Word: russianizing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...much drama and passion. Yeltsin, born in 1931, was a tough, disciplinarian Communist Party chief from Sverdlovsk, in the Urals. He made his career in Moscow under Gorbachev but constantly fretted that he was not given the authority he deserved. In mid-1991 Yeltsin became President of the Russian republic, then just a part of the Soviet Union. His finest hour came a few months later, when, with Gorbachev isolated in the Crimea, Yeltsin faced down a junta of ham-fisted communist leaders who were trying to reverse the tide of political change and liberalization. From that point...
There is also much blood in Yeltsin's legacy. Thousands of dead--in Chechnya, in the Russian parliament's revolt in October 1993 and in other smaller conflicts. The destruction of the Russian parliament was in many ways the turning point in his presidency. As rebels moved across Moscow, meeting little resistance, close aides went to his office to ask for instructions. They found Yeltsin sitting in a darkened room, seemingly paralyzed by depression or despair. After the parliament's revolt was crushed, Boris the populist disappeared. The man who had once expressed near physical revulsion at the luxury (very...
...manner of his leaving the presidency was vintage Yeltsin--bold, blunt, even defiant, but rooted in his core belief in the right and the ability of the Russian people to choose their own leaders and their own course for the future...
...deserves a larger share of the credit for this transformation than Yeltsin himself. For all his difficulties, he has been brave, visionary and forthright, and he has earned the right to be called the Father of Russian Democracy...
...just so you know that human nature has not entirely altered as of this writing: what America once feared as the Soviet Union, we now fear as the Russian non-union--seething duchies with warheads underground. China, with its split personality, continues to make us nervous; we court its markets while trying to improve its government. In the Balkans, Christians spent the better part of the past nine years massacring Muslims. In Sudan, Muslims continue to massacre Christians. Over the past 100 years, we have advanced from Sarajevo to Sarajevo. If Sarajevo is again involved...