Rough-Hewn Father of Russian Democracy

On June 12, 1991, he was chosen as Russia's first elected president, collecting 57.4 percent of the vote in a field of six candidates. He immediately flew to Washington, where his reception -- and performance -- at the White House were far more impressive than two years earlier.

At his July inauguration, in a ceremony nearly devoid of Soviet trappings, Yeltsin declared that Russia -- with three-quarters of the Soviet Union's territory and more than half its population -- was "rising from its knees." He vowed to make the individual, not the state, "the measure of all things."

The August Coup

The hard-line Communists struck six weeks later. Gorbachev's most reactionary aides, including the Soviet prime minister, defense minister and KGB chief, attempted a coup against him.

As the country and the world held their breath, Yeltsin raced to the headquarters of the Russian parliament to rally opposition to the coup. On Aug. 19, just after noon, he clambered on top of tank No. 110 of the Taman Guards, creating one of the indelible heroic images of the 20th century.

He spoke at first with no microphone. "Citizens of Russia," he began in his booming voice. "The legally elected president of the country has been removed from power. . . . We are dealing with a right-wing, reactionary, anti-constitutional coup d'etat."

On the radio, he appealed to the soldiers who were poised to attack. "You can erect a throne on bayonets, but you cannot sit on it for long," he said. "The days of the conspirators are numbered."

For three days, Yeltsin barely slept. When the coup collapsed of the plotters' own incompetence, he was a hero. Gorbachev, eclipsed by his rival, was a spent force. Yeltsin introduced a new Russian flag: a red, white and blue tricolor first used by Peter the Great.

A Troubled Presidency

On Dec. 8, 1991, Yeltsin and the leaders of the other Soviet Slavic republics, Ukraine and Byelorussia (now Belarus), signed a treaty that effectively rendered the Soviet Union extinct, leaving 15 newly independent states, including Yeltsin's Russia. Twenty-five million ethnic Russians found themselves stranded outside Russia's borders.

The euphoria that followed the failed August coup yielded to deep fears about the economy. Russians were dealt a harsh blow at the New Year when Yeltsin's new team of bright, young, Western-oriented economists freed most prices from the command system that had set them for decades. Although stores' shelves filled up and long lines for scarce products disappeared, hyperinflation seized the country.

Yeltsin's next reform was in many ways his most profound -- privatizing the colossal industrial archipelago of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin distributed 144 million privatization vouchers to the people. "We need millions of owners, not hundreds of millionaires," he declared. But instead he got the millionaires. Scooping up the state's riches, they made Moscow a boom town full of construction projects, flashy cars and expensive casinos, clubs and restaurants.

Those left behind seethed with anger. Millions of workers at state-owned factories and enterprises were not receiving their paltry pay, or receiving it months late. Government corruption and protection rackets flourished in nearly every major city. The government was hooked on foreign loans. Reforms bogged down. Some allies who had stood with Yeltsin during the August coup now broke with him.

Yeltsin tried to defuse the mounting tension but ultimately parliament rebelled. He dissolved it and called new elections. Many of the lawmakers refused to leave, and their hard-line allies staged defiant rallies. On Oct. 3, 1993, they rampaged through Moscow's streets, attacking police and the main state television station. Yeltsin, after a night of cajoling his generals, called out the army. The next day, tanks shelled the parliament into submission.

In 1996, Yeltsin's standing in the polls was at rock bottom when he rallied for a reelection campaign against the Communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov. Yeltsin won, and soon thereafter underwent major heart surgery. The next year came a boom in the economy, but in 1998 the ruble crashed and the government defaulted on its debts, an economic crisis that only deepened disenchantment.

In the later years of his presidency, Yeltsin grew isolated and remote, like the party elders he had so harshly criticized. Fewer and fewer Russians paid attention. "Many of our hopes have not come true," he said in his final televised address, asking the Russian people to forgive him. "What we thought would be easy turned out to be painfully difficult."