Boris Yeltsin

EARLY LIFE  

Boris Yeltsin was born in Butka, a small village near the Ural Mountains on February 1, 1931.

Official portrait of Boris Yeltsin

The priest at young Boris Yeltsin’s christening was so drunk that he dropped baby Boris into the font then forgot he was there.

When he was 11 Yeltsin blew off the thumb and forefinger of his left hand while taking apart a grenade he and some of his chums had stolen from an army store.

EARLY CAREER 

Yeltsin worked as a builder, then joined the Communist Party in 1961.

He was the leader of the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) during the 1970s. One of the things he did was demolish the building where Nicholas II and his family were shot.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev made Yeltsin the leader of the city of Moscow. Yeltsin became one of the more liberal members of Gorbachev's government.

Yeltsin later criticised Gorbachev's perestroika reforms as being too moderate and he called for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy. In 1987 he was the first person to resign from the party's governing Politburo, establishing his popularity as an anti-establishment figure.

After Russia's elections in 1989, Yeltsin became leader of the Russian Parliament.

Boris Yeltsin abandoned communism partly due to a visit on September 16, 1989, to a medium-sized grocery store (Randall's) in Clear Lake, Houston, Texas. Leon Aron, quoting a Yeltsin associate, wrote in his 2000 biography, Yeltsin, A Revolutionary Life. "On his return to Moscow, Yeltsin would confess the pain he had felt after the Houston excursion: the 'pain for all of us, for our country so rich, so talented and so exhausted by incessant experiments'."

PRESIDENCY 

In a nationally televised speech on the night Christmas Day, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union. He declared the office extinct and handed over its functions to Boris Yeltsin.

Yeltsin became the first President of the Russian Federation on July 10, 1991. He won 57% of the vote.

Yeltsin on 22 August 1991. By Kremlin.ru

Later in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as Russia and all 14 other divisions made themselves independent. Yeltsin won support from the United States and Europe when he promised to bring capitalism and democracy to Russia. However Yeltsin proved to be an unpopular leader as his tenure was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, and economic hardships for his country.

Boris Yeltsin's first words to President Bill Clinton upon meeting in 1995 were, "Do you think O.J. did it?"

During a visit to London, Boris Yeltsin nearly caused a diplomatic row by trying to hug the Queen. Afterwards, it was suggested that the Russian should in the future be advised that apart from handshakes, people do not 'handle' the Queen.

On one occasion when he failed to get of a plane in Shannon, Ireland, it was assumed Yeltsin was drunk, only for the later realization that he had suffered a heart attack.

In November 1996, Yeltsin had a quintuple heart bypass. His failing health and further spells in hospital received a great deal of speculation in the press but he succeeded on clinging on as president despite becoming an increasingly unstable leader.

By late 1999, Yeltsin was so unpopular, that his approval rating was believed to be just 2%.

On December 31, 1999, Yeltsin went on television and, in a surprise announcement, resigned from office and apologized to the Russian people for the mistakes he had made. He nominated Vladimir Putin as his successor.

PERSONAL LIFE 

He married Naina Yeltsina, whom he met at the Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk in 1956, They have two daughters, Yelena and Tatyana, born in 1957 and 1960, respectively.

Yeltsin suffered from cyclothymia, a chronic disorder consisting of short periods of mild depression followed by bursts of frenzied activity. It was the same chronic depressive disorder Winston Churchill suffered from.

Throughout his office Boris Yeltsin treated his mood swings with large doses of vodka. Bill Clinton only phoned Yeltsin early in the day, before he became too drunk.

Yeltsin and Bill Clinton share a laugh in October 1995. By Kremlin.ru,

On a 1995 visit to Washington D.C., Boris Yeltsin was found on Pennsylvania Avenue, drunk, in his underwear and trying to hail a cab in order to find pizza. After being escorted back to the Blair House and getting his pizza, Yeltsin tried to do the same again the next night.

Yeltsin had a party trick of playing the spoons like castanets — and, in 1992, did so on the bald head of the President of Kyrgyzstan.

He enjoyed boxing, gymnastics and skiing.

DEATH 

Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure on April 23, 2007, aged 76.

Yeltsin with his wife Naina on his 75th birthday, 2006 By Kremlin.ru

Boris Yeltsin's funeral was held on April 25, 2007. His funeral was held at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and was attended by many world leaders, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. It was notable that the Russian Orthodox Church sanctioned Yeltsin's funeral, making it the first time since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894 that the church had allowed a state funeral for a head of state.