On the Death of Tsar Boris
Today is Monday, 23 April 2007.
A few preliminary remarks on the death on this date of former Tsar Boris Yeltsin; details and amplification to come.
A long-time, loyal, and very successful, careerist in the Communist Party of the USSR, Yeltsin in 1987 attempted a coup within the Politburo which would have elevated him to #2. He failed and was booted from the Party leadership. He then discovered the wickedness of the Party (“I am shocked! Shocked!”) and the necessity of Democracy.
He maneuvered himself into power as President of Russia, then within the USSR, and used the August 1991 coup to destroy the USSR and achieve nearly absolute power in Russia.
He proceeded to sell off state enterprises, rightly belonging to the Russian people, to political cronies and campaign contributors. When, in 1993, he abrogated the Constitution and began to rule by decree, and the Parliament opposed his treasonous acts, he sent tanks to bombard Parliament.
His rule was marked by corruption on a scale not even seen during the Soviets, a drastic decline in the living standards of most Russians, and a genocidal war against the Chechens.
In 1999, Yeltsin made a deal with former KGB gangster Vladimir Putin: Putin guaranteed immunity from prosecution to Yeltsin and his family, and Yeltsin made Putin President, who has subsequently restored many elements of Soviet dictatorship.
Most sources describe him as a Great Champion of Democracy. It has never seemed to me that rule by tanks and rigged elections constitutes the democratic.
A few preliminary remarks on the death on this date of former Tsar Boris Yeltsin; details and amplification to come.
A long-time, loyal, and very successful, careerist in the Communist Party of the USSR, Yeltsin in 1987 attempted a coup within the Politburo which would have elevated him to #2. He failed and was booted from the Party leadership. He then discovered the wickedness of the Party (“I am shocked! Shocked!”) and the necessity of Democracy.
He maneuvered himself into power as President of Russia, then within the USSR, and used the August 1991 coup to destroy the USSR and achieve nearly absolute power in Russia.
He proceeded to sell off state enterprises, rightly belonging to the Russian people, to political cronies and campaign contributors. When, in 1993, he abrogated the Constitution and began to rule by decree, and the Parliament opposed his treasonous acts, he sent tanks to bombard Parliament.
His rule was marked by corruption on a scale not even seen during the Soviets, a drastic decline in the living standards of most Russians, and a genocidal war against the Chechens.
In 1999, Yeltsin made a deal with former KGB gangster Vladimir Putin: Putin guaranteed immunity from prosecution to Yeltsin and his family, and Yeltsin made Putin President, who has subsequently restored many elements of Soviet dictatorship.
Most sources describe him as a Great Champion of Democracy. It has never seemed to me that rule by tanks and rigged elections constitutes the democratic.
posted by HH at 1:10 PM
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