Boris Yeltsin died

[kutuz_off]

First post-Soviet Russian leader died today of heart failure. I kind of assume that most of you don't follow Russian politics closely. I was wondering how such distant observers view Yeltsin's legacy in terms of both Russian development, and his influence on the events outside of Russia.

R.I.P.

[ConstantineX]

I'm too young to really know what he was like as a statesman, but he seems to epitomize the worst qualities of a leader. It wasn't bad enough he was power hungry, but he was incompetent with little knack for dealing with changes he proposed. Almost every Russian person I've personally talked to or chatted with has referred to him as a "drunk", and hates him with a passion.

[daryn]

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I was wondering how such distant observers view Yeltsin's legacy

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[mosdef]

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Almost every Russian person I've personally talked to or chatted with has referred to him as a "drunk", and hate him with a passion.

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Well, his problem was that he was faced with the extremely difficult task of undoing decades of heavy central planning in the economy and introducing free market principles. The switch was extremely devastating to the people who were heavily subsidized under the old system (the vast majority of people) and was extremely rewarding for those who were able to obtain vast amounts of capital at transition (very few people).

His "rip off the band aid" approach to removing government controls didn't work the way it was supposed to, and he will be remembered for the suffering of those who were previously receiving hand outs under the old system more than for trying to introduce a system that was more fair overall.

[bobman0330]

Yeltsin deserves credit for his courage and idealism in facing down the old Soviet government. OTOH, I see no way he can escape responsibility for the complete failure of his stint as leader. I can't really say whether the Soviet regime is better or worse for Russians than Putin's government, but I don't doubt that Russia's neighbors are much better off than they once were.

[iron81]

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Yeltsin deserves credit for his courage and idealism in facing down the old Soviet government. OTOH, I see no way he can escape responsibility for the complete failure of his stint as leader. I can't really say whether the Soviet regime is better or worse for Russians than Putin's government, but I don't doubt that Russia's neighbors are much better off than they once were.

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I think that Yeltsin on the tank was one of the 10 most important moments of the 20th Century. Without that, the military coup that was in progress against Gorbachev would have likely succeeded, thus prolonging the Cold War.

Also, I think that he deserves a lot of credit for the economic success that Russia is currently turning into. Yeltsin was the one who decided that Russia should convert to a liberal Democracy and open up the economy. Unfortunately, Putin came in and is in the process of creating an authoritarian regime, but that isn't Yeltsin's fault. Boris Yeltsin is a giant of our time and I and billions of others owe him a debt of gratitude.

[latefordinner]

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Also, I think that he deserves a lot of credit for the economic success that Russia is currently turning into.

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Huh? Russia is the middle of rampant re-nationalization and dropping productivity. (Now that's Putin's doing, not Yeltsin's, but still)

His buying into the "Washington Consensus" of shock therapy conversion led to an economic collapse of unprecedented magnitude in the world AND created a situation where those with power were literally able to steal as much formerly state-owned capital as they could get their greedy little hands on. He was astoundingly authoritarian and autocratic is his rule (anyone remember when he said tanks should blow up the Parliament?)

Now it is true that likely anyone who was President during that transitionary time could be both blamed for the failures and lauded for "supporting democracy", but I think in Yeltsin's case some of those failures were worse that they should have been and his ruling style was much more "democratic" in name than in practice