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: The following year Yeltsin sent troops into the breakaway republic of Chechnya, an action that left roughly 80,000 people dead—the majority of them civilians. Though the fighting ceased in August 1996, it picked back up again in 1999 and lasted most of the next decade. Health problems, some of them caused by heavy drinking, eventually began to take their toll on Yeltsin. In 1995 alone he had at least three heart attacks. Yet he decided to run for president anyway in 1996, winning a second term and then undergoing quintuple bypass surgery. Near the end of his time in office, he survived another round of impeachment proceedings and went through a string of prime ministers. In August 1998 the ruble collapsed and Russia defaulted on its treasury bills. Soon after, the economy finally turned around with the help of rising oil prices. Russia After Boris Yeltsin
On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin gave a surprise address announcing his resignation and asking the Russian people’s forgiveness for past mistakes. He then handed off power to Vladimir Putin, his chosen successor and the last of his prime ministers, who granted him immunity from prosecution.