President Yeltsin passed away today - Monday, the 23rd of April, also known as Saint George's Day, 2007. He died from heart failure at the age of 76.
Few people will be remembered as much as Boris Yeltsin, not only for the momentous place he held in modern history, but also for the mistakes and errors of judgement that were laid at his door.
Whether it was seeing him standing on a tank outside of the Russian "White House" resisting the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, or shouting down Mikhail Gorbachev (his old rival and Russia's last Soviet president) after the same said coup attempt. His part in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the creation of the Russian Federation and it's taking of the Soviet Union's seat in the United Nations. His leading the conversion of the world's largest socialist planned economy into a market-oriented capitalist one - followed painfully by the rise of the Russian "Oligarchs". Or his subsequent errors of judgement regarding nepotism, and also, his increasingly odd behaviour, due, apparently, to his excessive alcohol consumption.
If there was any real issue with President Yeltsin, in my opinion, it was the lost potential he had to make changes, and deliver them to the people he was representing - in fact it's obvious from this quote, made near the end of his life that he understood and felt this himself:
"I want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never came true. And also I would like to beg forgiveness not to have justified your hopes."
It's not often that a man once as powerful can be as humble, and accepting of his own faults - perhaps he found some peace from the regrets he had. For me the wasting of opportunities to make a difference, however small, for the better, is a terrible thing.
In summary I particularly liked this quote by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt:
"Without a doubt, President Yeltsin — with all the human weaknesses no one is free of — was one of the truly great men of our age. When all was uncertain in the disintegrating Soviet Union, he was the one to set a new course by abolishing the Soviet Union and recognising the independence of the three Baltic States. His repudiation of Communism was unequivocal, and he clearly directed the new Russia towards ever closer cooperation with the rest of Europe. He was a great person in the history of Russia and of Europe."
