Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin was the first elected leader in Russian history. He played a key part in the unraveling of the U.S.S.R. and in 1991 he embarked on a sweeping makeover of the new Russia. By the time he retired in 1999 he was forced to admit that he had failed to move Russia towards democracy and free markets in a single leap. His gamble to bring his country to democracy had a great impact on the entire world and remains one of the great, unfinished stories of our time.