Boris Yeltsin became Russia's first president and democratically elected leader in 1991. The darling of the West, to many he appeared as a revolutionary who had brought freedom to the world's largest nation after 70 years of communist dictatorship. Yet by the time he left office he was deeply unpopular, having disappointed both his people and his Western backers

From humble beginnings in the Siberian countryside, Yeltsin rose through the ranks of his local Communist party, become regional chief of Sverdlovsk (modern-day Yekaterinburg) in 1976. He soon gained a reputation as a reformer, willing to challenge Soviet orthodoxy and introduce some degree of accountability. In 1985 he brought his flair as a populist to the Soviet capital as mayor of Moscow. Initially a supporter of Gorbachev's perestroika policy, Yeltsin became increasingly outspoken, eventually breaking with the party entirely, and establishing his own power base.

Yeltsin played a key role in the destruction of the Soviet Union, but as president, he soon squandered his once immense popularity, presiding over a traumatic period of economic collapse, widespread corruption, and war in Chechnya. He used the rhetoric of democracy when it suited his aims, but soon took on the more autocratic style of leadership familiar from the Soviet period.

The pressures of power took a clear physical toll on Yeltsin. He became notorious for his alleged alcoholism and increasingly eccentric public behavior. After leaving office voluntarily in 1999, he largely withdrew from public life - a sad and broken figure to many. Al Jazeera explores the trajectory of the life of this deeply divisive leader through those who knew him personally - including schoolmates, colleagues and political rivals.

Yeltsin’s top priority was now to transform Russia into a market economy. In January 1992 a new cabinet under the de facto chairmanship of Yegor Gaydar, a youthful Moscow economist, reversed decades of Soviet policy by releasing retail and most wholesale prices from state control and allowing individuals and firms to engage in trade without interference. Prices shot up at first, but the rate of increase eventually declined as the market forces of supply and demand kicked in. Later in 1992 Yeltsin’s government took steps to encourage the creation of new private businesses and launched a far-reaching program of privatization of existing economic entities. Most state firms were reorganized as joint-stock companies, and vouchers entitling holders to purchase stock were distributed free to all Russian citizens. To trim its budget deficit, the government slashed military spending, social assistance, and subsidies to producers. Collaborating with international financial organizations and Western countries, it established some of the institutional underpinnings of a capitalist economy, including a stock exchange, a central reserve bank, and a civil law code. Control over newly privatized firms gravitated to managers from the Soviet economic establishment, a trend Yeltsin did not resist. Their interests were well represented by Viktor Chernomyrdin, who supplanted Gaydar as prime minister at the end of 1992. Despite assurances from Yeltsin that reform would yield dividends within a year, the economy contracted steadily from 1992 to 1997, dwindling to less than half its previous size. Millions of ordinary people suffered great privation because of declining output, reduced and often delayed wage and pension payments, and unemployment.

Yeltsin acted almost entirely by executive edict, trying to stay above the political fray and declining to form a party or movement. The result was bitter conflict with the government’s legislative branch, headed by Yeltsin’s successor as chairman of the legislature, Ruslan Khasbulatov. Frictions were worsened by inability to agree on the terms of a democratic constitution to replace the much-amended Russian republic charter of 1978. A majority of voters expressed confidence in Yeltsin in a referendum held on April 23, 1993, but they rejected a proposal for early parliamentary elections.

Yeltsin took matters into his own hands in September 1993 when he dissolved the parliament and called for the election of a new legislature. Khasbulatov and his allies refused to step down, holing up with hundreds of armed supporters in the parliament building. Riots ensued in central Moscow, and on October 4 Yeltsin used army troops to shell and occupy the parliament building and restore calm. After 170 persons died, according to official sources, Khasbulatov finally surrendered. A new bicameral federal assembly was elected on December 12. In a constitutional referendum associated with the December election, Russians ratified Yeltsin’s draft constitution, which granted vast powers to the president and the executive organs—powers that, some pointed out, could potentially be abused by a future tyrant. At the same time, they voted heavily in the parliamentary poll for nationalistic and socialistic opposition parties. Executive-legislative relations thus remained frigid after 1993, and the president relied mainly on decrees to govern.

Yeltsin’s health deteriorated after the crisis of 1993, as he developed serious heart disease and other ailments. He directed much of his energy toward Chechnya, a mostly Muslim republic in the North Caucasus whose government had been trying to secede from Russia since 1991. In December 1994 Yeltsin ordered the army to intervene and assert Moscow’s control. Despite months of savage fighting, in which thousands perished, Russia was unable to quell the resistance. Yeltsin in 1996 authorized his national security adviser, General Aleksandr Lebed, to work out an interim settlement with the rebels. A cease-fire and a Russian troop withdrawal were negotiated in August 1996, with final resolution of the conflict deferred for five years.

In the parliamentary election of December 1995, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the heir to the Soviet Communist Party, capitalized on economic discontent to top the polls. The Our Home Is Russia movement, led by Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, earned a mere 10 percent of the popular vote, and Yeltsin’s popularity skidded to new lows. In early 1996, in spite of his health problems, Yeltsin decided to seek a second presidential term. In a brilliant campaign managed by Anatoly Chubais, Yeltsin polarized the electorate, claiming that a vote against him would send the country into renewed crisis and restore authoritarian rule. In the first round of the presidential election, on June 16, 1996, Yeltsin led the field of 10 candidates, with 35.3 percent of the valid votes. In the runoff July 3 against the Communist candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, he triumphed with 53.8 percent of the votes. General Lebed, who had finished third in June, campaigned on Yeltsin’s behalf and was rewarded with a senior position in his administration; however, the president deposed him several months later after a series of spats.

In November 1996 Yeltsin underwent successful arterial bypass surgery on his heart. During his lengthy recovery, there were calls from Communists and other foes to impeach him for incapacity to govern. In March 1998, in his last burst of initiative as president, Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Chernomyrdin and replaced him with Sergey Kiriyenko, a young official with experience in the banking and petroleum industries. A financial crisis in August 1998 led Kiriyenko to resign. Yeltsin tried to reinstate Chernomyrdin as prime minister, but had to settle on Yevgeny Primakov, his conservative foreign minister. Beginning in October 1998 Yeltsin suffered a series of illnesses that left him unable to perform many of his duties. Consequently, many of his presidential responsibilities fell to Primakov. In May 1999 Yeltsin, fearful that the popular Primakov might replace him, dismissed Primakov, criticizing him for failing to improve Russia's ailing economy. Yeltsin appointed a loyal ally, interior minister Sergey Stepashin, to replace Primakov.

Stepashin did not last long. In August, Yeltsin dismissed him along with the rest of the cabinet and named Vladimir Putin, the head of Russia's domestic intelligence service, as Stepashin's replacement. Yeltsin stated that he wanted Putin to succeed him as president when Yeltsin’s term ended in July 2000. To some observers the selection and endorsement of Putin, a loyal Yeltsin ally, signaled an attempt by Yeltsin to ensure his succession by a friendly replacement.

Putin's appointment as prime minister coincided with renewed conflict with Chechen separatists. On August 7, 1999, hundreds of Islamic guerrillas crossed into Dagestan from Chechnya and occupied several villages, triggering Russian air and artillery attacks. Then a deadly wave of terrorist bombings struck Moscow and two other Russian cities in August and September 1999, killing nearly 300 people and injuring hundreds of others. Putin and other Russian leaders accused Islamic terrorists from Chechnya of organizing the attacks. In response to the bombings, Yeltsin announced that security forces would attempt to seal off the border with Chechnya, cutting all transportation links to the breakaway region.

In late September Russian warplanes began a campaign of air strikes against targets in Chechnya. This campaign escalated in October into a full-scale invasion of Chechnya by Russian troops, who over the next several months succeeded in occupying most of the republic and driving the Chechen guerrillas into the mountains.

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