11: Yeltsin is formally ousted from position as Moscow Party chief after an October speech in which he slammed the party leadership.

26: Yeltsin wins 90 percent of the citywide vote to join the Congress of People's Deputies, capping a remarkable political comeback.

29: Yeltsin is elected president of Russia by the legislature. The vote is a major political rebuff to President Gorbachev.

July

12: Yeltsin stuns the political world by abruptly quitting the Communist Party, setting the stage for his showdown with Gorbachev.

12: Yeltsin becomes Russia's first popularly elected president. Later, vows to make the individual, not the state, "the measure of all things."

August

On the tank in 1991. (AP)

19: President Yeltsin climbs a tank and successfully stares down a coup attempt against Gorbachev.

September

18: Reports circulate that Yeltsin is ill with chest pains. Forced to stop working for two days.

December

8: Yeltsin leads other republic leaders in signing a treaty effectively dissolving the Soviet Union and forming the Commonwealth of Independent States.

12: The conservative Russian Congress further chips away at Yeltsin's power, authorizing its ability to suspend and remove the president.

April

25: Yeltsin finds some relief in a national referendum where 59 percent profess their faith in the president.

July

25: Russia's Central Bank gives citizens two weeks to replace old rubles, a move that sends the country into a near panic. Yeltsin extends the exchange amount and lengthens the exchange period to defuse the crisis.

September

21: Yeltsin disbands parliament and orders new elections. Meanwhile, Vice President Alexander Rutskoi declares himself the new leader and the parliament swears him in. Troops mobilize but Yeltsin emerges from yet another crisis in control.

December

13: Voters back Yeltsin's proposed constitution, but the elections also give nationalists a sound voice in parliament.

22: Russia enters a formal partnership with NATO, ending decades of an adversarial relationship.

September

28: Yeltsin ends summit with President Clinton by announcing agreements to expedite the destruction of nuclear warheads and to end Russian arms sales to Iran.

December

11: Yeltsin sends Russian troops into the breakaway region of Chechnya.

10: President Clinton travels to Moscow for a summit with Yeltsin, but they fail to reach agreements on several issues, including NATO expansion and Chechnya.

December

18: Communists and nationalists win control of almost 45 percent of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament.

4: Yeltsin defeats Communist challenger in popular election. He retains Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

15: Yeltsin abruptly cancels a meeting with Vice President Gore, raising concern over the Russian leader's flagging health.

16: Yeltsin names economic reformer Anatoly Chubais to manage his administration.

August
16: Yeltsin makes key appointments to his new cabinet.

September
24: Yeltsin plans a cardiac surgery that fuels debate over who would be likely to succeed him.

October
5: National security chief Alexander Lebed skips a meeting of a high-level defense council.

18: Yeltsin fires Alexander Lebed.

November

Recovering in 1996. (AP)

6: Yeltsin's open-heart surgery is completed successfully.

24: Yeltsin orders last troops withdrawn from Chechnya.

December
24: Yeltsin returns to Kremlin after heart surgery.

8: In a reformist move, Yeltsin appoints Anatoly Chubais as a first deputy prime minister.

12: Yeltsin orders a sweeping shake-up of his unpopular government.

18: Yeltsin names Boris Nemtsov as a first deputy prime minister. Anatoly Chubais will also be finance minister.

May
23: Yeltsin fires his defense minister and the chief of the general staff.

24: Yeltsin installs Igor Sergeyev, a longtime veteran of the nuclear missile forces, as defense minister.

September
25: Yeltsin outlines his plan to wrench the Russian state he helped create five years ago into a prosperous, well-regulated, modern democracy.

November
15: Yeltsin fires his deputy chief of staff in a scandal over private book advances accepted by Anatoly Chubais and some of his aides.

16: Yeltsin fires two more top aides to Chubais but refuses to accept Chubais's resignation.

20: Yeltsin strips Chubais of finance post.

21: Yeltsin names Mikhail Zadornov to head Russia's Finance Ministry.

December
11: Yeltsin is hospitalized outside of Moscow.

March
1: Yeltsin fires three cabinet ministers for failing to reverse Russia's ills.

3: A top nuclear energy official resigns.

13: Yeltsin cancels appointments due to a "cold."

19: Yeltsin postpones Russian summit for "bad cold."

20: Yeltsin returns to Kremlin to work after overcoming a respiratory illness.

23: Yeltsin dismisses his entire government citing the failure of economic reforms.

April
10: Parliament rejects Yeltsin's choice for prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko, on first vote.

24: Kiriyenko wins parliament's confirmation as prime minister on the third vote.

May
12: Coalminers start protesting unpaid wages, and block a main railway for more than two weeks.

13: Markets plummet amid violence in Indonesia.

26: Yeltsin signs austerity package to stabilize budget and cut spending.

June
1: Russia's main stock index sinks 10.2 percent, continuing a massive investor flight from the country's markets that has aroused fears of a collapse in the ruble.

23: Yeltsin warns that Russia's finances are in an alarming condition and threatens to impose new tax code and other economic measures by decree. Yeltsin and Kiriyenko present another anti-crisis plan to parliament.

July
1-2: Siberian miners start new pickets of railways demanding wage arrears. Shares tumble on overall uncertainty.

13: Russia wins agreement from international lenders for $22 billion in credits over the next 18 months.

15-17: The Duma passes only part of Yeltsin's anti-crisis plan, rejecting or weakening key tax and spending measures.

19: Yeltsin decrees four-fold hike in land tax after Duma rejects much of revenue-raising anti-crisis elements.

August
10: Miners lift rail blockade, but markets plummet amid fears of default or devaluation.

13: International financier George Soros advises Russia to devalue ruble. Russia resists, and shares plunge to their lowest levels in more than two years.

17: The Russian government gives in to months of pressure on the nation's currency and announces a devaluation of the ruble and suspension of the market in government bonds.

23: Yeltsin fires Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko and replaces him with his predecessor, Viktor Chernomyrdin.

25: The Russian ruble tumbles 10 percent against the dollar, the steepest one-day drop in four years.

31: The State Duma rejects the nomination of Viktor Chernomyrdin as premier. Chernomyrdin is eventually rejected a second time by the Duma before withdrawing his candidacy for premier.

September

10: Yeltsin nominates Yevgeny Primakov to be Russia's new prime minister.

11: Russia's parliament overwhelmingly approves Primakov as prime minister.

April
06: Berezovsky is named in an arrest warrant on charges of money laundering and corruption, a prosecutor announces.

May
12: Yeltsin fires Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, replacing him with longtime ally, Sergei Stephashin, and plunging the country into a major political crisis.

19: The State Duma votes 301-55 to approve Sergei Stepashin as Russia's prime minister.

August
9: Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and named as his replacement Vladimir Putin, a former intelligence officer who became the fourth prime minister sacked by the erratic Yeltsin in a year and a half