oris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.
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Part I. Construction

In his youth, Boris blew off two fingers on his left hand while playing with a live grenade.

Boris graduated from Pushkin High School in Berezniki, Molotov (Perm) region, where his parents lived from late 1930s to the early 1970s. After graduation, Boris went to Ural Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk. While in college, Yeltsin played pro volleyball for Sverdlovsk in the USSR first division. In 1955, he graduated from Ural Polytechnic Institute, majoring in Construction.

In September, 1955, Yeltsin got his first job after college. He worked for Uraltiazhtrubstroy in Sverdlovsk. In his first year at work, Boris mastered twelve construction worker skills (stonemason, carpenter, driver, glazier, plasterer, etc.), a unique achievement for a young college graduate. Only then did Yeltsin agree to take a foreman's job. Yeltsin participated in numerous construction projects in the Urals.

In 1956 Boris Yeltsin married Naina Iosifovna Girina, a student he knew in college. They have two daughters, Yelena and Tatiana, born in 1957 and 1959, respectively.

Yeltsin's engineering career advanced rapidly. In early 1960s, he held jobs of construction unit chief, chief engineer of a construction division, chief engineer of an integrated plant. In 1961, Yeltsin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). By 1963, at the age of 32, he became chief of a housing construction integrated plant, where he had thousands of people under his command.

In 1977, Yeltsin received an order from the Kremlin to destroy the Ipatyev House, a historical building where the family of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, was executed by Bolsheviks in 1918. Yeltsin obeyed, and the house was demolished overnight. By morning, every brick, including ones from the foundation, was taken to the city dump, and the site was paved with asphalt.

In April, 1985, Boris Yeltsin moved to Moscow. He held positions of vice chairman of the Construction Department, then the Secretary on Construction Issues of the Central Committee of the CPSU. On December 24, 1985, Yeltsin was elected the First Secretary of Moscow City Committee of the CPSU. This event elevated him to the status of an Alternate Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. That period of Yeltsin's life is remembered by Muscovites for renovation of Arbat, a historical street downtown. Yeltsin sharply criticized the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU for slow pace of reforms at the October, 1987, plenary meeting of the Central Committee. As a result, Yeltsin lost his positions in Moscow City Committee and the Politburo. He was hospitalized with a heart trouble, when, on the order of Mikhail Gorbachev, the KGB agents made Yeltsin leave the hospital and escorted him to a plenary meeting of Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, where he was sacked. The next year, Yeltsin was appointed First Vice Chairman of the State Committee on Construction, minister of the USSR.

Yeltsin was elected speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in May, 1990. By then, he was well-known for his harsh criticism of Mikhail Gorbachev and communist hardliners. In Yeltsin's opinion, Gorbachev had to speed up the pace of reforms in the USSR and get tough on the conservatives. More power had to be transferred from the Kremlin to the republics of the USSR. On June 12, 1990, Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty of the RSFSR. June 12 is presently celebrated in Russia as its Independence Day. In July, Yeltsin quit the Communist Party. In August, Yeltsin and Gorbachev signed a document, according to which a new economic program had to be created and relations between the Kremlin and Soviet republics had to be harmonized. The program became known as "500 days". It was authored by a group of Soviet economistsheaded by Grigory Yavlinsky and Stanislav Shatalin. Gorbachev withdrew his support of the program in Autumn, 1990, and it was never implemented. Yeltsin called for resignation of President Gorbachev in a televised address in February, 1991. Gorbachev seeked a compromise, and negotiations on the Union Treaty started in Novo-Ogarevo.

President Gorbachev and heads of the Soviet republics were scheduled to sign the Union Treaty on August 20, 1991. Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan had an informal meeting in Novo-Ogarevo on July 29. They agreed that, after the Union Treaty was signed, Soviet KGB Chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, Minister of Defense Dmitri Yazov, and Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov would be replaced, and Nazarbayev would be appointed Prime Minister of the USSR. The conversation was recorded by the KGB.

On August 18, 1991, President Gorbachev was detained at his summer residence in Crimea on the orders of Communist coup plotters headed by Kryuchkov. The next day, they announced the takeover of Gorbachev's presidential powers by Vice President Gennady Yanayev. Boris Yeltsin rushed from his Arkhangelskoye residence to the White House of Russia in downtown Moscow. He condemned the coup and called for resistance. On the orders of the self-proclaimed State Committee on the Emergency Situation (SCES), organ created by the coup leaders, the White House of Russia was surrounded by the troops. Thousands of unarmed citizens came to defend the building. A tank unit of Taman division switched sides. President Yeltsin delivered a public speech, standing on top of tank No. 110. Paratroopers of Tula division were ready to defend the White House, too. Their commander, General Alexander Lebed advised Vice President of Russia Alexander Rutskoi and General Kobets, the chairman of the Military Reform Committee of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, on how to place the armored vehicles.

People's resistance, swift action by President Yeltsin, and indecisiveness of the junta caused the coup's failure. The troops were never ordered to storm the White House. Three of its defenders were killed when they attempted to prevent armored vehicles from approaching the building the night of August 20. In the morning of August 21, several coup leaders, including Kryuchkov, fled to Crimea, where they requested a meeting with President Gorbachev. Gorbachev refused to meet them. Gorbachev safely returned to Moscow with Alexander Rutskoi's rescue team sent for him by Yeltsin. Most of the coup organizers were arrested and accused of treason. Marshal Akhromeyev, Interior Minister Pugo, and CEO of the Central Committee of the CPSU Kruchina committed suicide. Yeltsin banned the Communist Party, its property was confiscated. The Union Treaty was never signed.

On December 1, 1991, Ukraine held a referendum, and its citizens voted for independence from the Soviet Union. A week later, presidents of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed a treaty on creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 24, Russia took over the USSR seat in the United Nations. The next day, President Gorbachev resigned. The Soviet Union ceased to exist.

Everyday work of Yeltsin's government throughout most of 1992 was supervised by its Vice Premier, Yegor Gaidar, whom Yeltsin appointed acting Prime Minister on June 16. Gaidar's team started one of the most ambitious economic reforms in history. It included liberalization of prices, legalization of private business and private ownership of land, introduction of free trade and commercial banking, massive privatization of state-run enterprises, and radical cuts in the military spending. The reform was soon in jeopardy because of Yeltsin's own economic incompetence and destructive activities of pro-inflation forces. In November, 1992, President Yeltsin appointed the most influential pro-inflationist, former Head of the Central Bank of the USSR Viktor Gerashchenko, Head of the Central Bank of Russia. Once this appointment was approved by the Supreme Soviet of Russia, it became hard to reverse. The Supreme Soviet controlled the Central Bank, and Yeltsin's opponents led by speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov were in control of the Supreme Soviet. Under the false pretext of stimulation of the economy, Gerashchenko showered commercial banks with cheap credits, while the reform-oriented government kept cutting budget expenditures in futile attempts to lower the inflation. Inflation devalued savings and wages of most Russians while its few beneficiaries kept converting their roubles to dollars to invest abroad. In the meanwhile, import taxes were low, while taxes on Russian manufacturers remained outrageously high. Naturally, domestic production nosedived, and the first stage of the reforms became widely known as "shock without therapy".

On December 15, 1992, Viktor Chernomyrdin became the Prime Minister. Yegor Gaidar left the cabinet.

Congress of People's Deputies of Russia attempted to impeach President Yeltsin on March 26, 1993. Yeltsin's opponents gathered more than 600 votes for impeachment, but fell 72 votes short. In a referendum held on April 25, 1993, 58.5% of the voters expressed their confidence in President Yeltsin. More than 52.8% of participants also supported Yeltsin's economic policy.

In violation of the Constitution, President Yeltsin disbanded the Supreme Soviet and Congress of People's Deputies by his decree of September 21, 1993. The date of the new parliamentary elections was set to December 12, 1993. On September 22, Yeltsin discussed the possibility of Gerashchenko's dismissal with Prime Minister Chernomyrdin and proposed reformer Boris Fedorov to head the Central Bank. Chernomyrdin defended Gerashchenko.

In the meanwhile, the president's parliamentary opposition kept control over the White House of Russia. Yeltsin's Vice President, General Alexander Rutskoi was proclaimed the new president. On October 3, armed supporters of Khasbulatov and Rutskoi seized Moscow Mayor's Office and attacked Ostankino TV station. Twenty three people died. Yegor Gaidar addressed supporters of Yeltsin and democracy, asking them to come unarmed and defend the Kremlin and Moscow Soviet. Russian TV was broadcasting from a secret location under Moscow reserved for the occasion of a nuclear war. On October 4, troops loyal to President Yeltsin entered Moscow. The White House of Russia was surrounded, shelled from tanks, and set on fire. More than 100 people died. Rebels surrendered, and main leaders of the coup, including Khasbulatov and Rutskoi, were arrested.

On December 12, 1993, Russians voted in the parliamentary elections and the referendum on the new Constitution. The Constitution passed, and presidential powers significantly increased. Yegor Gaidar's Russia's Choice became the largest faction of the State Duma. Yet, reformers barely controlled one third of the new parliament, and the first place in the party list vote went to the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. In one of its first acts (February 1994), the State Duma granted amnesty to leaders of the coups of 1991 and 1993.

At the date of Gerashchenko's appointment to the position of the Central Bank Chairman in 1992, the exchange rate of rouble was equal to about 400 roubles to $1. On October 10, 1994, the exchange rate plunged from 2,896 to 3,081 roubles to $1. October 11, 1994, became known as the Black Tuesday. The beleaguered ruble lost over a fifth of its value against the dollar, falling a record 845 points to end at 3,926 to one. Three days later, President Yeltsin forced Gerashchenko's resignation.

On December 11, 1994, President Yeltsin sent Russian troops to Chechnya in an attempt to crush the three-year-old Chechen independence bid. By Spring, 1995, federal troops seized Grozny, the capital of the breakaway republic. Relentless bombardment killed thousands of Chechen civilians. Hundreds of thousands became refugees. Grigory Yavlinsky, Yegor Gaidar, and many other democrats condemned the war and withdrew their support of Yeltsin. The president's popularity hit all-time lows, and rating of his support eventually stabilized at the level of approximately 6%.