Timothy Colton: Yeltsin

and oligarchs

political weakening of

populism repudiated by

refusal to create a political party

resignation of

and search for national idea

search for successor

and stabilization of federal system

symbolic decisions of

and young reformers

Yeltsin, Dmitrii (uncle of BNYe)

Yeltsin, Ignatii (paternal grandfather of BNYe) passim

Yeltsin, Ivan (soldier)

Yeltsin, Ivan (uncle of BNYe)

Yeltsin, Mikhail (brother of BNYe)

Yeltsin, Nikolai (father of BNYe) passim

arrest and incarceration of

Yeltsin’s relationship with

Yeltsin, Savva (great-great grandfather of BNYe)

Yeltsin, Sergei (ancestor of BNYe)

Yeltsin, spellings of the name

Yeltsin, Yekim (great-grandfather of BNYe)

Yeltsina, Anna (paternal grandmother of BNYe) passim

Yeltsina, Klavdiya (mother of BNYe) passim

death of

Yeltsin’s relationship with

Yeltsina, Mariya (aunt of BNYe)

Yeltsina, Naina (wife of BNYe)

in Communist Party

and death of Yeltsin

and dissident literature

and Gorbachev

and Korzhakov

marriage of

and 1996 election campaign

and renovation of Kremlin

religious views of

and Yeltsin’s drinking

and Yeltsin family life: in Sverdlovsk in Moscow

on Yeltsin and multiparty system

on Yeltsin secret speech and aftermath

on Yeltsin’s restlessness

and Yeltsin’s retirement

Yeltsina, Tatyana. See Dyachenko, Tatyana

Yeltsina, Valentina (sister of BNYe)

Yeltsina, Yelena. See Okulova, Yelena

Yerin, Viktor

Yerina, Margarita

Yesenin, Sergei

Yevstaf’ev, Arkadii

Yevtushenko, Yevgenii

Young Pioneers

Youzhny, Mikhail

Yukos

Yumashev, Valentin

as chief of staff

and “Family” group

as ghostwriter of Yeltsin memoirs

and 1996 election campaign

and Yeltsin’s retirement speech

as Yeltsin son-in-law

Yumasheva, Polina

Yumasheva, Tatyana. See Dyachenko, Tatyana

Zadornov, Mikhail M. (economist)

Zadornov, Mikhail N. (comedian)

Zaidel, Robert

Zaikov, Lev

Zakharov, Mark

Zalesov, Mikhail

Zanin, Vasilii

Zav’yalov, Nikolai

Zavgayev, Doku

Zavidiya, Andrei

Zavidovo

Zemskov, A. I.

Zhdanov, Vladimir

Zhirinovskii, Vladimir

in 1991 presidential election

in 1996 presidential election

ZIL Works

Zor’kin, Valerii

Zubov, Valerii

Zucconi, Vittorio

Zverev, Sergei

Zyryanka River

Zyuganov, Gennadii

in 1996 presidential election passim

“Mr. Colton is not the first to undertake Yeltsin’s redemption…. But Mr. Colton has used the extra time to excellent effect. He has mined declassified Kremlin transcripts; fact-checked many memoirs; conducted extensive interviews with participants, including Yeltsin, shortly before his death last year; and synthesized a story that anyone curious about contemporary Russia will find illuminating.”

“Few Russian leaders have been stuck with such contradictory labels as Boris Yeltsin. Clown, hero, braggart and battering ram are just a handful of the commonest. Given his volatile personality and the fact that Russia’s first elected president played so dominant a role in his country’s path from communism, it is time he received more weighty treatment. Timothy Colton, professor of government and Russian studies at Harvard University, certainly has the credentials. His book is backed by a tremendous amount of research, including declassified material from the Soviet archives.”

“It’s fitting… that Yeltsin has sprung his last surprise by finding a biographer to rank him, justifiably, among the politicians with the greatest impact on the 20th century.”

“In this, the first published account of Yeltsin’s whole life, Timothy Colton casts the former Russian leader in a favourable new light. For Colton, Yeltsin—a loyal communist well into middle age—‘broke stride and linked his personal journey to larger trends,’ which saw him evolve from ‘knee-jerk populism’ to ending the Communist party’s monopoly of power and pursuing democracy. By staying ‘a half-step ahead of his rivals’ he won ‘the opportunity to preside over the birth of a nation and an attempt to construct a bold new future for it.’ These are big claims—and Colton makes them convincingly…. He has researched Yeltsin’s life with care and interviewed many key figures, including Yeltsin himself…. The Yeltsin years could have turned out a lot worse…. Yeltsin deserves credit. And he deserves a biography as good as Colton’s.”

“A well-researched book with many interesting details drawn from [Colton’s] interviews with Yeltsin, his family, and a variety of other key players.”

“In this substantial biography, Professor Timothy Colton sets out to put Yeltsin back where he belongs: as a—even the —key political actor in late 20th-century Russia. To Colton, Yeltsin is a national leader and statesman of rare acumen and character who deserves a place right up there in the pantheon of great Russians. History, I have little doubt, will prove him right. There is much to admire in this account of Yeltsin…. [Colton] writes with insight on Yeltsin’s relations with communism and the Communist Party (not the same thing), suggesting that he was never really a believer, but no cynical careerist, either.”

“There have been excellent biographies of Yeltsin before, but none so thorough…. For the uninitiated, the book’s value is as a comprehensive portrait of one of the main figures of contemporary times—a portrait that is sympathetic but not uncritical. For the initiated, many of the most controversial but shrouded moments in Yeltsin’s career are, at last, clearly revealed.”

“Quite readable and utterly absorbing.”

“[A]n authoritative, impeccably researched and richly contextualized study of Yeltsin…. Colton is a masterful political historian; he weaves the story of Yeltsin’s life into the fabric of Soviet and Russian history, at every stage offering insightful descriptions of the time, the place and the people.”

“Colton’s biography is the first major assessment to come along since Leon Aron’s Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life , which went to press shortly before Yeltsin unexpectedly stepped down from Russia’s presidency in the final hours of 1999. It benefits from the passage of time and perspective afforded by Putin’s eight subsequent years as president.”

“An epic book that captures all of the color, drama and contradiction of this elusive man…. This biography is solid, important and accessible.”

“[ Yeltsin ] will be of lasting importance to serious readers and is highly recommended for academic as well as large public libraries.”

“Colton, a scholar of Russian studies at Harvard, has written the first comprehensive biography of Yeltsin. Aided by access to Yeltsin himself as well as to prominent Russian officials and close associates, Colton seeks insight by examining Yeltsin’s family background, childhood, and young manhood…. An important work.”

“A solid and sympathetic portrait of a leader misunderstood and underestimated in the West.”