privatization entered its second phase, and a handful of businessmen-the oligarchs-snatched up key enterprises at deep discount.
Yeltsin reached out to regions for support, with mixed results. A series of bilateral treaties were signed with the Russian republics, especially Tatarstan, giving them greater autonomy than specified in the federal constitution. However, one republic, Chechnya, remained firm in its refusal to recognize the authority of Moscow, and a showdown became imminent. A group of hardliners
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within the Yeltsin administration orchestrated an invasion of Chechnya on December 11, 1994. Although they had expected a quick victory, the bloody war continued until August 1996.
Yeltsin approached presidential elections scheduled for June 1996 with four key problems. First was the ongoing and highly unpopular war in Chechnya. Second, the communists dominated the 1995 Duma elections. Third was his declining health. (He had collapsed in October 1995, triggering a succession crisis in the Kremlin.) Fourth, his approval ratings were in the single digits, and advisors Oleg Soskovets and Alexander Korzhakov urged him to cancel the election. But yet again, Yeltsin launched an amazing political comeback. He fired his most liberal Cabinet members, including Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev whose pro-West policies had angered many, and floated a new peace plan for Chechnya.
In a campaign organized by Chubais and Yeltsin’s daughter Tatiana Dyachenko, Yeltsin barnstormed across the country, delivering rousing speeches, handing out lavish political favors, and dancing with the crowds. The campaign was bankrolled by the oligarchs-a group of seven entrepreneurs who had amassed tremendous wealth in the privatization process under questionable circumstances and wanted to protect their interests. The Kremlin boldly admitted to exceeding the campaign-spending cap. Yeltsin failed to win a majority of the votes in the election, forcing him into a run-off with CPRF candidate Gennady Zyuganov.
Between the first election and the run-off, Yeltsin suffered a massive heart attack. This news was kept from the Russian population, who went to the polls unaware of the situation. Only after Yeltsin had secured victory was news of his health released. He underwent quintuple bypass surgery in November 1996, contracted pneumonia, and was effectively an invalid for months. During this time, access to the president and the daily business of running the country fell to Yeltsin’s closest advisors: Chubais and Dyachenko, known as “The Family.”
Yeltsin’s last years in office were marked by a declining economy, rising corruption, and frequent turnover in the office of prime minister. The oligarchs soon turned on each other, fighting for assets and access. Yeltsin’s immediate family was implicated in a variety of graft schemes. With the economy declining, Yeltsin embarked on prime minister roulette. He fired Chernomyrdin, replacing
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
Russian president Boris Yeltsin appeals to the people to vote in the 1993 referendum. © PETER TURNLEY/CORBIS him with Sergei Kiriyenko (March-August 1998), Chernomyrdin again (August 23-September 10), then Yevgeny Primakov (September 10, 1998-May 12, 1999), and Sergei Stepashin (May 12-August 8). In August 1998 the ruble collapsed, and Russia defaulted on its foreign loan obligations. Next in line as prime minister came ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin.
In 1999 Yeltsin associates floated the idea of his running for a third term. They argued that the two-term limit imposed by the 1993 constitution might not count Yeltsin’s 1991 election, as it occurred under different political and legal circumstances. Yeltsin’s health was a key concern, as was his family’s complicity in a growing number of corruption schemes. Before Yeltsin could leave office he needed a suitable successor, one that could protect him and his family. On New Year’s Eve, 1999, Yeltsin went on television to make a surprise
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announcement-his resignation. According to the constitution, Prime Minister Putin would succeed him, with elections called within three months. As acting president, Putin’s first action was to grant Yeltsin immunity from prosecution.
Yeltsin retired quietly to his dacha outside of Moscow. Unlike Gorbachev, he did not form his own think tank or join the international lecture circuit. Instead, Yeltsin wrote his third volume of memoirs, Midnight Diaries, and largely kept out of politics and public life. See also: AUGUST 1991 PUTSCH; CHECHNYA AND THE CHECHENS; CHUBAIS, ANATOLY BORISOVICH; DYACHENKO, TATIANA BORISOVNA; GAIDAR, YEGOR TIMUROVICH; GORBACHEV, MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH; KHASBULATOV, RUSLAN IMRANOVICH; KORZHAKOV, ALEXANDER VASILEVICH; OCTOBER 1993 EVENTS; PUTIN, VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH; RUTSKOI, ALEXANDER VLADIMIROVICH
Breslauer,George W. (2002). Gorbachev and Yeltsin As Leaders. New York: Cambridge University Press. Dunlop, John B. (1993). The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Shevtsova, Lilia. (1999). Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Yeltsin, Boris. (1990). Against the Grain. New York: Summit. Yeltsin, Boris. (1994). The Struggle for Russia. New York: Random House. Yeltsin, Boris. (2000). Midnight Diaries. New York: Public Affairs.
ANN E. ROBERTSON
YELTSIN CONSTITUTION See CONSTITUTION OF
1993.
paign are still disputed. Most sources indicate that he was a Volga Cossack who fled north in 1581 in order to escape punishment for piracy; Ruslan Skrynnikov, however, argues that Yermak was fighting in the Livonian War in 1581 and went to Siberia in 1582. Yermak and his Cossack band were hired by the Stroganovs, a family of wealthy Urals merchants, to protect their possessions against attacks by the Tatars and other indigenous peoples of Siberia. Thereafter Yermak and his band of a few hundred men set off along the Siberian rivers in lightweight boats; it is not clear whether the Stroganovs sent them to attack the Siberian khanate, or whether the decision to go on to the offensive was taken by the Cossacks. In October 1582 they defeated the Siberian khan, Kuchum, and occupied his capital, Kashlyk (Isker). The local peoples recognized Yermak’s authority and rendered him tribute. In 1585, however, Khan Kuchum launched a surprise attack on the Cossack camp and killed most of the band. Yermak himself, according to legend, drowned in the River Irtysh, weighed down by a suit of armour that he had received as a gift from the tsar. Subsequent expeditions continued the Russian annexation of Siberia that Yermak had pioneered. After his death Yermak became a folk hero; his achievements were celebrated in oral tales and songs, and later depicted in popular prints (lubki). See also: IVAN IV; SIBERIA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Armstrong, Terence, ed. (1975). Yermak’s Campaign in Siberia: A Selection of Documents, tr. Tatiana Minorsky and David Wileman. London: Hakluyt Society. Perrie, Maureen. (1997). “Outlawry (Vorovstvo) and Redemption through Service: Ermak and the Volga Cossacks.” In Culture and Identity in Muscovy, 1359-1584, ed. A. M. Kleimola and G. D. Lenhoff. Moscow: ITZ-Garant. Skrynnikov, R. G. (1986). “Ermak’s Siberian Expedition.” Russian History / Histoire Russe 13:1-39.
(d. 1585), Cossack chieftain, leader of an expedition that laid the basis for Russia’s annexation of Siberia.
Little is known about Yermak’s early biography, and many of the details of his Siberian cam1710
(1895-1925), popular poet of the Soviet period, known for his evocations of the Russian countryside and the Soviet demimonde.
