Boris Nikolayevitch Yeltsin was born on 1^st February 1931 in the village of Butka in the Talitskiy district of the Sverdlovsk region of Russia.  His father — Nikolay Ignatiyevitch — was a builder, his mother, Klavdiya Vasiliyevna — a seamstress.  During the years of Stalin’s reign Yeltsin’s grandfather was sent away to a Gulag, his father and uncle were also subject to the unlawful repressions and were both sentenced to time in hard labour camps.  In 1935 the family moved to Berezniki in the Perm region of Russia, where the young Boris attended the Pushkin High School.

Yeltsin continued his education at the Kirov Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk (now the Ural Polytechnic Institute) where he specialised in 'industrial and civil construction'.  Yeltsin excelled at the university, not only in his academic pursuits, but also in sports: he was part of the masters team in volleyball at the National Championship and trained the university women’s volleyball team.

It was at university that Yeltsin met his future wife Naina (Anastasia) Iosifovna Girina.  Upon graduating in 1955, the young couple separated for a while, each leaving to practise their trades, but agreed to meet again in a year’s time.  Te appointed meeting finally took place at the regional volleyball competition in Kuïbashev, after which Boris took his bride back to Sverdlovsk, where the wedding was soon held.

Professional Activities

Yeltsin’s professional career began in 1955 at the building trust Uraltyazhtrubstroi, where he started work as a foreman. The young man thought it wise to master a practical trade, so  over the next few years he worked in turn as a mason, a concrete worker, a carpenter, a joiner, a glazier, a house-painter, a plasterer, and a crane operator. From 1957 to 1963 he was promoted from foreman, to construction site superintendent, to chief engineer, and then to chief of the Construction Directorate of the Yuzhgorstroi Trust.  Yeltsin was soon made chief engineer of the Sverlovsk House-Building Combine and eventually its director. 

His professional accomplishments and talent for organisation brought Yeltsin to the attention of the leaders of the Communist party and the second half of the 60s saw the dawning of his political career.

Yeltsin is tied to the region of Sverdlovsk by almost twenty years of intense and loyal service.  What is more he spent at least half of this period at the head of the region’s political activities.

In 1968 he was appointed head of construction with the Sverdlovsk Regional Party Committee. 1975 saw his promotion to secretary of the regional committee in charge of the region’s industrial development, he became its first secretary in 1976. In 1981 he was made a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

The 'Ural period« of the biography of Russia’s First President is marked by the economic and social flourishing of the region, which lead the way, both in the speed and scale, for Russian industrial and civil construction, for the reconstruction of local industry and the creation of a modern infrastructure.  It is thanks to the initiative of Boris Nikolayevitch, that Sverdlovsk became one of the first few Russian cities after Moscow to get its very own metro system.  Yeltsin’s constant attention and deep-rooted understanding of local issues made it possible to keep the agricultural sector on an even keel, in spite of the risky nature of farming in Central Ural.  As the »chief of the region«, as he was often referred to at the time, Yeltsin put emphasis on the personal aspect of politics, working closely with members of his local and regional community on issues of regional agriculture: every task had to have a personal dimension.  What is more, he was always remained a strict, demanding and principled leader: this became known as a particular »Yeltsin style«, which stemmed from a sense of internal organisation and focus on the bigger picture, from a firm professional foundation and most importantly from a deep understanding of life as a whole.   The future president’s inherent ability to interact and guide large masses of people won the trust and respect of the people of Ural.  However, the fame of Boris Nikolayevitch Yeltsin had already spread beyond the bounds of the region: a great stir had been caused in the country by a television program which aired on 18^th December 1982, it was called »Boris Yeltsin, member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, delegate of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and first secretary of the CPSU Committee of Sverdlovsk Oblast, comments and answers the questions of the workers«.

It was only natural that the perestroika would find a need for his professional knowledge, public authority and political potential and in 1985 Boris Yeltsin was invited to work in Moscow, at the central party offices; an invitation that he finally accepted after a time of serious consideration.  In April 1985 he became the director of the department of construction of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in July — the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU on matters of construction.

In December 1985, as director of the department of construction of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he headed up the party’s Moscow town committee and in just a short time gained great popularity amongst the various strata of society. Yeltsin’s departure from the traditional style of government and administration, as was called for by the time itself, was met with some trepidation by the party’s leaders. The honesty, with which this Ural leader took on the perestroika, not at all surprisingly, made him the target of much harsh criticism, which he unflinchingly brought to the attention of both the Central Committee and of the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev.

January 1987 saw the first, but by far not the last, serious public conflict between Yeltsin and Gorbachev at the meeting of the Politburo, at which the responsibilities of the highest party cadres were discussed. The autonomy both in thought and action of one of the committee’s youngest members gained neither the understanding or approval of the General Secretary. Gorbachev’s advisors fuelled his suspicion towards Yeltsin, interpreting the disagreement between the two men on the subject of the nature of the perestroika and on the future of the country, as a threat to leader’s authority.

In September 1987 Yeltsin sent Gorbachev a letter, in which he expressed with great detail his personal critical view on the direction of the perestroika and put forward his ideas on how the course of the reforms could be improved: the letter, however, received no reply. At the Central Committee Plenum in October, Yeltsin took the floor and briefly put across his views on the threats that stood in the way of the perestroika, among which was the growing 'cult of Gorbachev’s personal influence«. As a closing to his speech he expressed his desire to leave the Politburo. Once again the responsible and truthful discussion of the expressed problems that Yeltsin so greatly wanted, did not take place. With the full approval of the General Secretary, Yeltsin’s speech was met with a classic retaliatory manoeuvre: the speech was declared a «political mistake» and a further session of the Moscow City Committee was suggested to explore the whether it would be appropriate for Yeltsin keep the role of First Secretary of the Committee. The General Secretary perceived the planned departure of his political opponent from the Politburo as an opportunity for Yeltsin to step into open opposition against him at the head of Moscow City Committee. It was not until November that the session of the Committee, following Gorbachev’s opinion, finally came to the decision on the so-called «Yeltsin matter»: in February 1988 Yeltsin’s membership to the Politburo was withdrawn and he was made first deputy commissioner for the State Committee for Construction (Gosstroi).

In spite of Gorbachev’s warning that he would never again let Yeltsin «get near» politics and the opposition of the party’s administration, in March 1989, Yeltsin was elected, by a majority of 90%, as the Moscow delegate to the Congress of People’s Deputies. At the first Congress of the People’s Deputies (May to June 1989) he became the co-chairman of the Cross-Regional Deputies Group.

In May 1990 at the first Congress of the Deputies of the Russian Federation, he was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. On 12th July 1990 he put the Declaration of the Sovereignty of the Russian State to the vote: it was passed by a landside, with 907 votes in favour, 13 against and 9 abstentions. In July 1990, at the 28th — and last — Congress Yeltsin left the Communist party.

On 12th June 1991 Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Federation, winning 57% of the votes (his closest opponents were Nikolay Ryzhkov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky who each received 17% and 8% of the votes respectively).

After the coup to overturn the government of the USSR on 19th August 1991, the President made a speech, an «Address to the citizens of Russia», in which he announced the following: We believe that such violent methods are unacceptable. They discredit the USSR in the face of the rest of the world, jeopardising our standing in the world’s landscape and force us back to an era of Cold Wars and isolationism. These actions have forced us to declare the so-called State Emergency Committee that has come into power as unlawful. Consequently, we also declare as unlawful all of its decisions and decrees.« This internal political crisis catches the President of the USSR, Gorbachev on holiday in Crimea, where he was able to avoid any participation in these happenings». The fast action of the Russian government destroyed the rebels’ plans. Relying on the support of the citizens of the army, Yeltsin was able to save the country from the repercussions of such a provocation, which had pushed Russia to the verge of civil war. Members of the State Emergency Committee were arrested, while Gorbachev was finally released from his «Crimean prison» and brought back to Moscow.

On 6th November 1991, Yeltsin issued a decree banning the Communist Party throughout the RSFSR.

On 15th November 1991 he became the head of the Russian government, which lives on in history as the first government of reforms. After forming a new cabinet, he signed ten presidential decrees and governmental orders, which marked the first steps towards radical economic reforms and the restructuring of Russia’s socialist economy into a market-oriented capitalist one. At the end of November 1991 RSFSR took upon itself the responsibility of the debts of the USSR.

Demonstrating his new authority, Yeltsin appointed Yegor Gaidar his deputy in charge of the progress of the new economic reforms.

On 8th December 1991 Yeltsin together with the Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislau Shushkevich, the leader of Belorus signed the treaty of Belozhevsk, declaring the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place.

At the end of the year the President announced a decree ordering the liberalisation of foreign trade, prices, and currency, starting on 2nd January 1992.

In June 1992 saw the end of his leadership of the Government of the Russian Federation, a responsibility that was handed over to Yegor Gaidar. The cabinet set upon making significant trade reforms.

During the year 1992 conflict grew between the legislative and executive powers of the country, a rift that was often referred to as «a crisis of diarchy. In theory the causes of this rift lay in the inconsistency of the country’s constitution, however, in reality it was the parliament’s unhappiness with the various reforms that were being implemented.

At the 7th Congress of People’s Deputies in December 1992, Supreme Soviet made an open attack on the President, in spite of the fact that on the first day of the meeting, Yeltsin had already suggested what he called a «period of stabilisation», during which the two opposing sides would be obliged to follow a set of pre-agreed rules. The President suggested, using his right to implement changes to the constitution, that the Congress should temporarily stop the Supreme Soviet’s growing authority. His suggestions were rejected; moreover the candidacy of the Yeltsin-backed Yegor Gaidar for Prime Minister, was turned down by a great majority.

On 10th December 1992 Yeltsin made an address to the citizens of Russia, in which he claimed that the Congress of People’s Deputies was the greatest stronghold of conserativism in the country, he blamed it for the country’s difficult conditions and accused it of planning a «creeping rebellion». According to the President, all the Supreme Soviet wanted was to hold total power and authority, while not accepting any of the responsibilities that went with them; reforms are being blocked and the danger of any positive progress being destroyed looms overhead. Yeltsin announces that the only way of escaping this crisis is to hold a national referendum on the trustworthiness of the President. Yeltsin called upon people to vote and made a solemn promise to respect the peoples’ wishes, whatever they may be.

At the 8th National Congress of Deputies in March 1993, the political crisis entered a new phase: the deputies decided to renege on a whole set of agreed compromises, that had been agreed earlier, among which was the congresses agreement on the holding of the referendum.

Consequently Yeltsin signed a decree on 29th March announcing the holding of a referendum on 25th April 1993, in which people would vote on the trustworthiness of the president of the Russian Federation as well as on the new Constitution and on the laws regarding elections into the Federal parliament.

The referendum was held in due course. The citizens of Russia were asked the following questions: «Do you find President Boris Yeltsin trustworthy?», «Do you approve of Socialist politics, as implemented by the President and government of the Russian Federation?», «Do you think it necessary to hold early elections for the Presidency of the Russian Federation?», «Do you think it necessary to hold early elections for the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation?». 107 million citizens voted, 64.5%  of the voting population. Voting showed the following results to the questions: «Yes, Yes, No, Yes,» proving the citizens’ loyalty to their President.

On 21st September 1993 a decree was passed on «The phased reform of the Constitution of the Russian Federation» (decree No 1400), which disbanded the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of People’s Deputies. The President announced elections to the State Duma — the lowest level of the Federal government — to be held on 11-12th December 1993. The Federal Council was created as the senior level of the government. On that same day (21st September) a spontaneous session of the Supreme Soviet was called, once again announcing their disagreement with the President, voicing its intention to remove him from office. The crisis continued till 4th October 1993 and finally ended with the restoration of Constitutional peace in the country. This eventual peace demanded the taking of extraordinary measures in the country’s capital, where force had to be used to put down armed attempts by the opposition to overtake the Town Hall and the Ostankino television centre and to interrupt an armed attack on the White House.

As a result of this crisis the President ordered the Communist Party to desist in all its activities. On 26th October a decree was signed on the «Reforms of local self-government in the Russian Federation», which destroyed the Congress of People’s Deputies. The President focused his further efforts on dealing with the problems of localised self-government, offering organisational and political guidance for the new system, the core of which focused on local administrations (this work culminated in the summer of 1995 with the passing of the law on «Common principles of local self-government».

The new Constitution and the general elections of 12th December 1993 calmed the atmosphere of the country and gave all levels of government the opportunity to concentrate on constructive work. In February 1994, in the first of his annual addresses, the President encouraged his government to expand the social aspect of its reforms. Consequently, the President’s efforts to appease public opinion, culminated in April 1994 with the creation of the following important document: 'An agreement of public opinion«, which quickly became an instrument for consolidating the power of the political elite and the public in the interest of creating a favourable environment for continuing reforms. The aim of the agreement was to find compromises, allowing for dialogues to  take place between the central government and the various political powers of Russia.

On top of these economic problems, issues of federal relations now came to forefront of politics and in particular the complicated situation in the Chechen Republic. The negative repercussions of its opposition to Russia during the regime of Dzhokhar Dudayev were clear and in the end of 1994 the Russian government undertook the unravelling of the Chechen issue, hoping to deal with this matter in as short a time as possible and with limited force.

The issues rising form the escalation of the Chechen situation into a veritable military campaign and difficulties in socio-economic expansion were made all the more clear by the results of the December 1995 elections, which resulted in the Russian Communist Party doubling its presence in the Gosduma and an attempt at revenge by the Communist party became a genuine possibility. Consequently, great importance was placed on the presidential elections planned for June 1996, in which Yeltsin was to stand against eight other candidates.

During the following months, Yeltsin was particularly attentive to the mood that dominated the public, he demanded that the government efficiently deal with the issues that were worrying citizens. The President carried out a complete reorganisation of the Cabinet of Ministers, which in January 1996 began working on a new program of reforms.

From January to April 1996 the President signed a series of decrees which dealt with the compensation of budgetary workers and of pensioners and increasing grants to students and artists. Large strides were made in the resolution of the Chechen crisis. The signing of treaties between Russia and Belarus and likewise between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan demonstrated the seriousness with which the post-Soviet countries viewed integration.

As part of his campaign, the President made a total of 52 trips to the various regions of the Russian Federation, in part to activate the various agreements struck between the Central Federal Government and the different provinces and regions of Russia.

Yeltsin’s determination, his desire to see all Russian people living freely and as they deserve, his uncompromising battle against those who attempted to steal power away and drive Russia away from its rightful course — it was these factors that eventually brought him victory in the 1996 presidential elections. In the second round of the elections, Yeltsin beat out Genadiy Zuganov, the leader of the Russian Communist Party, winning 53.8%  of the votes. The main outcome of this victory was not just the election of Boris Yeltsin, it was proof of the success of the new Constitution, of the rejuvenated political system and of the new Russian State itself.

The presidential marathon of ’96 proved to have an important and lasting effect on the socio-economic and political situation in Russia. The victory made it possible to ease the social tensions and to focus on moving towards a free-market economy. The strengthening of the democratic foundations of the Constitution continued, trade of foods, currency, precious papers began to flourish. Unfortunately, the situation in Chechnya showed no signs of easing: after the presidential elections armed conflict picked up. Consequently, the president sanctioned talks to take place in Hasavurte on 22nd and 30th August 1996, which ended with the signing of a number of important documents. In accordance to the signed treaty, both sides ceased their military action, the Federal armed forces were withdrawn from the region and discussion on Chechnya’s status was put off till 2001.

By Spring 1997 the President completed his efforts in reorganising his parliament, whose chief aim during Yeltsin’s second turn as president was to work on a new socio-economic program. The resulting program gained fame under the title 'The Seven Chief Actions«.

The Government enthusiastically set upon trying to achieve each of the set goals, although not all their decisions were met with understanding and approval, both from the people and parliament. The President sounded his criticism of these 'young reformers« in his address to the Federal Committee in February 1998; and on 23rd March he issued a decree for the resignation of his prime minister Victor Chernomyrdin and his entire cabinet. A decision that was initially seen as a sensation, proved to have at its core a deep understanding of the necessity of the completion of a certain phase in the economic politics of the country.

The political «heavyweight» Chernomyrdin was replaced by the young Sergei Kiriyenko and the President once again demonstrated his principle of constant rejuvenation and rotation of the government.

However, in August 1998 Russia came face to face with a world wide financial crisis, which eventually brought the downfall of Kiriyenko’s cabinet. The Default, the collapse of the Russian banking system and the complete devaluation of the ruble caused great problems for the economic stability of the country; surprisingly though, the Russian market showed itself to be much stronger than was expected. The August crisis was followed by an upsurge and by replacing imported goods with local ones and encouraging export the economy was soon stabilised.

In September 1998, expecting a radical change to the currency and foreseeing the measures necessary to continue his reforms, the President appointed Yevgeniy Primakov as Prime Minister. However, within a short time, he found it necessary to replace his chosen premier, who soon emerged as one of the leading members of the Communist electorate. Yeltsin later wrote in his memoirs that by Spring 1999 he had already decided on a worthy candidate for the presidency — Vladimir Putin. However, he firmly believed that it was necessary to wait till closer to the elections before putting Putin to forefront of national politics. For this reason, in May 1999 y. Yeltsin appointed Sergei Stepashin as Prime Minister, a tactic whose merit was later proved by history itself.

The inclusion of Vladimir Putin in the decision making of important issues was met with great approval from the Russian people. An important role was played by the sequence in which the political succession was announced, strengthening the foundations of the growing free-market economy and democracy that President Yeltsin had founded during his presidency.

The name of his successor was announced on 9th August 1999, after Yeltsin signed a decree appointing Vladimir Putin to the role of Prime Minister. Putin’s acceptance of the position coincided with the beginning of large-scale military operation against Chechen troops in Dagestan.

On 31st December 1999 Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation and signed a decree on 'The Authority of the President of the Russian Federation«, in which he relinquished his presidential rights and passed the presidential authority to his Prime Minister.

The Russian people discovered their president’s decision in his televised New Year’s address. It was in such a way that a precedent was set in modern-day Russian history for the voluntary handing over of power.

The First President of Russia was presented with some of Russia’s greatest honours, including a first grade medal for «Merits for the Fatherland», the «Order of Lenin», two medals of «The Red Standard of Labour», the «Order of Honour» and «Order of Gorchakov» (the highest honour awarded by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs); he was also awarded the «Royal Honour of Peace and Justice» by UNESCO, the «Medal of Freedom» and the «Medal for Selflessness and Bravery» by the USA, «The Order of the Knight of the Great Cross» the greatest State honour of Italy, among many others.He is the author of three books «Against the Grain» (1991 y.), «The Struggle For Russia» (1994 y.) and «Midnight Diaries» (2000 y.).The First President’s various interests and hobbies include hunting, sports, music, literature, cinema. He has a large family: his wife Naina Iosifovna, daughters Elena and Tatiana, grandchildren - Katia, Masha, Boris, Gleb, Ivan and Maria and even great-grandchildren — Alexander and Mikhail.