Boris N. Yeltsin, Who Buried The U.S.S.R., Dies At 76

Boris N. Yeltsin, the burly provincial politician who became a Soviet-era reformer and later a towering figure of his time as the first freely elected leader of Russia, presiding over the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the demise of the Communist Party, died yesterday in Moscow. He was 76.

Boris N. Yeltsin More Photos

Russian leader Boris Yelstin emerges from a balloting booth after casting his vote in the Russian republics first democratic presidential election. More Photos >

His death, at a hospital, came at 3:45 p.m., the Kremlin said, making the announcement without ceremony, a reflection of the contradictory legacy of Mr. Yeltsins presidency in the view of many Russians, including his successor, the current leader, President Vladimir V. Putin.

Medical officials told Russian news agencies that Mr. Yeltsin had died of heart failure after being admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. He had suffered heart problems for years, undergoing surgery shortly after his disputed re-election as Russian president in 1996.

In office less than nine years, beginning with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and plagued by severe health problems and an excessive fondness for alcohol, Mr. Yeltsin added a final chapter to his historical record when, in 1999, he stunned Russians and the world by announcing his resignation, becoming the first Russian leader to give up power on his own in accordance with constitutional processes. He then turned over the reins of office to Mr. Putin on New Years Eve 1999, and after that was out of the public eye.

Mr. Yeltsin was at once the countrys democratic father and a reviled figure blamed for most of the ills and hardships after the Soviet collapse. The last Soviet president and, for a time, his rival for power, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, speaking yesterday, called Mr. Yeltsins a tragic fate.

I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country, and serious mistakes, Mr. Gorbachev told the Interfax news agency.

Mr. Putin released a statement late Monday declaring that Mr. Yeltsin had given the country democracy as the first elected president of Russia. Under this title, he has taken his place in the history of this country, and of the world, Mr. Putin said. He made no mention of Mr. Yeltsins role in his own rise to power. He declared April 25 a day of national mourning.

Mr. Yeltsin left a giant, if flawed, legacy. He started to establish a democratic state and then pulled back, lurching from one prime minister to another. But where Mr. Gorbachev sought to perpetuate the Communist Party, Mr. Yeltsin helped break the partys hold over the Russian people. Although his commitment to reform wavered, Mr. Yeltsin eliminated censorship of the news media, tolerated public criticism and steered Russia toward a free market. The rapid privatization of industry led to a form of buccaneer capitalism and a new class of oligarchs, who usurped political power as they plundered the countrys resources.

But Mr. Yeltsins actions ensured that there would be no turning back to the centralized Soviet command economy, which had strangled growth and reduced a country of talented and cultured people and rich in natural resources to a beggar among nations.

Not least, Mr. Yeltsin was instrumental in dismembering the Soviet Union and allowing its former republics to make their way as independent states.

His leadership was erratic and often crude, and as a democrat he often ruled in the manner of a czar. He showed no reluctance to use the power of the presidency to face down his opponents, as he did in 1993, when he ordered tanks to fire on a Parliament dominated by openly seditious Communists, and as he did again in 1994, when he embarked on a harsh military operation to subdue the breakaway republic of Chechnya. It began a costly and ruinous war that almost became his undoing and that was ferociously revived in 1999 and still being waged when he resigned that year.

His relationship with the United States was a complicated one. President Clinton seized on the fall of the Soviet Union as an opportunity to advance American interests, and he and Mr. Yeltsin maintained a strikingly good rapport. In his dealings with Mr. Yeltsin, Mr. Clinton was protective, careful not to tempt old-line Communists to try to turn the clock back to dictatorship. There was some success between the two countries on nuclear issues, the removal of Soviet troops from the Baltic states and Moscows cooperation with NATO as it expanded toward the borders of Russia itself.

Yesterday, expressions of condolence poured into Moscow. Tributes to his democratic leadership were tempered by criticism of the corruption and lawlessness of the 1990s, the two devastating wars in Chechnya that began on his watch and, perhaps most of all, the feeling that Russia had lost its stature on the world stage.

Still, Mr. Yeltsin received grudging praise even from old enemies, like the nationalist leader and presidential challenger in 2006, Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, who said the country was never freer than it was under Mr. Yeltsin. Boris E. Nemtsov, a liberal politician who was a deputy prime minister under Mr. Yeltsin, described him as a very rare leader in Russian history who believed in open political competition.

Although Mr. Nemtsov criticized parts of Mr. Yeltsins legacy, like the wars in Chechnya, he noted that Mr. Yeltsin had listened to dissent. What is a pity is that his successor killed his initiatives and his successes, Mr. Nemtsov said.

Heroism and Weakness

Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Moscow.

Tag Cloud

External Information

Additional Information

Where Am I?