Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the first president of Russia from 1991 to 1999.
120 Facts About Boris Yeltsin
2.
Boris Yeltsin was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990.
3.
Boris Yeltsin later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism.
4.
Boris Yeltsin later criticized the reforms as being too moderate, and called for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy.
5.
Boris Yeltsin was later reelected in the 1996 election, which was claimed by critics to be pervasively corrupt.
6.
Boris Yeltsin transformed 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.
7.
The crisis ended after troops loyal to Boris Yeltsin stormed the parliament building and stopped an armed uprising; he then introduced a new constitution which significantly expanded the powers of the president.
8.
Internationally, Boris Yeltsin promoted renewed collaboration with Europe and signed arms control agreements with the United States.
9.
Boris Yeltsin kept a low profile after leaving office and was accorded a state funeral upon his death in 2007.
10.
Boris Yeltsin 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.
11.
Boris Yeltsin was born on 1 February 1931 in the village of Butka, Talitsky District, Sverdlovsk Oblast, then in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the republics of the Soviet Union.
12.
Boris Yeltsin always remained closer to his mother than to his father; the latter beat his wife and children on various occasions.
13.
In 1932, Boris Yeltsin's parents moved to Kazan, where Boris Yeltsin attended kindergarten.
14.
Between 1939 and 1945, Boris Yeltsin received a primary education at Berezniki's Railway School Number 95.
15.
From 1945 to 1949, Boris Yeltsin studied at the municipal secondary school number 1, known as Pushkin High School.
16.
Boris Yeltsin did well at secondary school, and there took an increasing interest in sport, becoming captain of the school's volleyball squad.
17.
Boris Yeltsin enjoyed playing pranks and in one instance played with a grenade, which blew off the thumb and index finger of his left hand.
18.
In September 1949, Boris Yeltsin was admitted to the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk.
19.
Boris Yeltsin took the stream in industrial and civil engineering, which included courses in maths, physics, materials and soil science, and draftsmanship.
20.
Boris Yeltsin was required to study Marxist-Leninist doctrine and choose a language course, for which he selected German, although never became adept at it.
21.
Boris Yeltsin devoted much time to athletics, and joined the UPI volleyball team.
22.
Boris Yeltsin avoided any involvement in political organizations while there.
23.
Boris Yeltsin soon imposed fines for those who damaged or stole materials or engaged in absenteeism, and closely monitored productivity.
24.
Boris Yeltsin soon got work at a scientific research institute, where she remained for 29 years.
25.
On family holidays, Boris Yeltsin took his family to a lake in northern Russia and to the Black Sea coast.
26.
In March 1960, Boris Yeltsin became a probationary member of the governing Communist Party and a full member in March 1961.
27.
Boris Yeltsin's career continued to progress during the early 1960s; in February 1962 he was promoted chief of the construction directorate.
28.
In June 1963, Boris Yeltsin was reassigned to the Sverdlovsk House-Building Combine as its head engineer, and in December 1965 became the combine's director.
29.
Boris Yeltsin gained a reputation within the construction industry as a hard worker who was punctual and effective and who was used to meeting the targets set forth by the state apparatus.
30.
An official investigation found that Boris Yeltsin was not culpable for the accident.
31.
Ryabov ensured that Boris Yeltsin got the job despite objections that he was not a longstanding party member.
32.
Boris Yeltsin then received his second Order of the Red Banner of Labor for his work completing a cold-rolling mill at the Upper Iset Works, a project for which he had overseen the actions of 15,000 laborers.
33.
In 1975, Boris Yeltsin was then made one of the five obkom secretaries in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, a position that gave him responsibility not only for construction in the region but for the forest and the pulp-and-paper industries.
34.
Boris Yeltsin recommended that Yeltsin replace him as the First Secretary of the Party Committee in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
35.
Where possible, Boris Yeltsin tried to improve consumer welfare in the province, arguing that it would make for more productive workers.
36.
In September 1977, Boris Yeltsin carried out orders to demolish the Ipatiev House, the location where the Romanov royal family had been killed in 1918, over the government's fears that it was attracting growing foreign and domestic attention.
37.
Boris Yeltsin was responsible for punishing those living in the province who wrote or published material that the Soviet government considered to be seditious or damaging to the established order.
38.
Boris Yeltsin sat on the civil-military collegium of the Urals Military District and attended its field exercises.
39.
Also in 1978, Boris Yeltsin was elected without opposition to the Supreme Soviet.
40.
In February 1981, Boris Yeltsin gave a speech to the 26th CPSU Congress and on the final day of the Congress was selected to join the Communist Party Central Committee.
41.
Boris Yeltsin played along with the personality cult surrounding Brezhnev, but he was contemptuous of what he saw as the Soviet's leader's vanity and sloth.
42.
Boris Yeltsin later claimed to have quashed plans for a Brezhnev museum in Sverdlovsk.
43.
Boris Yeltsin was increasingly faced with the problem of Russia's place within the Soviet Union; unlike other republics in the country, the RSFSR lacked the same levels of autonomy from the central government in Moscow.
44.
Gorbachev was interested in reforming the Soviet Union and, at the urging of Yegor Ligachyov, the organisational secretary of the Central Committee, soon summoned Boris Yeltsin to meet with him as a potential ally in his efforts.
45.
Boris Yeltsin had some reservations about Gorbachev as a leader, deeming him controlling and patronising, but committed himself to the latter's project of reform.
46.
Boris Yeltsin was now responsible for managing the Soviet capital city, which had a population of 8.7 million.
47.
In February 1986, Boris Yeltsin became a candidate member of the Politburo.
48.
Boris Yeltsin expressed a similar message at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU in February 1986 and then in a speech at the House of Political Enlightenment in April.
49.
On 10 September 1987, after a lecture from hard-liner Yegor Ligachyov at the Politburo for allowing two small unsanctioned demonstrations on Moscow streets, Boris Yeltsin wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev who was holidaying on the Black Sea.
50.
Boris Yeltsin expressed his discontent with the slow pace of reform in society, the servility shown to the general secretary, and opposition to him from Ligachyov making his position untenable, before requesting to resign from the Politburo, adding that the City Committee would decide whether he should resign from the post of First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party.
51.
Gorbachev called a meeting of the Moscow City Party Committee for 11 November 1987 to launch another crushing attack on Boris Yeltsin and confirm his dismissal.
52.
On 9 November 1987, Boris Yeltsin apparently tried to kill himself and was rushed to the hospital bleeding profusely from self-inflicted cuts to his chest.
53.
Boris Yeltsin said he would never forgive Gorbachev for this "immoral and inhuman" treatment.
54.
Boris Yeltsin was demoted to the position of First Deputy Commissioner for the State Committee for Construction.
55.
At the next meeting of the Central Committee on 24 February 1988, Boris Yeltsin was removed from his position as a Candidate member of the Politburo.
56.
Boris Yeltsin was perturbed and humiliated but began plotting his revenge.
57.
Boris Yeltsin's opportunity came with Gorbachev's establishment of the Congress of People's Deputies.
58.
Boris Yeltsin recovered, and started intensively criticizing Gorbachev, highlighting the slow pace of reform in the Soviet Union as his major argument.
59.
On 19 July 1989, Boris Yeltsin announced the formation of the radical pro-reform faction in the Congress of People's Deputies, the Inter-Regional Group of Deputies, and on 29 July 1989 was elected one of the five co-Chairmen of the Inter-Regional Group.
60.
On 16 September 1989, Boris Yeltsin toured a medium-sized grocery store in Texas.
61.
Boris Yeltsin was supported by both democratic and conservative members of the Supreme Soviet, which sought power in the developing political situation in the country.
62.
Gorbachev was held in Crimea while Boris Yeltsin raced to the White House of Russia in Moscow to defy the coup, making a memorable speech from atop the turret of a tank onto which he had climbed.
63.
Boris Yeltsin was hailed by his supporters around the world for rallying mass opposition to the coup.
64.
On 6 November 1991, Boris Yeltsin issued a decree banning all Communist Party activities on Russian soil.
65.
Gorbachev has accused Boris Yeltsin of violating the people's will expressed in the referendum in which the majority voted to keep the Soviet Union united.
66.
Just days after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin resolved to embark on a programme of radical economic reform.
67.
Boris Yeltsin laid a wreath during a November 1992 ceremony in Budapest, apologized for the 1956 Soviet intervention in Hungary and handed over to president Arpad Goncz documents from the Communist Party and KGB archives related to the intervention.
68.
On 2 January 1992, Boris Yeltsin, acting as his own prime minister, ordered the liberalisation of foreign trade, prices, and currency.
69.
In December 1992, the 7th Congress of People's Deputies succeeded in turning down the Boris Yeltsin-backed candidacy of Yegor Gaidar for the position of Russian Prime Minister.
70.
An agreement was brokered by Valery Zorkin, chairman of the Constitutional Court, which included the following provisions: a national referendum on the new constitution; parliament and Boris Yeltsin would choose a new head of government, to be confirmed by the Supreme Soviet; and the parliament was to cease making constitutional amendments that change the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches.
71.
Boris Yeltsin, in turn, announced in a televised address to the nation on 20 March 1993, that he was going to assume certain "special powers" in order to implement his programme of reforms.
72.
Boris Yeltsin's opponents gathered more than 600 votes for impeachment, but fell 72 votes short of the required two-thirds majority.
73.
On 21 September 1993, in breach of the constitution, Boris Yeltsin announced in a televised address his decision to disband the Supreme Soviet and Congress of People's Deputies by decree.
74.
In December 1994, Boris Yeltsin ordered the military invasion of Chechnya in an attempt to restore Moscow's control over the republic.
75.
In late 1992, Boris Yeltsin launched a programme of free vouchers as a way to give mass privatization a jump-start.
76.
In 1995, as Boris Yeltsin struggled to finance Russia's growing foreign debt and gain support from the Russian business elite for his bid in the 1996 presidential elections, the Russian president prepared for a new wave of privatization offering stock shares in some of Russia's most valuable state enterprises in exchange for bank loans.
77.
In February 1996, Boris Yeltsin announced that he would seek a second term in the 1996 Russian presidential election in the summer.
78.
The announcement followed weeks of speculation that Boris Yeltsin was at the end of his political career because of his health problems and growing unpopularity in Russia.
79.
At the time, Boris Yeltsin was recuperating from a series of heart attacks.
80.
When campaigning began in early 1996, Boris Yeltsin's popularity was close to being non-existent.
81.
In mid-1996, Chubais and Boris Yeltsin recruited a team of a handful of financial and media oligarchs to bankroll the Boris Yeltsin campaign and guarantee favorable media coverage to the president on national television and in leading newspapers.
82.
Boris Yeltsin campaigned energetically, dispelling concerns about his health, and maintained a high media profile.
83.
Boris Yeltsin had benefited from the approval of a US$10.2 billion International Monetary Fund loan to Russia, which helped to keep his government afloat.
84.
Boris Yeltsin underwent emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery in November 1996, and remained in the hospital for months.
85.
In 1998, a political and economic crisis emerged when Boris Yeltsin's government defaulted on its debts, causing financial markets to panic and the rouble to collapse in the 1998 Russian financial crisis.
86.
On 9 August 1999, Boris Yeltsin fired his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time, fired his entire Cabinet.
87.
On 15 May 1999, Boris Yeltsin survived another attempt of impeachment, this time by the democratic and communist opposition in the State Duma.
88.
Boris Yeltsin was charged with several unconstitutional activities, including the signing of the Belovezha Accords dissolving the Soviet Union in December 1991, the coup-d'etat in October 1993, and initiating the war in Chechnya in 1994.
89.
Boris Yeltsin resigned a few weeks later on 31 December 1999, appointing Vladimir Putin as his successor.
90.
On 31 December 1999, Boris Yeltsin issued a televised resignation speech.
91.
Boris Yeltsin suffered from heart disease during his first term as President of the Russian Federation, probably continuing for the rest of his life.
92.
Boris Yeltsin is known to have suffered heart problems in March 1990, just after being elected as a member of parliament.
93.
The topic made headlines abroad during Boris Yeltsin's visit to the US in 1989 for a series of lectures on social and political life in the Soviet Union.
94.
Boris Yeltsin's alcoholism was the subject of media discussion following his meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott following Clinton's inauguration in 1993 and an incident during a flight stop-over at Shannon Airport, Ireland, in September 1994, when the waiting Irish prime minister, Albert Reynolds, was told that Yeltsin was unwell and would not be leaving the aircraft.
95.
Boris Yeltsin made a hasty withdrawal from the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan in February 1999 to use the facilities.
96.
Bill Clinton claimed that on a 1995 visit to Washington, Boris Yeltsin was found on Pennsylvania Avenue, drunk, in his underwear and trying to hail a taxi cab in order to find pizza.
97.
Boris Yeltsin made frequent stays at the nearby government sanatorium in Barvikha.
98.
In October 1999, Boris Yeltsin was hospitalized with flu and a fever, and in the following month, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, just days after receiving treatment for bronchitis.
99.
Boris Yeltsin maintained a low profile after his resignation, making almost no public statements or appearances.
100.
Boris Yeltsin criticized his successor Putin in December 2000 for supporting the reintroduction of the tune of the Soviet-era national anthem.
101.
In September 2005, Boris Yeltsin underwent a hip operation in Moscow after breaking his femur in a fall while on holiday in the Italian island of Sardinia.
102.
Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure on 23 April 2007, aged 76.
103.
Boris Yeltsin was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery on 25 April 2007, following a period during which his body had lain in repose in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
104.
Boris Yeltsin was the first Russian head of state in 113 years to be buried in a church ceremony, after Emperor Alexander III.
105.
Boris Yeltsin was survived by his wife, Naina Iosifovna Yeltsina, whom he married in 1956, and their two daughters Yelena and Tatyana, born in 1957 and 1960, respectively.
106.
Colton argued that populism and "a non-ethnic Russianism" had begun to enter Boris Yeltsin's thinking while he was First Secretary of Sverdlovsk.
107.
However, Evans thought that Boris Yeltsin still appeared to believe by 1990 that the Ukrainians and Belarusians, as fellow East Slavic nationalities, would want to remain politically united with Russia in federal form.
108.
Boris Yeltsin was deaf on the right side due to a middle-ear infection.
109.
Boris Yeltsin was a workaholic; at UPI university, he developed the habit of sleeping for only four hours at night.
110.
Boris Yeltsin was punctual and very strict regarding the tardiness of his subordinates.
111.
Boris Yeltsin had an excellent memory, and enjoyed reading; by 1985 his family had around 6000 volumes in their possession.
112.
Boris Yeltsin enjoyed listening to folk songs and pop tunes, and from youth could play the lozhki spoons.
113.
Until poor health stopped him in the 1990s, Boris Yeltsin enjoyed swimming in icy water, and throughout his life started each day with a cold shower.
114.
Boris Yeltsin enjoyed hunting and had his own collection of hunting guns.
115.
Boris Yeltsin liked to give watches and other keepsakes to his employees, often as a means of motivating them to work harder.
116.
Boris Yeltsin disliked people swearing, and when frustrated or angry, he was known to often snap pencils in his hand.
117.
Boris Yeltsin had a high tolerance for alcohol, and by the 1980s he was drinking alcohol at or above the average for the party elite.
118.
Doder and Branson noted that Boris Yeltsin was "a hero for young Russians, a cult figure to those who were not necessarily anticommunists but who were filled with bitterness and apathy" from the Brezhnev years.
119.
Aron noted that Boris Yeltsin could be "an inexhaustible fount of merriment, exuberance and hospitality" among his friends.
120.
Ryabov, who was formerly a close ally of Boris Yeltsin's, claimed that his actions in the 1990s revealed that he was a turncoat.