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*Perilous Times *Former Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies MOSCOW (AP) -- Former President Boris Yeltsin, who hastened the collapse The first freely elected leader of Russia, Yeltsin was initially admired Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, summed up the complexity Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Yeltsin "an important figure in "No Americans, at least, will forget seeing him standing on the tank Yeltsin was a contradictory figure, rocketing to popularity in the Yeltsin steadfastly defended freedom of the press, but was a master at Yeltsin amassed as much power as possible in his office - then gave it His greatest moments came in bursts. After Communist hard-liners tried to overthrow Gorbachev and roll back Ill with heart problems, and facing possible defeat by a Communist But Yeltsin was an inconsistent reformer who never took much interest in Yeltsin damaged his democratic credentials by using force to solve He sent tanks and troops in October 1993 to flush armed, hard-line Tens of thousands of people were killed in the Chechnya conflict, and a In the final years of his leadership, Yeltsin was dogged by health Yet Yeltsin had made a stunning debut as Russian president. He "The debilitating bouts of depression, the grave second thoughts, the Yeltsin pushed through free-market reforms, creating a private sector That was the democratic Yeltsin, who in August 1991 rallied tens of But there was another Yeltsin. He was hesitant to act against crime and corruption - beginning in his In the course of the Yeltsin era, per capita income fell about 75 Yeltsin was a master of Kremlin intrigues, and preferred the chess game He fired the entire government four times in 1998 and 1999. The economy He was quick to act if anyone threatened his hold on power, standing In foreign affairs, he struggled to preserve a role for his former He wrangled with the West in disputes over NATO expansion and Russia's Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born Feb. 1, 1931, into a peasant family Yeltsin was, by his own account, a garrulous, scrappy boy who loved He was expelled from elementary school for criticizing a teacher at a He was educated as an engineer and married a fellow student, Naina At age 30, Yeltsin joined the Communist Party after a brief career in In 1985, Gorbachev, intent on his own reforms, brought Yeltsin to A bitter rivalry soon grew between him and the more cautious Gorbachev. In the old days, that would have ended Yeltsin's career. But he stormed His popularity grew. Yeltsin was a natural with crowds, shaking hands Even then, Yeltsin's career was punctuated by bouts of bizarre behavior Yeltsin won Russia's first popular presidential election in a landslide Kremlin hard-liners trying to stop that process launched the failed coup Yeltsin banned the Communist Party and confiscated its vast property. Impatient to lead Russia into a new, prosperous era, Yeltsin quickly Years later, he expressed regret over the rush, and said he'd been "naive." "I ask forgiveness for not justifying some hopes of those people who "I myself believed in this, that we could overcome everything in one spurt." Tension grew between him and the Soviet-era parliament, climaxing in Afterward, Yeltsin pushed through a constitution that guaranteed a But growing hard-line influence led him to dump key reformers from his By early 1996, Yeltsin was deeply unpopular and presidential elections The campaign trips to Russian regions and exertion took a heavy physical He underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery in November 1996, but Russians questioned who was running the country - the doddering Yeltsin, Yeltsin's increasing frailty seemed to reflect the declining fortunes of Russians expected another halting speech on New Year's Eve 1999, but he "Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians, with new "And we who have been in power for many years already, we must go." After his dramatic exit, Yeltsin appeared rarely in public - popping up Yeltsin met about once a month with Putin, usually at his dacha in "If I had doubts that the reforms might be reversed, I would not have Yeltsin is survived by his wife, two daughters and several
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Apr 23, 1:16 PM EDT
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By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer
of the Soviet Union by scrambling atop a tank to rally opposition
against a hard-line coup and later pushed Russia to embrace democracy
and a market economy, died Monday at age 76. Kremlin spokesman Alexander
Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, and Russian news agencies cited
Sergei Mironov, head of the presidential administration's medical
center, as saying the former president died Monday of heart failure at
the Central Clinical Hospital.
abroad for his defiance of the monolithic Communist system. But many
Russians will remember him mostly for presiding over the steep decline
of their nation.
of Yeltsin's legacy in a condolence statement minutes after the death
was announced. He referred to Yeltsin as one "on whose shoulders are
both great deeds for the country and serious errors," according to the
news agency Interfax.
Russian history."
outside the White House (the Russian parliament building) resisting the
coup attempt," Gates said while on a visit to Moscow.
Communist era on pledges to fight corruption - but proving unable, or
unwilling, to prevent the looting of state industry as it moved into
private hands during his nine years in power.
manipulating the media. His hand-picked successor, Vladimir Putin, has
proven far more popular even as he has tightened Kremlin control over
both Russia's industry and its press.
all up in a dramatic New Year's address at the end of 1999.
democratic reforms in August 1991, Yeltsin stood atop a tank to rally
resistance to the coup. He spearheaded the peaceful end of the Soviet
state on Dec. 25 of that year.
challenger in his 1996 re-election bid, he marshaled his energy and
sprinted through the final weeks of the campaign. The challenge
transformed the shaky convalescent into the spry, dancing candidate.
the mundane tasks of day-to-day government and nearly always blamed
Russia's myriad problems on subordinates.
political disputes, though he claimed his actions were necessary to keep
the country together.
supporters out of a hostile Russian parliament after they had sparked
violence in the streets of Moscow. And in December 1994, Yeltsin
launched a war against separatists in the southern republic of Chechnya.
defeated and humiliated Russian army withdrew at the end of 1996. The
war solved nothing - and Russian troops resumed fighting in the
breakaway region in fall 1999.
problems and often seemed out of touch. He retreated regularly to his
country residence outside Moscow and stayed away from the Kremlin for
days, even weeks at a time. As the country lurched from crisis to
crisis, its leader appeared increasingly absent.
introduced many basics of democracy, guaranteeing the rights to free
speech, private property and multiparty elections, and opening the
borders to trade and travel. Though full of bluster, he revealed more of
his personal life and private doubts than any previous Russian leader had.
insomnia and headaches in the middle of the night, the tears and despair
... the hurt from people close to me who did not support me at the last
minute, who didn't hold up, who deceived me - I have had to bear all of
this," he wrote in his 1994 memoir, "The Struggle for Russia."
and allowing foreign investment. In foreign policy, he assured
independence for Russia's Soviet-era satellites, oversaw troop and arms
reductions, and developed warm relations with Western leaders.
thousands of Russians to face down a hard-line Soviet coup attempt.
Throughout his nearly decade-long leadership, he remained Russia's
strongest bulwark against Communism.
own administration - while they sapped public faith and stunted
democracy. His government's wrenching economic reforms impoverished
millions of Russians - poor people whose wages and pensions Yeltsin's
government often went months without paying.
percent, and the nation's population fell by more than 2 million, due
largely to the steep decline in public health.
of politics to the detail work of solving economic and social problems.
He played top advisers off against each other, and never let any of them
accumulate much power, lest they challenge him.
sank into a deep recession in summer 1998, but Yeltsin rarely commented
on the troubles and never offered a plan to combat them.
fast even when his traditional allies called on him to step down. He
easily faced down an impeachment attempt by the Communist-dominated
lower chamber of parliament in May 1999.
superpower. He called for a "multipolar world" as a way to
counterbalance what Russia perceived as excessive U.S. global clout, and
in spring 1999 he sent Russian troops rushing to Kosovo - ahead of NATO
peacekeepers - to underline that Moscow would not be elbowed out of
European affairs.
relatively warm relations with Iran and Iraq. But as Russia's political
and economic might withered, Yeltsin had little to offer other nations.
in the Ural Mountains' Sverdlovsk region. As a mischievous child, he
lost his thumb and index finger while playing with a stolen grenade.
When he was 3, his father was imprisoned in dictator Josef Stalin's
purges. His alleged crime was owning property before the 1917 Bolshevik
Revolution.
pranks and was quick to fight. And from the start, he bucked authority.
school assembly. Early in his career as a construction engineer, he was
given written reprimands 17 times in one year - "a new record," he would
later recall proudly. And his long career as a Communist Party official
was rife with battles with higher party officials.
Girina. They had two daughters.
construction in Sverdlovsk city, now Yekaterinburg. He became a
full-time party official in construction in 1969, and seven years later
was named the region's party boss.
Moscow, where he shook up the city's party hierarchy. The strapping,
silver-haired Yeltsin cut a popular figure in the capital, making a
point of riding city buses instead of a limousine, standing in long
lines in grocery stores and loudly demanding why managers were stashing
away food for favored customers instead of selling it to ordinary consumers.
When Yeltsin criticized Gorbachev at a party meeting in November 1987,
accusing him of a sluggish approach to reform, Gorbachev fired him.
back to power in 1989, winning a Soviet parliament seat in the first
real election in 70 years. The following year, Yeltsin dramatically quit
the Communist Party, walking out of its final convention.
and bantering in a booming voice. For many Russians, he had the
unpolished charm of a "muzhik" - a tough peasant with common sense and a
fondness for vodka.
that the public chalked up to alcohol. Red-faced pranks, missed
appointments, inarticulate and contradictory public statements continued
into his presidency, blamed by aides on jet lag, medication or illness.
in June 1991. Russia still was part of the Soviet Union, but the central
government had started ceding power to the 15 republics.
in August, putting Gorbachev under house arrest. But Yeltsin took
control of mass protests in Moscow, leading the democratic opposition to
victory.
The ban was lifted in court about a year later, but by then Yeltsin had
dealt the death blow to the tottering Soviet state. He and the leaders
of Ukraine and Belarus formed the Commonwealth of Independent States in
December 1991, declaring the Soviet Union extinct. Gorbachev resigned
within the month.
launched an economic-reform program that freed prices but sent them
soaring, wiping out many people's savings. Inflation skyrocketed and
production plummeted.
believed that at one stroke, in one spurt, we could leap from the gray,
stagnant, totalitarian past into the light, rich civilized future," he
told the nation in a televised speech to announce his resignation on
Dec. 31, 1999.
fall 1993 when Yeltsin disbanded the legislature. An armed standoff and
street riots followed, and Yeltsin finally turned tanks against the
parliament building. Scores of people were killed in the fighting.
strong presidency and allowed him to brush off any serious parliamentary
challenges.
Cabinet, which alienated democratic forces. Their disillusionment grew
after the start of the first Chechnya war and more hard-line gains in
parliamentary elections in December 1995.
loomed in June. But true to form, Yeltsin rallied when things looked
bleakest, manipulating the media, enlisting the aid of the so-called
oligarchs who had enriched themselves on the spoils of the Soviet
economy in a grueling campaign.
toll, and by election day Yeltsin could not even make it to his
scheduled polling station. Doctors later said he had suffered another
mild heart attack during the campaign.
continued to suffer from a series of other ailments. He also had
long-running back trouble, and seemed increasingly shaky, both
physically and mentally.
or the aides and tycoons whom critics accused of exercising undue
influence over Kremlin policy.
the country he led. During public appearances, he would often stumble,
and his speeches were punctuated by long, inexplicable pauses - even
when he had the text in front of him.
stunned the nation and the world with his resignation - having given no
hint that he would ever give in to calls that he step down before his
second term was up in spring 2000. He named his last prime minister,
former KGB agent Putin, acting president - giving him a huge incumbent's
advantage over any would-be challengers.
faces, with new, smart, strong, energetic people," Yeltsin said.
now and again at an official ceremony, holiday reception or tennis
tournament. He traveled several times to China for what were described
as health-boosting trips, and he looked fitter in retirement than he had
in years.
Barvikha outside Moscow, he told an interviewer with Russian state
television on the second anniversary of his resignation. He said he felt
stronger than during the presidency, less weighed down by stress, and
never regretted his abrupt departure. He felt certain that the reforms
he championed would continue under Putin, he said.
resigned," Yeltsin said.
grandchildren. Funeral plans were not announced.