Yeltsin

This is a major re-assessment of one of the twentieth century's most important political figures.In 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed, and a fifty-year Cold War came to an abrupt end. Embracing the newly achieved spirit of openness, former Communist Party-member Boris Yeltsin became president in 1991 [...]
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This is a major re-assessment of one of the twentieth century's most important political figures.In 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed, and a fifty-year Cold War came to an abrupt end. Embracing the newly achieved spirit of openness, former Communist Party-member Boris Yeltsin became president in 1991, and embarked on a sweeping makeover of newly democratic Russia - an attempt that would meet with tremendous difficulty, and in his estimation, failure. This is the first major biography to examine the deeply conflicted yet brilliant politician and his extraordinary times.Harvard professor and Soviet expert Timothy J Colton traces Yeltsin's development from peasant boy in the Urals to Communist Party apparatchik, and then to nemesis of the Soviet order and radical reformer. In the course of his research for the book, Colton conducted dozens of interviews with prime ministers, ministers, diplomats, oligarchs and journalists. He was also granted three interviews with Yeltsin himself - in fact he is the only Western analyst ever granted this level of access.Colton demonstrates why and how Yeltsin broke with single-party rule and launched his drive to replace it with democracy.Yeltsin's intuitive judgment of situations, grace under fire and deep understanding of the nature of power enabled him to push forward his country with blinding speed. But, as Colton points out, Yeltsin's troubled psychology and personal social weaknesses, along with the unforeseen consequences of world all conspired to slow and distort the progress of Russian democracy and capitalism.Yet in his final analysis, Colton departs from most historians by showing Boris Yeltsin not as the unwilling subject of world history's mercurial moods, but rather the key agent in post-Soviet Russia whose colossal attempt at bringing democracy to Russia remains one of the great, unfinished stories of our time. Colton's book will be the starting place for those seeking to understand Russia's vitally important place in world events today.