Russia: Death of Yeltsin - Full text
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On April 23 the Kremlin announced that the former President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, had died aged 76, of heart failure. He was buried with full state honours on April 25 in the cemetery of a monastery, not alongside other Soviet leaders in Red Square. The funeral was attended by President Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin's successor, and US President Bill Clinton.
Immediate context
Yeltsin resigned from office in 1999 having chosen Vladimir Putin to succeed him. A radical and often contradictory figure, he had been an outspoken critic of the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, but nevertheless supported him against the conservatives who tried to depose him in 1991. Yeltsin's later career was marred by his poor health. In 1996, shortly after being re-elected as President, he underwent major heart surgery.
Reaction and outlook
According to the news agency Interfax, Mikhail Gorbachev, in a statement of condolence, described Yeltsin as someone "on whose shoulders are both great deeds for the country and serious errors". German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reported as describing him as a campaigner for democracy and freedom and a true friend of Germany. On his resignation in 1999, former US President Bill Clinton had said that Yeltsin had been pivotal in the transformation of the Soviet Union, stating "No one deserves a larger share of the credit for this transformation than Yeltsin himself. For all his difficulties, he has been brave, visionary and forthright and he has earned the right to be called the Father of Russian Democracy."
Historical context
Yeltsin was born in 1931 in Siberia. He studied engineering and entered politics in the 1960s. He came to the attention of Mikhail Gorbachev, the architect of the perestroika reforms, and in 1986 became first secretary of the Moscow city party committee. However, Yeltsin was more radical than Gorbachev, and criticised the slow pace of Gorbachev's reforms. In 1990 Yeltsin, having been elected Chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet, astounded his colleagues by renouncing his membership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). However, he supported Gorbachev against a conservative-led attempted coup in August 1991 and images of him sitting on a tank in Moscow were broadcast around the world. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Yeltsin remained President of the Russian Federation. He oversaw dramatic constitutional and economic reforms, but also virtual economic collapse and the rise of the oligarchs--a powerful wealthy elite--and conflict in Chechnya. His final years in power were overshadowed by ill-health after he suffered a heart attack in 1995. He selected Vladimir Putin to be his successor before resigning in 1999.
