Encyclopedia of Russian History

Brusstar, James H., and Jones, Ellen. (1995). The Russian Military’s Role in Politics. McNair Paper No. 34. Washington, DC: Institute of National Strategic Studies, National Defense University. Green, William C, and Karasik, Theodore, eds. (1990). Gorbachev and His Generals: The Reform of Soviet Military Doctrine. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Herspring, Dale. (1990). The Soviet High Command; 1964-1989: Politics and Personalities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Odom, William E. (1998). The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

JACOB W. KIPP

YELTSIN, BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH

(b. 1931), charismatic anticommunist reformer, first president of post-Soviet Russia.

Democrat or impatient revolutionary, corrupt schemer or populist, Boris Yeltsin displayed a certain recklessness from his childhood through his rise to the presidency of Russia. While Yeltsin orchestrated the peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union, he succumbed to poor health and personal rule and failed to build a strong new Russian state.

Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931, and raised in Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) Oblast in the Ural Mountains. He received a degree in construction engineering from Urals Polytechnical Institute in 1955 and spent the early years of his career in a variety of construction and engineering posts in Sverdlovsk, moving from project manager to top leadership positions in the building administration. He joined the CPSU in 1961 and in 1968 became chief of the Construction Department of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Party Committee (obkom). In 1975 he was appointed industry secretary of the Sverdlovsk Obkom.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

Yeltsin was known for encouraging innovation, and his production successes made a name for him in Moscow. In 1976 he was named first secretary of the Sverdlovsk Obkom. Among his notable policies from this period, he ordered the midnight bulldozing of the Ipatiev House, the execution site of Nicholas II and his family, as the Kremlin feared it was becoming a shrine. He built a reputation for honesty and incorruptibility mixed with impatience and a tendency toward authoritarian leadership.

Yeltsin’s Party career continued to flourish as he moved up the ranks. He served as a deputy in the Council of the Union (1978-1989), a member of the USSR Supreme Soviet Commission on Transport and Communications (1979-1984), a full member of the CPSU Central Committee (1981-1990), member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet (1984-1985), and chief of the Central Committee Department of Construction (1985).

AGAINST THE GRAIN

Yeltsin soon became part of the new team of young, reform-minded communists under new CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. On the advice of CPSU ideology and personnel secretary Yegor Lig-achev, Gorbachev brought Yeltsin to Moscow in April 1985. Yeltsin quickly grew restless at a desk job and welcomed his promotion to first secretary of the Moscow City CPSU Committee, succeeding the aging Viktor Grishin. Subsequently, Yeltsin also was elected a candidate member of the Politburo (February 1986) and a member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet (1986). Yeltsin was extremely popular as Moscow’s de facto mayor, known for riding the subways, dropping in unannounced at local shops, and championing architectural preservation, while exposing and criticizing the privileges enjoyed by the Party elite.

Eventually Yeltsin clashed with key members of the Party leadership. Yeltsin complained openly about the pace of perestroika, criticizing the senior Kremlin leadership for complacency and lack of accountability and Gorbachev for timidity. In particular, he locked horns with Ligachev. Yeltsin’s campaign to remove complacent Grishin cronies infringed upon Ligachev’s personnel portfolio. Ligachev also pointedly objected when Yeltsin began to close Moscow’s special shops and schools for Party officials. Yeltsin became so frustrated that he tendered his resignation in the summer of 1987. Gorbachev refused to accept it, asking him to hold

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his complaints until after the upcoming celebration for the seventieth anniversary of the October Revolution so that a united front would lead the festivities. Yeltsin declined to heed this advice.