Russia's Father Of Democracy

Little did I know about Russian politics til I started my politics module this sem.

Today, Russia's first democratically elected leader passed away of heart failure.That reminds me that I havent finished reading politics (gahhh!) but now I've got a chance to refresh my memories on the lectures.

Well,Yeltsin was the first President elected under so-called democratic process.He brought an end to 70 yrs of Bolshevik rule,dismantled the Communist Pasrt and dissolved the SU and started a whole new epoch. In the news whilsts I was eating lunch just now,Tony Blair more or less said

"He was a remarkable man who see the needs for economic and political reform"

However there's an ambivalent of attitudes towards him including yours truly and why is that?

He may be deserved to be honoured as a liberator and a patriot but he was also the man who destroyed Russia by letting democracy turned to anarcy and free market to rapacious exploitation. He came into power towards the death of communism and were trying to prove that Gorbachev's(last leader of Soviet Union)idea of perestroika and glastnost can make a better government.

Just incase you need to be enlightened on these Gorbachev's jargon -

Perestroika: a combination of policies to intended to produce major policies politically and economically

Glastnost: encouraging greater opennes for discussion in the belief that airing of opinons was vital for new ideas to come forward.

His final years were characterized as chaos- breakdown of public health and education, rampant inflation, corrruption and almost total collapse of the rule of law which is not surprising at all as Yeltsin lack the charismatic personality that is