The hero of his time

Boris Yeltsin was utterly unique. Russia's first democratically elected leader, he was also the first Russian leader to give up power voluntarily, and constitutionally, to a successor. But he was also profoundly characteristic of Russian leaders. Using various mixtures of charisma, statecraft, and terror, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander II, Peter Stolypin (the last tsar's prime minister), Lenin, and Stalin all sought to make Russia not only a great military power, but also an economic and cultural equal of the West.

Yeltsin aimed for the same goal. But he stands out from them in this respect: he understood that empire was incompatible with democracy, and so was willing to abandon the Soviet Union in order to try to build a democratic order at home.

At the height of Yeltsin's career, many Russians identified with his bluntness, impulsiveness, sensitivity to personal slight, even with his weakness for alcohol. And yet in the final years of his rule, his reputation plunged. Only in the last few months of his second presidential term, after he launched the second war in Chechnya in September 1999, did he and his lieutenants regain some legitimacy in the eyes of the Russian public, while causing revulsion among any remaining Western admirers.

Editor's Comment
Mabogo dinku a thebana

According to both the acting director of Veterinary Services, Kobedi Segale and acting Lands and Agriculture minister, Edwin Dikoloti, the virus currently raging through the North-East mostly likely first entered the country during the festive season.From the “unprecedented” number of cases picked in testing last week, it is likely that cattle and other livestock could have been infected last year, without being reported.Animal health...

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