Boris Yeltsin, in full Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, was a Russian politician who became president of Russia in 1990. Boris Yeltsin served as the president of Russia from 1991 until 1999. In 1991 he became the first popularly elected leader in the country’s history, guiding Russia through a stormy decade of political and economic retrenching until his resignation on the eve of 2000.

He was born on February 1, 1931, in Sverdlovsk [now Yekaterinburg], Russia, U.S.S.R. and died on April 23, 2007, in Moscow, Russia). Yeltsin was perceived at varying times as a folk hero, as a symbol of Russia’s struggle to establish a democracy, and as a dictatorial figure (an all-powerful ruler).

Boris Yeltsin Family

Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin was born into a Russian working-class family on February 1, 1931, in the small Siberian village of Butko. His parents were Nikolai and Klavdia Yeltsin. He grew up with a younger brother, Mikhail, and a younger sister, Valya.

The Yeltsin family lived in communal, or group, situations, first on a farm and later at a construction site where his father worked. His family was in close contact with many other families and their privacy was extremely limited.

Boris Yeltsin Young

His early life, like most of his countrymen in the 1930s and 1940s, was marked by hardship, and as the oldest child Boris had numerous responsibilities at home.

A strong-willed child, Boris twice stood up to the educational system. At his elementary school graduation he criticized his homeroom teacher’s abusive behavior, which resulted in him being kicked out of school.

He appealed the decision and, after an investigation, the teacher was dismissed. During his last year in high school Yeltsin was stricken with typhoid fever, a terrible disease that causes fever and other symptoms and is easily spread, and forced to study at home.

Denied the right to take final examinations because he had not attended school, he appealed and won. His actions were extraordinary considering this happened during the rule of Joseph Stalin (1879–1953), a period when the government had an intense stronghold on its citizens.

Boris Yeltsin, Hand

Yeltsin lost two fingers from his left hand as an 11-year-old after he stole two hand grenades from a storehouse and attempted to smash one open with a hammer.

Boris Yeltsin Age Died

76 years old

Boris Yeltsin Cause Of Death

He died of cardiac arrest on 23 April 2007, twelve days after being admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.

Boris Yeltsin Buried

He was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery which is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city’s third most popular tourist site

Boris Yeltsin’s Net Worth

Boris Yeltsin was a Russian politician who had a net worth of $2 million at the time of his death in 2007.