Title: Boris Yeltsin - HISTORY
Headings: Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Contents
Boris Yeltsin’s Early Years
Did you know? Boris Yeltsin was the first freely elected leader in Russia’s 1,000-year history.
Boris Yeltsin’s Political Comeback and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Boris Yeltsin as President
Russia After Boris Yeltsin
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Content: Upon graduation, Yeltsin worked as an overseer of residential construction projects. He also stepped into the political arena, becoming a Communist Party member in 1961 and joining Sverdlovsk’s provincial party committee seven years later. After he served as party chief (roughly equivalent to governor) of the province from 1976 to 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev summoned him to Moscow. Within a year, Yeltsin was party chief there and a non-voting member of the policy-making Politburo. He became well known for railing against corruption, going so far as to fire hundreds of lower-level functionaries. He lost both of his posts in late 1987 and early 1988, however, after clashing with Gorbachev over the pace of reform. Boris Yeltsin’s Political Comeback and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Having been exiled to a relatively obscure position in the construction bureaucracy, Yeltsin began his political comeback in 1989 by winning election to a newly formed Soviet parliament with nearly 90 percent of the vote. The following year he won a similar landslide victory in a race for Russia’s parliament, became its chair and then renounced his membership in the Communist Party. With his momentum building, Yeltsin began calling for Gorbachev’s resignation. He also submitted himself to elections for the Russian presidency, winning 59 percent of the vote in June 1991, compared to just 18 percent for his closest competitor.