov, who retained their influence until the mid-1990s. Successfully defeating the opposition in parliament in 1993 gives Yeltsin broad powers, transforming Russia into a presidential republic.

In the second half of the 1990s, Yeltsin's health deteriorated, which is associated with alcohol abuse. In 1996, he barely won the presidential election. At the end of 1999, Yeltsin resigned ahead of schedule, proposing Vladimir Putin as his successor.

Yeltsin died in 2007.

Detailed biography

Born on February 1, 1931 in the village of Butka, Butka District, Ural Region, RSFSR (now Talitsky District, Sverdlovsk Region).

He died on April 23, 2007 in Moscow.

Boris Yeltsin's father - Nikolai Yeltsin, a builder, was repressed. He served a sentence at the construction of the Volga-Don Canal, after his release in 1937 he worked as a foreman at the construction site of a chemical plant in Berezniki, and a few years later became the head of the construction department at the plant.

B. Yeltsin's mother is Claudia Starygina from peasants, a dressmaker.

Yeltsin spent his childhood in the town of Berezniki, Perm region, where he graduated from school (modern school No. 1 named after A. Pushkin).

Yeltsin's left hand was missing several fingers. According to Yeltsin, he lost them during the explosion of a grenade, which he was trying to open. Due to the lack of fingers, he did not serve in the army.

In 1950 he entered the Ural Polytechnic Institute. SM Kirov to the Faculty of Civil Engineering, in 1955 he graduated with the qualification "civil engineer". Thesis topic: "Tel-evision tower". In his student years, he was seriously involved in volleyball, played for the national team of the city, became a master of sports.

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, head of a section. In 1957 he became the foreman of the construction department of the trust. In 1961 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was appointed chief engineer of the Sverdlovsk house-building plant. Since 1966 - Director of the Sverdlovsk HBP.

In 1963, at the XXIV conference of the party organization of the Kirovsky district of the city of Sverdlovsk, he was unanimously elected a delegate to the city conference of the CPSU. At the XXV regional conference he was elected a member of the Kirov regional committee of the CPSU and a delegate to the Sverdlovsk regional conference 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 Central Committee of the CPSU, he was elected first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU (the actual head of the Sverdlovsk region), he held this position until 1985.

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 Central Committee of the CPSU and was a member of it until he left the party in 1990.

In March 1985 , the general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (the highest official in the USSR) Konstantin Chernenko died. Instead, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, whose candidacy was proposed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Andrei Gromyko. It is assumed that Gorbachev rose to the heights of power, thanks to the support of the former chairman of the KGB of the USSR and the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov, who was recruiting personnel to carry out large-scale transformations in the country.

In April 1985, Boris Yeltsin, whose diligence and leadership qualities were also at one time noted by Andropov, was approved by the head of the construction department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, in connection with which, he was relieved of his duties as first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU and moved to Moscow. Instead, one of Yeltsin's associates, Yuri Vladimirovich Petrov, who had previously worked in Moscow in the Central Committee of the CPSU, was elected as the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee.

In June 1985, Yeltsin was elected secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for construction issues.

To reform the CPSU during Rebuilding, Gorbachev had to overcome the resistance of the competing power groups in the party. One of the most influential party organizations in the country was the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU. The weakening of the group that controls the Moscow City Committee began under Andropov, by investigating corruption cases in Moscow. To complete the defeat of the opposition in the Moscow party organization in December 1985, Yeltsin, who was suitable for this role, thanks, on the one hand, to his diligence in relation to the authorities, and on the other hand, to the authoritarian style of leadership of subordinates, was recommended by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU for the post of the first Secretary of the Moscow City Committee (MGK) of the CPSU.

However, Yeltsin was characterized not only by these qualities. He was also characterized by an exorbitant lust for power and populism. At the 27th Congress of the CPSU, Boris Yeltsin said that one of the main reasons for bureaucracy, social injustice and abuses in the CPSU, leading to "stagnation" in the country, is the lack of courage among a number of leaders in a timely manner to objectively assess the situation, their personal role, say, albeit bitter, but the truth. We need control over the work of cadres from above and below. Being absolutely loyal to the top party leadership, Yeltsin played the role of "truth-teller", which at that time corresponded to the general political line of Gorbachev and at the same time worked for Yeltsin's authority among the general population.

At the 27th Congress of the CPSU in February 1986, Yeltsin was elected a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and remained in this position until February 18, 1988.

Yeltsin did not want to be an ordinary executor. Possessing remarkable conceit and a disruptive character, he strove to rise as high as possible, inevitably entering into conflicts with people whom he considered below himself in rank, even if they had previously contributed to his promotion to the top. In 1987, such was the conflict between Yeltsin and Yegor Ligachev, who was considered the second person in the party hierarchy after Gorbachev. At the October plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, Yeltsin harshly criticized Ligachev and even slightly touched upon Gorbachev's "personality cult" in his speech. It is unlikely that Yeltsin was such an uncompromising fighter for democracy, which he portrayed as the "democratic movement" of the late 1980s. The main reason for Yeltsin's "opposition" speech, most likely, was that it was decided not to transfer him from candidates to acting members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee under the influence of Ligachev, who criticized Yeltsin at a meeting of the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee. Openly criticizing Ligachev, Yeltsin may have counted on the support of Ligachev's rival in the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Alexander Yakovlev, who, in contrast to the conservative Ligachev, represented the liberal wing of the CPSU. And throwing a stone at Gorbachev, Yeltsin may have thought that, by doing so, he was following in line with the policy of openness and open criticism proclaimed by Gorbachev himself, which would provide him with additional political dividends. The basis for such assumptions is that Yeltsin had sent Gorbachev a letter in advance with the main theses of his speech and thought that Gorbachev had approved him, having given him the floor at the Plenum. However, Yeltsin was cruelly miscalculated. After Yeltsin's speech, Gorbachev “analyzed” this speech in such a way that it served as a signal for the persecution of Yeltsin by the party activists, and even his alleged ally Alexander Yakovlev did not refuse to pay his respects to the General Secretary by kicking the “naughty” Yeltsin. After that, Yeltsin looked pale, again took the floor and repented of his mistakes. But the party elite drew their conclusions, and a month later, in November 1987, Yeltsin was removed from the post of first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU and was appointed first deputy chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee, USSR minister.

Yeltsin's speech was not published in the official press, but rumors spread and were discussed very actively. Up to this point, the country had two significant political "parties": the conservative reformers, led by Ligachev, who advocated economic reforms under the strict control of the carefully optimized CPSU, and the liberal reformers, led by Yakovlev, who advocated the introduction of a multi-party system and alternative elections to increase the effectiveness of the CPSU. Now, around the figure of Yeltsin, radical reformers began to rally, who advocated the elimination of both the political and economic influence of the CPSU, and for a transition to a Western-style market.

On November 20-21, 1987, mass actions in support of Boris Yeltsin took place in Sverdlovsk.

It is interesting that the "disgraced" Yeltsin, being dismissed from the post of first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU, was appointed on January 14, 1988, the first deputy chairman of the USSR State Construction Committee - USSR minister, despite the fact that in accordance bodies, the powers and significance of the Council of Ministers of the USSR increased significantly.

On February 18, 1988, by the decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yeltsin was relieved of his duties as a candidate for membership in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (but remained a member of the Central Committee).

In the summer of 1988, Yeltsin became a delegate of the XIX All-Union Party Conference from Karelia, since the party leadership could not allow Yeltsin to participate in the party conference, representing the numerous party cell of Uralmashzavod. On July 1, Yeltsin speaks at the Party conference. In his speech, he once again confirms his opinion that Ligachev should be removed from the Politburo, criticizes the privileges of the party elite, argues that Brezhnev alone cannot be blamed for "stagnation", but the entire Politburo is to blame "as a collective body." Mikhail Gorbachev responded by setting out his version of events: the Politburo instructed Yeltsin to solve the problems of the Moscow party organization, but, faced with difficulties in organizing practical work, he strayed to command methods of leadership, carried out personnel purges several times and, ultimately, avoided solving real problems into populism.

At the 19th All-Union Party Conference, the Yeltsin question was one of the most discussed issues. After speaking out against Ligachev and criticizing the course of perestroika at the October plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1987, Yeltsin became one of the most significant political figures in the country. Contrary to all party traditions, Yeltsin gave interviews to US and UK TV channels, explaining that the domestic media took several interviews, but could not publish them due to the ban from above. Yeltsin's populist abilities in the new political conditions of relative publicity gave him significant advantages over boring party apparatchiks who were accustomed to undercover intrigues rather than public speeches. If in 1987 Yeltsin repented of his mistakes after speaking at the plenum, then in 1988 he said that his only mistake was his untimely speech (at the festive October plenum dedicated to the anniversary of the revolution), but in essence he was right. Gorbachev, Ligachev and a number of other party workers gave a negative assessment of Yeltsin's speech at the party conference, but there were also voices in support of him, which was fundamentally different from the situation in 1987. This was partly due to the fact that the composition of the party conference was much wider than the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and partly due to the fact that the political climate began to change and ordinary party workers allowed themselves to express open disagreement with the views of party leaders. Vladimir Volkov, secretary of the party committee of the Kalinin Machine-Building Plant (Sverdlovsk), spoke out strongly in support of Yeltsin.

In 1989, elections of People's Deputies of the USSR were scheduled, whose Congress was called upon to become the supreme body of power in the USSR. But the Congress was to meet only once a year (later it was decided that the Congress would meet twice a year). The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which was elected at the Congress from among the People's Deputies of the USSR, was a permanently operating body of power.

Boris Yeltsin, visiting Sverdlovsk as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the Sverdlovsk region and minister of the USSR in February 1989, , thanked the residents of the city for nominating him as a candidate for People's Deputies of the USSR, but said that he would run for the electoral district in Moscow. Yeltsin said that the Supreme Soviet of the USSR has become a meeting of extras, where no one votes "against". In Yeltsin's opinion, the new law on the elections of USSR people's deputies looked undemocratic, primarily due to the election of deputies from public organizations that have neither voters, nor orders, and are not accountable to anyone. Yeltsin said that he does not consider himself an alternative to Gorbachev and fully supports him in strategic issues of foreign and domestic policy. He reacted very negatively to the possibility of the Balts leaving the USSR.

On March 26, 1989, Yeltsin was elected People's Deputy of the USSR in the 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 the government-backed general director of ZIL, Yevgeny Brakov. During the elections at the Congress, Yeltsin did not enter the Supreme Soviet, but the deputy A. I. Kazannik (later appointed by Yeltsin as the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation) refused the 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 Committee for Construction and Architecture of the USSR Armed Forces, in this regard, he became a member of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces. In his speech at the congress, Yeltsin proposed creating a commission to prepare a new constitution, decentralizing power and the economy, democratizing the CPSU through alternative and direct elections of delegates to an extraordinary congress of the CPSU, giving real sovereignty to each republic and holding a referendum on confidence in the chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet every year. Yeltsin announced the need to accelerate the restructuring of the country's political structure and economy in order to stop the "slide into the abyss." The congress decided to form a Constitutional Commission, which included Yeltsin.

On the basis of the "radical democratic" part of the Moscow group of USSR people's deputies (deputies from scientific organizations and creative unions), the most popular representatives of which were Boris Yeltsin and Andrei Sakharov, the Interregional Deputy Group was formed, which was an opposition faction at the Congress of People's Deputies. The rebellious representative of the party nomenclature Boris Yeltsin, human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, historian Yuri Afanasyev, economist Gavriil Popov and representative of the Baltic group of deputies Viktor Palm were elected co-chairs of the group. More than 80% of the members of the MDG were in favor of granting the republics the right to political self-determination and full economic independence, and more than 90% - for the restructuring of economic relations in the country through large-scale radical reforms. As of August 2, 1989, 388 People's Deputies of the USSR were officially members of the MDG - 17% of the total number of Congress deputies.

The United Front of Workers began to form in the RSFSR. Representatives of the "radical democrats" argued that the front was created as a support for the reactionary forces. In the Sverdlovsk region, the leaders of the Ural People's Front (Yuri Lipatnikov, Viktor Burtnik) actively joined the creation of the UFW. The leaders of the UPF were opposed to Boris Yeltsin and claimed that Yeltsin was supported by destructive pro-Zionist forces, which led to Lipatnikov and other UPF ideologists being accused of anti-Semitism.

On September 19, 1989, the newspaper Pravda reprinted an article published in the Italian newspaper Repubblica about Boris Yeltsin's visit to the United States. The reprint, which talked about Yeltsin's abuse of alcohol in the United States and other inappropriate behavior, caused a violent reaction from residents of both the Sverdlovsk region and the country as a whole. Yeltsin argued that the publication in Pravda was slander from start to finish. It was assumed that the incriminating article was published on the initiative of the party leadership in order to discredit the popular Yeltsin. However, the article was officially condemned by the Central Committee of the CPSU, although the facts published in it were not refuted. Subsequently, on television, the speech of the not quite sober Yeltsin in Baltimore was shown, but behind this they saw the hand of the KGB, who instructed television broadcasters to slow down the showing of the video in order to create the desired impression. According to another version, the editor-in-chief of Pravda, Viktor Afanasyev, under whom the editorial chair had been shaking for a long time, decided to please Gorbachev without consulting him, but miscalculated, and after a short time was dismissed. According to the third version, Gorbachev was quite satisfied with Afanasyev's actions, but was forced to publicly condemn the publication and send Afanasyev to resign because of the negative reaction of the mass of Yeltsin's supporters, who did not believe the facts stated in the article.

According to Yeltsin himself, in the United States he met with President Bush, the vice president, the secretary of state, a group of senators, congressmen, governors, and mayors of cities. They greeted him "very, very well, enthusiastically." According to Yeltsin, the Americans have been watching his figure for more than one year, and a certain dramatic situation associated with him also fueled the interest of the Americans.

In October, at a session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev, Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR Bakatin made public the fact of Yeltsin's fall from the bridge, presumably in a state of alcoholic intoxication. This statement, according to Yeltsin, denigrated his honor and dignity. Through the Latvian newspaper Soviet Youth, Yeltsin addressed the people with a statement that Gorbachev was trying to undermine his health and discredit him in order to get him out of the political struggle. According to Yeltsin, this led to a complete collapse of moral and ethical attitudes, to the dismantling of the democratic principles of perestroika and, ultimately, to a brutal totalitarian dictatorship. It was reported that the Sverdlovsk branch of the Department for the Protection of State Secrets in the press received an oral order not to quote the newspapers that published this appeal of Yeltsin. According to Yeltsin, the party apparatus launched an attack on him in particular and on the Interregional Deputy Group as a whole because it fears the opposition's victory in the 1990 elections of republican and local Soviets of People's Deputies.

In 1989 the Soviet-Swiss joint venture "InterUral" was created by the association "Sreduralstroy" and the Italian-Swiss firm "Sitko AG". In the 1990s, information was published that the InterUral JV employed relatives of Boris Yeltsin, his confidant Yuri Petrov and Eduard Rossel.

Explaining his decision to run for People's Deputies of the RSFSR from the Sverdlovsk Region, Boris Yeltsin said that the "aggressively obedient majority" of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR did not allow radical changes in the life of society. According to Yeltsin, he hoped that, following the election of people's deputies of the RSFSR, it would be possible to form at least 50% of the composition of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, which would be "progressively democratic" inclined. Then it would be possible to take more radical measures to establish order in Russia, make it a truly independent republic, and not an appendage of the center, and then push the center from below. Yeltsin proposed establishing a presidential republic in Russia, where the president would be elected in alternative elections by direct universal secret ballot.

The Communist Party of the RSFSR was created by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU. A significant event in the course of the struggle for supremacy in this party, presumably between two groups tied to the military-industrial complex of the USSR, was the scandal around the state-cooperative concern "AST". The confrontation between the security forces deepened as a result of this scandal led to support from the "moderately conservative" group of security officials of Boris Yeltsin, in particular, this group took part in financing Yeltsin's election campaign for the post of people's deputy of the RSFSR in 1990 and government of the RSFSR, headed by the representative of this group, Ivan Silaev. During the coup in 1991, some of the members of this group took a neutral position, and some openly pro-Yeltsin, which largely determined the failure of the putschists.

In 1990, in public speeches of politicians of various orientations, often diametrically opposed, similar slogans were heard about the need to shift decision-making powers from top to bottom: to primary party organizations, local councils, councils of labor collectives. In particular, Boris Yeltsin said that the most important Council of People's Deputies should be the regional council - the one that is closest to the people. And the district council itself must determine what share of power it transfers to the region, which, in turn, gives its share of power to Russia. This idea was most consistently presented in the article by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "How we can equip Russia", widely circulated in the press. The article proposed to build a vertical of power from the bottom up, so that the deputies of higher power bodies are elected by the assembly of deputies of lower power bodies, and the population directly elects only the deputies of local power bodies. It was assumed that as a result, a power vertical could be built that would preserve the country's integrity, but this vertical would be oriented not upward toward the “almighty” (general secretary, president or monarch), but downward toward the people. However, this idea remained at the level of declarative statements, bringing political dividends to those who voiced it, but did not intend to implement it when they came to power. So, for example, at the end of 1990 in the RSFSR, after Yeltsin became the highest official in the republic, the practice of sub-ordinating the lower Soviets of People's Deputies to the higher ones began to be practiced, which directly contradicted Yeltsin's own statements at the beginning of 1990.

On May 16, 1990, Yeltsin was elected People's Deputy of the RSFSR from Sverdlovsk with the support of the Democratic Choice Movement. Yeltsin's election campaign was carried out by a group of philosophy teachers from the Ural Polytechnic Institute under the leadership of Gennady Burbulis.

On May 29, 1990, he was elected (on the third attempt, gaining 535 votes against 467 from the "Kremlin candidate" A.V. Vlasov) Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, thereby heading the state authorities of the RSFSR.

On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the "Declaration of Sovereignty." The sovereignty of Russia within the USSR was proclaimed. The Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR began to develop and conclude bilateral treaties with other republics of the USSR. In response to accusations of separatism, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin stated that this activity was not aimed at destroying the USSR. In general, these actions were fully consistent with the policy of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev to transform the USSR into a Union of sovereign states. Nevertheless, the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Vladimir Kryuchkov, said in his secret report to the President of the USSR Gorbachev: “Under the influence of the well-known decisions of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the confrontation between the Center and the union republics received a powerful impetus. The head of the Russian parliament, together with certain forces, circles from the shadow business, clearly stated their claims to create a "second center" in opposition to the state political leadership of the USSR. ... the policy of appeasement of the aggressive wing of the "democratic movements" is not able to prevent the growth of destructive processes, allows pseudo-democrats to freely implement their plans to seize power and change the nature of the social system."

In June 1990, a few days after the election of the leadership of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, at which the representative of the conservative wing of the CPSU Ivan Polozkov defeated Yeltsin's longtime ally Oleg Lobov, Boris Yeltsin expressed his intention to suspend his membership in the CPSU. Nevertheless, in July, as a delegate to the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU, Yeltsin took part in the work of the congress and during his speech stated that, having taken up defensive positions at the initial stage of perestroika, the conservative forces later went on the offensive. They began a struggle against economic reform, albeit timid and half-hearted, but creating a real threat to the sovereignty of the party. According to Yeltsin, this position created a security regime for the conservative forces of the CPSU, strengthened their confidence that revenge can be taken, which was demonstrated by the Constituent Congress of the Communist Party of the RSFSR. By the decision of the Congress of the CPSU, Boris Yeltsin's powers as a delegate to the Congress were removed in connection with his statement about leaving the CPSU.

In July 1990, the Sverdlovsk Regional Council of People's Deputies received a letter signed by the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin. Referring to information coming from a number of regions and large cities about the contradictions arising between the Soviets and the executive committees, about the duplication of the work of the executive committees by the Soviets, about the planned increase in the apparatus of the presidiums of the Council, the author of the letter expressed the idea of the expediency of implementing “in the order of ex Period in the Sverdlovsk region of combining the posts of the chairman of the regional council and the chairman of the executive committee. " This proposal obviously contradicted the principle of separation of powers, the violation of which, in the opinion of the "democrats", led to the omnipotence of the party-bureaucratic apparatus in the decaying USSR, on the wave of the struggle against which Yeltsin became so popular. This also contradicted the slogan "All power to the Soviets!" Thus, a little over a month has passed since Boris Yeltsin became the highest official in the RSFSR, and he began to act contrary to the fundamental principles of his election statements. It should be noted that at the same time, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a decision to prohibit combining the posts of chairman of the Council of People's Deputies of any level with leading posts in the CPSU.

At a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 21, 1990, President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev made a proposal to grant him extraordinary powers, including the right to impose presidential rule in sovereign republics and dissolve their supreme bodies of state power, in connection with the difficult economic and political situation in the country. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, headed by Boris Yeltsin, issued a statement that in the current situation, granting the President of the USSR the emergency powers requested by him is unacceptable, and if the Supreme Soviet of the USSR grants such powers to the President, the authorities of the RSFSR will take all necessary measures to protect the sovereignty and constitutional order of the RSFSR.

For the republic's transition to the market, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted the "500 days" program as a basis, which contradicted the program of the transition to the market, which was guided by the leadership of the USSR. According to the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, the main efforts of the union leadership were aimed at preventing the economic basis of the sovereignty of the RSFSR: in the industry of the RSFSR, enterprises of union subordination accounted for 70% of production, the main deductions from profits still went to the union budget, more More than 90% of the export of Russian enterprises was carried out by foreign economic organizations of the union ministries and departments, no deductions were made to the Russian budget from foreign exchange earnings for the supply of the main export prod-ucts (oil, gas, oil products). The Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR made a decision to pass no confidence in the Council of Ministers of the USSR. At the same time, according to Yeltsin, his disagreements with Gorbachev did not concern principled positions, but consisted only in "adherence to different rates of movement forward."

In December 1990, at a meeting of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR, Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Vladimir Isakov said that when the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and its presidium made decisions, pressure was exerted on the deputies, accompanied by violation of the rules. This pressure was exerted both by Ruslan Khasbulatov, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, and by Chairman Boris Yeltsin himself. Isakov gave several examples, including the circumstances of the creation of the joint-stock company of the industrial and commercial company "Russian House", which was associated with the leadership of the scandalous concern "AST". Isakov hinted that these “pushed through” decisions could be corrupt. People's Deputy of the RSFSR Vitaly Mashkov said that "raising the organizational shortcomings in the work of the Supreme Soviet into political frames, when the congress is split, when voting on constitutional norms is coming, gives a clear advantage to the Communists of Russia bloc, those who want to block radical reform." The reason for the "rebellion" of Vladimir Isakov against Boris Yeltsin could have been a banal deterioration in relations between Isakov and Gennady Burbulis, who had a great influence on Yeltsin. But it is also possible that Isakov was sincerely outraged by the scale of the abuses of the newly emerged "democratic" apparatus, which proclaimed that it was fighting the abuses of the old party apparatus.

On February 19, 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin, in a speech on television, criticized the policy of the government of the USSR 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 Soviet of the RSFSR, a "letter of six" was read out (vice-chairmen of the Supreme Soviet S.P. Goryacheva and B.M. Isaev, chairmen of both chambers V. B. Isakov and R. G. Abdulatipov and their deputies A. Veshnyakov and V.G.Syrovatko), which criticized the authoritarian style of BN Yeltsin in guiding the work of the Supreme Soviet. RI Khasbulatov (first deputy chairman) actively spoke in his defense and the deputies did not attach much importance to this letter.

On June 12, 1991, he was elected President of the RSFSR, having received 45,552,041 votes, which amounted to 57.30 percent of the number of those who took part in the voting, and significantly ahead of Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov, who, despite the support of the allied authorities, received only 16.85 percent votes. Together with Boris N. Yeltsin, Vice-President Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoi was elected. After the election, the main slogans of Boris N. Yeltsin were the struggle against the privileges of the no-menklatura and the maintenance of Russia's sovereignty within the USSR.

These were the first nationwide presidential elections in the history of Russia. The President of the USSR Gorbachev was not elected by the people, but was elected as a result of a vote at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.

On July 20, 1991, Yeltsin signed Decree No. 14 "On the cessation of the activities of the organizational structures of political parties and mass social movements in state bodies, institutions and organizations of the RSFSR", which became one of the final chords of the policy of departization and de-ideologization. Yeltsin began negotiating a new union treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev and the heads of other union republics.

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 opposi-tion 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 coup, 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 not recognizing the actions of the State Emergency Committee. On August 23, Yeltsin signed a decree on the suspension of the activities of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, and on November 6 - on the termination of the activities of the CPSU.

After the failure of the coup and Gorbachev's return to Moscow, negotiations on a new Union Treaty came to a standstill, and Gorbachev began to finally lose control levers, which gradually went to Yeltsin and the heads of other union republics.

In November 1991, Evgenia Davitashvili (Djuna), an "unconventional healer" of Assyrian descent, presented the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin with the Order of the Assyrian Goddess Bau and the Maltese Cross of the Knight Commander. For some reason, the message about this was published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta only on December 12, 1991. Later, information appeared that the knight's cross, presented to Yeltsin by June, had nothing to do with the knightly Maltese order, which has a thousand-year history and diplomatic relations with most of the states of the planet. However, the very fact that Boris Yeltsin publicly accepted some kind of award from the hands of the "healer" Juna indicates that Juna had some influence in the circles of the Russian political elite. It is possible that the former barmaid from Tbilisi Juna had connections with underground entrepreneurs, among whom there were many Assyrians, and used her influence in their interests, but no information about this could be obtained. It should be noted that in August 1991, Yeltsin appointed his longtime associate Yuri Petrov, who was suspected of having connections with an underground businessman of Assyrian Assyrian origin, Igor Tarlanov, as the head of the Presidential Administration of the RSFSR.

In December 1991, Boris Yeltsin secretly from the President of the USSR 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, which signed the Alma-Ata Declaration on December 21.

According to opponents of Yeltsin, the Belovezhsky agreement destroyed the USSR and caused a number of bloody conflicts in the post-Soviet space: Chechnya, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Tajikistan.

On December 25, 1991, Boris Yeltsin received full presidential power in Russia in connection with the resignation of the President of the USSR Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev and the actual collapse of the USSR.

In October 1991, Boris Yeltsin, speaking at the Congress of People's Deputies, announced the beginning of radical economic reforms and until June 1992 personally headed the Government of the RSFSR that he formed.

One of the first serious economic decisions made by Boris N. Yeltsin was the decree on free trade. After the collapse of the USSR, Boris Yeltsin embarked on a 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, the problems of providing the population with food and consumer goods were replaced by problems associated with hyperinflation. The monetary savings of citizens have depreciated, and prices and exchange rates have increased several times over several months; it was possible to stop hyperinflation only in 1993. Other Yeltsin decrees 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 faced problems such as a decline in production and non-payments. For example, non-payment of wages, as well as pensions and other social benefits have become widespread. The country was in a deep economic crisis.

A political crisis was added to the economic problems of the early 1990s. In some regions of Russia, after the collapse of the USSR, separatist sentiments intensified. So, in Chechnya they did not recognize the sovereignty of Russia on its territory, in Tatarstan they gathered to introduce their own currency and refused to pay taxes to the republican budget. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin managed to convince the heads of the regions to sign the Federal Treaty, on March 31, 1992, it was signed by the President and the heads of the regions (except for Tatarstan and Chechnya), and on April 10, it was included in the Constitution of the RSFSR.

On December 10, 1992, the day after the Congress of People's Deputies did not approve Yegor Timurovich Gaidar's candidacy for the post of Prime Minister, Boris N. Yeltsin sharply criticized the work of the Congress of People's Deputies and tried to disrupt its work, urging his supporters to leave the meeting. A political crisis has begun. After negotiations between Boris Yeltsin, Ruslan Khasbulatov and Valery Zorkin and a multi-stage vote, the Congress of People's Deputies on December 12 adopted a resolution on stabilizing the constitutional order, and Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was appointed Prime Minister.

In 1993, the confrontation between Boris Yeltsin and Vice-President Alexander Rutskoy and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Ruslan Khasbulatov escalated into a constitutional crisis that ended in an armed conflict.

After the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin for some time concentrated in his hands all the power and made a number of decisions: on the resignation of A.V. Rutskoy 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 Soviets at all levels and changes in the system local self-government, on the appointment of elections to the Federation Council and nationwide voting, as well as by its decrees cancels and changes a number of provisions of the laws in force.

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 the political opponents of Yeltsin) noted that dictatorship. In February 1994, the participants in the events were released in accordance with the decree of the State Duma on amnesty (they all agreed to the amnesty, although they were not convicted).

On December 12, 1993, elections to the Federation Council and the State Duma took place, as well as a nationwide referendum on the adoption of the draft new Constitution. On December 20, the Central Election Commission of Russia announced the results of the referendum: 32.9 million voters (58.4% of active voters) voted “for”, 23.4 million against (41.6% of active voters). The Constitution was adopted, since in accordance with the decree of President Yeltsin of October 15, 1993 No. 1633 "On holding a nationwide 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 take effect. 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.

The new Constitution of the Russian Federation gave the President significant powers, while the powers of Parliament were significantly reduced. The Constitution came into force after its publication on December 25 in Rossiyskaya Gazeta. On January 11, 1994, both chambers of the Federal Assembly began to work, and the constitutional crisis ended.

In early 1994, Yeltsin initiated the signing of an agreement on public consent and an agreement on the delineation of powers with Tatarstan, and then with other subjects of the Federation.

On November 30, 1994, Boris N. Yeltsin made a decision to send troops into Chechnya and signed a secret decree No. 2137 "On measures to restore constitutional legality and law and order on the territory of the Chechen Republic", the Chechen conflict began.

According to the results of the presidential elections in 1996, in the first round of voting on June 16, Boris N. Yeltsin won 35.28% of the vote and entered the second round of elections, ahead of the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation G.A.Zyuganov, who received 32.03%. General 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 security forces. In the second round on July 3, 1996, Boris N. Yeltsin received 53.82% of the vote, confidently ahead of Zyuganov, who received only 40.31%.

In August 1996, Chechen fighters drove federal troops out of Grozny. After that, the Khasavyurt agreements were signed.

After the elections, Boris N. Yeltsin was turned off from running the country for a long time due to poor health and for some time did not appear in front of the voters.

The persons who led and financed Yeltsin's election campaign were appointed to the highest government positions: Anatoly Chubais became the head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Potanin became the first deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, Boris Berezovsky became the deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council.

In August 1996, he sanctioned the Khasavyurt agreements, in October made a decision to dismiss A.I. Lebed from all posts. On November 5, 1996, Yeltsin underwent coronary artery bypass grafting, during which V.S.Chernomyrdin acted as President. Boris N. Yeltsin returned to work only at the beginning of 1997.

In March 1998, announced the resignation of the Chernomyrdin government and on the third attempt, under the threat of dissolution of the State Duma, ran the candidacy of S.V. Kirienko. 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, he dismissed the Kiriyenko 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 supported him. 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 issue of removing Yeltsin from office (the five charges formulated by the initiators of the impeachment were mainly related to Yeltsin's actions during the first term). Before the impeachment vote, Yeltsin dismissed the Primakov Government, then, with the consent of the State Duma, appointed S.V. Stepashin Chairman of the Government, but in August he also dismissed him, presenting for approval the candidacy of V.V. Putin, little known at the time, and announced him as his successor. After the aggravation of the situation in Chechnya, the attack on Dagestan, the explosions of apartment buildings in Moscow, Buinaksk and Volgodonsk, BN Yeltsin, at the suggestion of V.V. Putin, decided to conduct a series of counterterrorist operations in Chechnya. Putin's popularity grew, and in late 1999, Yeltsin decided to resign, leaving Putin as acting head of state.

VV Putin on the same day signed a decree guaranteeing Yeltsin protection from prosecution, as well as significant material benefits for him and his family.

Wife - Yeltsin (Girina) Naina (Anastasia) Iosifovna.

Daughters: Elena Okulova (Fefelova), Tatiana Yumasheva (Dyachenko).