14 - Evaluating Yeltsin as Leader

Summary

Yeltsin, like Gorbachev, was both a system destroyer and a system builder. During the years that Gorbachev was endeavoring to transform the Marxist- Leninist system into a socialist democracy, Yeltsin evolved into a committed anti-communist revolutionary. His goal became to destroy the communist system along with all those features that Gorbachev hoped to preserve in the name of “socialism” and “Soviet civilization.” Then, on the ruins of that system, Yeltsin promised to build on the territory of Russia a new system, which he depicted as a “market democracy.” As in the case of Gorbachev, Yeltsin's effectiveness as a system destroyer can be evaluated separately from his effectiveness as a system builder.

YELTSIN AS SYSTEM-DESTROYER

During 1988–1991, Boris Yeltsin evolved into a hero of the anti-communist opposition to Soviet rule. After his overwhelming electoral victories of March 1989 and June 1991, followed by his facing down of the coup plotters in August 1991, his authority at home and abroad had become legendary. He had evolved into a charismatic leader of almost mythic proportions, especially among those who had assumed that the Soviet and communist control structures were unassailable. Thus, as an oppositional leader, Yeltsin is likely to go down in history as a uniquely courageous and effective figure who managed to prevail against seemingly overwhelming odds. His “resurrection” after being purged by the Communist Party apparatus in 1987 was a product of extraordinary political will, intuition, and an uncanny ability to sense and shape the mood of the masses.