Boris Yeltsin Timeline

Boris Yeltsin 37

1955 Boris Yeltsin qualifies as a construction engineer Urals Polytechnic, Sverdlovsk He worked his way up through building sites before entering party work.
1976 Yeltsin becomes party boss of Sverdlovsk First secretary of the regional committee Nine years running one of the Soviet Union's big industrial regions.
1985 Yeltsin is put in charge of Moscow Brought in by Gorbachev to clean up the city party He sacked officials, rode the metro and made enemies at speed.
1987 Yeltsin is sacked from the Moscow party After attacking the pace of reform at a Central Committee plenum Publicly humiliated and written off - the making of him as an outsider.
1989 Yeltsin wins a Moscow seat with 89 per cent Congress of People's Deputies The first competitive Soviet elections turned the disgraced official into a popular champion.
1990 Yeltsin elected chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet Reformer takes power in Russia Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on May 29, 1990, beginning his rise to power that would culminate in the dissolution of the USSR.
1990 Yeltsin walks out of the Communist Party At the 28th and last party congress, on live television He resigned his membership in front of the delegates and left the hall.
1991 Boris Yeltsin Elected President of Russia First popularly elected leader in Russian history Boris Yeltsin won Russia's first direct presidential election with about 57 percent of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected head of state in Russian history. His victory strengthened his position against Soviet central authority. He went on to lead the Russian Federation after the Soviet collapse later that year.
1991 – 1999 Yeltsin presidency First President of Russia — 1991 to 1999 Yeltsin was elected President of Russia on July 10, 1991 and resigned on December 31, 1999, handing power to Putin. His presidency saw the chaotic privatisation of state assets, two Chechen Wars, a constitutional crisis in 1993 and Russia's first democratic elections.
1991 United States and Soviet Union Sign START I Landmark treaty cuts strategic nuclear arsenals President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow, committing both nations to cut their long-range nuclear arsenals by about a third. It was the first treaty to require actual reductions in strategic nuclear weapons rather than just limiting growth. The treaty took effect after the Soviet collapse, binding its successor states.
1991 August Coup Hardline Soviet officials attempt to oust Gorbachev A group of hardline Communist officials attempted to seize power from Mikhail Gorbachev and halt the Soviet Union's reforms. Boris Yeltsin rallied resistance from atop a tank outside the Russian parliament, and the coup collapsed within three days. Its failure accelerated the collapse of Soviet Communist Party authority and hastened the dissolution of the USSR later that year.
1991 Yeltsin climbs onto a tank outside the White House Defying the August coup in front of the cameras The image that made him the face of Russian resistance and finished Gorbachev.
1991 Soviet Union Recognizes Baltic Independence Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania regain sovereignty The Soviet State Council formally recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, ending five decades of forced incorporation into the USSR. The three Baltic states quickly gained recognition from the international community and the United Nations. Their restored independence became a milestone in the Soviet Union's collapse.
1991 Yeltsin bans the Communist Party in Russia By decree, after the failed coup Seventy-four years of party rule ended with a signature.
1991 The Belavezha Accords Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declare the Soviet Union over Three leaders in a hunting lodge dissolved a superpower and set up the CIS instead.
1991 Soviet Union dissolved Gorbachev resigns — December 25, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, and the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. The USSR was formally dissolved and replaced by 15 independent states. It was the end of a 69-year experiment in communism.
1992 Voucher privatisation Every citizen given a share in the state economy Most vouchers were sold cheaply. A handful of buyers became the oligarchs.
1992 Shock therapy begins Prices freed overnight under Yegor Gaidar Inflation reached 2,500 per cent that year and savings were wiped out.
1993 The yes-yes-no-yes referendum Yeltsin wins a vote of confidence against parliament It settled nothing. Within five months the two sides were shooting at each other.
1993 Russian constitutional crisis President Yeltsin's standoff with parliament ends in tank shelling of the White House A power struggle between President Boris Yeltsin and Russia's parliament escalated after Yeltsin dissolved the legislature, which refused to disband and barricaded itself inside the White House building. Yeltsin ordered tanks to shell the building on October 4, ending an uprising that had killed dozens. The crisis cleared the way for a new constitution establishing a strong presidency.
1993 Tanks shell the Russian White House The end of the standoff with parliament Around 150 people were killed in the worst street fighting in Moscow since 1917.
1993 A new Russian constitution is approved Written to give the president sweeping powers The presidency Yeltsin built is the one Putin inherited.
1994 The Budapest Memorandum Ukraine gives up its nuclear weapons for security assurances Signed by Yeltsin, Clinton and Major. Its guarantees were tested twenty years later.
1994 First Chechen War begins Russian forces invade breakaway republic Russian troops entered Chechnya to suppress its declared independence, beginning the First Chechen War. The conflict devastated Grozny and killed tens of thousands before a 1996 ceasefire.
1996 Boris Yeltsin Re-elected President of Russia Yeltsin defeats Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov Boris Yeltsin won a second term as President of Russia in a runoff election against Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. The campaign took place amid Yeltsin's declining health and heavy backing from Russian business oligarchs and media. He suffered a serious heart attack shortly before the runoff vote.
1996 Khasavyurt Accord Ends First Chechen War Ceasefire agreement halts fighting between Russia and Chechen separatists Russian and Chechen representatives signed the Khasavyurt Accord, ending the First Chechen War with a ceasefire and a deferral of the question of Chechnya's political status. The nearly two-year conflict had killed tens of thousands of people and left Grozny devastated. The unresolved status of Chechnya contributed to the outbreak of a second war in 1999.
1996 Yeltsin undergoes quintuple heart bypass surgery Months after winning re-election He had hidden a series of heart attacks during the campaign.
1997 The NATO-Russia Founding Act Signed in Paris as NATO prepared to expand east Yeltsin accepted enlargement in exchange for a consultative council.
1998 Russian financial crisis Rouble collapses and Russia defaults on domestic debt On 17 August 1998, Russia devalued the rouble and defaulted on its domestic debt, triggering a banking collapse and a sharp economic contraction. The crisis wiped out savings for many Russians and contributed to the collapse of the US hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management weeks later.
1999 The dash to Pristina Russian troops seize the airport ahead of NATO A British general refused an order to storm it, saying he would not start the third world war.
1999 Yeltsin makes Vladimir Putin prime minister The fifth prime minister in seventeen months He named the former KGB officer as his preferred successor the same day.
1999 Second Chechen War Begins Russian forces invade Chechnya after Dagestan incursion Russia launched a military campaign against the separatist republic of Chechnya following an armed incursion into neighboring Dagestan by Chechen-based militants and a series of apartment bombings blamed on Chechen terrorists. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin oversaw the offensive, which boosted his political standing ahead of becoming president. The war continued for years and resulted in the capture of Grozny.
1999 Russian Apartment Bombings Series of blasts kill nearly 300 across Russia A series of apartment building bombings in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk killed almost 300 people over several weeks in September 1999. The attacks were blamed on Chechen militants and were used to justify the launch of the Second Chechen War. Allegations that Russian security services were involved remain disputed.
1999 Boris Yeltsin Resigns, Putin Becomes Acting President Surprise New Year's Eve resignation reshapes Russian politics Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned as President of Russia on December 31, 1999, naming Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as acting president. Putin won the presidential election the following March and went on to dominate Russian politics for decades. The transition marked the end of the turbulent Yeltsin era.
2000 Putin's first act is to guarantee Yeltsin immunity Signed on the day he became acting president Protection from prosecution for the outgoing president and his family.
2007 Boris Yeltsin dies Aged 76, of heart failure The first Russian leader in centuries to leave power voluntarily and alive.
2007 Yeltsin is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery The first church funeral for a Russian head of state since 1894 Putin declared a day of national mourning.