Boris Yeltsin

[Jona Lendering]

I know he was an alcoholic, I know his economic policy combined the failures of communism with the social defects of capitalism, and I know his impulsive behavior was not always wise. Boris Yeltsin will not be remembered as a great statesman.

Still, he was the first leader in Russia to organize more or less democratic elections, and he single-handedly overcame a coup by Communist die-hards. I will never forget that he climbed on that tank, outside the Russian Parliament, and made sure that the democratic reforms continued. He could have been shot any moment. Forum rules forbid to digress upon politics, but on that day in Augustus 1991, he showed that with courage, democracy can overcome dictatorship.