Russia: From Rebirth to Crisis to Recovery

287 NOT A SINGLE REFORM EFFORT IN RUSSIA HAS EVER BEEN COMPLETED. Boris Yeltsin President of the Russian Federation 1994 O n August 19, 1991, hard-line communist forces in the Soviet Union launched a military coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev in reaction to his efforts to give greater autonomy to the Soviet republics. In Moscow, with Gorbachev under house arrest in Crimea 1,200 kilometers to the south, Russian President Boris Yeltsin climbed atop a tank outside the parliament building to call for a general strike and for the armed forces to oppose the coup. The resulting popular fervor and military support crushed the conspiracy and restored order within two days. Although Gorbachev quickly returned to the Kremlin, Yeltsin now held the reins as the union collapsed and the Russian Federation emerged as the successor state and dominant regional power. Almost exactly seven years later, on August 16, 1998, a physically ill but still politically powerful Yeltsin faced a financial crisis that threatened to undo all the economic and perhaps even the political reforms he had brought to Russia. The Russian ruble, the strength of which was the most visible symbol of his success, verged on toppling, and Yeltsin had no choice but to agree to a default on a substantial part of his government’s debt. The path that Yeltsin and Russia took from the political crisis of 1991 to the financial crisis of 1998 was one of steep slow climbs and precipitous crevasses. The promised rewards at the end were a strong, healthy economy; a free and democratic political system; and a welcome to a seat in global councils. The potential cost of failure would be an impoverished country of nearly 150 million people; a return to communist or ultranationalist dictatorship; and political isolation from a world community fearful of Russia’s massive arsenal of nuclear weapons. Helping Russia’s 7 Russia: From Rebirth to Crisis to Recovery

Russia: From Rebirth to Crisis to Recovery

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