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A Teenaged Democracy and its Communist Roots

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has had three democratically elected presidents. The first president, Boris Yeltsin, spent most of his political years under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CSPU) which was also the Soviet Union's only political party. It wasn't until 1990, merely a year before being elected as the first president of the newborn democracy, that he ended his membership with the CSPU to gain power as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR (RSFSR). Yeltsin worked side by side with the Soviet Union's last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, until confronting Gorbachev for allowing his wife to meddle in the affairs of the state in 1987. Despite Gorbachev's attempts to discredit Yeltsin, his popularity continued to grow until his rise to the highest office in 1991.

During Yeltsin's first term he successfully spread privatization in Russia and made leaps and bounds in improving relations between the United States. A new era of openness between the superpowers began during an interchange between Yeltsin and United States Senator Jesse Helms in late 1991/92 where Helms requested information on the thousands of POWs, MIAs and ,in particular, information on Korean Airlines Flight 007 being shot down September 1st, 1983. Yeltsin responded to Helms request with an apology for the tragedy and handed the tapes from the flight's black box to the United Nations.

The positive aspects of Yeltsin's first term were nearly overshadowed by health problems and an unpopular war in Chechnya. During the start of Yeltsin's campaign for a second term in office his popularity was close to zero. Early polls had Yeltsin's opponent, Gennady Zyuganov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) far ahead of Yeltsin and hopes of continued cooperation with the United States were nearly crushed. However, Yeltsin made a strong comeback by outspending his opponent, promising to end the war in Chechnya and spreading fears that a return of Communist power would plunge Russia into civil war. The vote ended with Yeltsin winning a second term with 53.8% of the vote against Zyuganov's 40.3%.

Much of Yeltsin's second term was spent fighting health problems and fending off impeachment proceedings brought on by the democratic and Communist parties. Russia defaulted on loans from the International Monetary Fund which triggered the Russian financial Crisis of 1998. 1999 saw Russia again at odds with the United States concerning the Kosovo war where Yeltsin threatened war against the United States and Europe and possibly the World. United States President Bill Clinton criticized Yeltsin about the Chechnya. Yeltsin resigned on New Year's Eve 1999, passing the torch on to Vladimir Putin to serve as acting president, and apologized for his failures as Russia's president.

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