ON THIS DAY ·
Resignation of Boris Yeltsin
31 Dec 1999 — Boris Yeltsin resigned six months early in a televised address, asking Russians to forgive him for hopes that had not come true. He handed power to Putin as acting president. Putin’s first decree granted Yeltsin immunity; in March 2000 he was elected with 52.9%.
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The moment in context
On 9 August 1999 Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin prime minister. Two days earlier fighters led by Shamil Basayev had crossed from Chechnya into Dagestan, along the arrows on the map. Putin had headed the FSB, the KGB’s successor as Russia’s security service, since 1998. Within weeks the country faced a terrifying series of attacks: between 4 and 16 September bombs destroyed apartment blocks in Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk, killing about 300 people. The government blamed Chechen militants.
From Meiji and post-Soviet Russia compared, chapter 12 of Remaking the State: Meiji Japan 1600–1912 and Post-Soviet Russia 1964–2000 (2000).
The place: Resignation of Boris Yeltsin — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Chechnya’s interwar chaos and the Dagestan raid. Khasavyurt ended the first war without giving Chechnya’s elected president Aslan Maskhadov control over field commanders such as Shamil Basayev.…
- The turn — Yeltsin resigns, 31 December 1999. By resigning six months early on 31 December 1999, Yeltsin made Putin acting president and advanced the election. Putin could campaign as an…
- What it changed — The centre reclaimed the regions. The separate bargains regions had made with Moscow in the 1990s gave way to federal districts under presidential envoys, control over parliament’s…
Then ask the room: To what extent did the Meiji transition succeed where the post-Soviet transition failed? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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