No Tears For Boris

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And it is possible to tease some hopeful signs from the ice-head's resume. Though he has let the military manage the war in Chechnya, for instance, U.S. officials say Putin, unlike Yeltsin, seems to be ultimately in control. Visiting U.S. officials like Attorney General Janet Reno have been impressed that Putin realizes corruption poses a major threat to the creation of a market economy in Russia. If this is so, Putin is in for a struggle. The fight against corruption could turn out to be the defining theme of a Putin presidency. The fact remains that his ascent to power has been facilitated by a group of political insiders and businessmen who have been publicly accused of corruption on a vast scale. If he hits out at minor corruption and closes his eyes to the big fish, he will do his reputation in the West incalculable damage. If he challenges the mega-corrupt, he will face the fight of his political life. After all, even a politician as experienced as Primakov was thwarted, then forced out of office, when he tried to take on high-level corruption.

Soon after assuming his new office, Putin flew unexpectedly to the Chechen town of Gudermes, where he awarded hunting knives to troops who had distinguished themselves in the fighting. Meanwhile, as word of the resignation spread across Moscow, the Russian stock market jumped about 20%; politicians paid their predictable tributes, and ordinary citizens responded largely with indifference. Gorbachev, who is spending the New Year's holiday in Paris with his children and grandchildren, told the French press agency that Yeltsin should have resigned earlier. Human-rights activist Elena Bonner--Yeltsin nominated her husband Andrei Sakharov as TIME's Person of the Century--was scathing. "After eight years in the Kremlin, sadly, what has Boris Nikolayevich achieved? Nothing. He left Russia with a dangerous constitution that was made just for him, and now Putin will exploit it." Other former associates remembered Yeltsin warmly. Boris Nemtsov, a onetime Yeltsin favorite, declared, "Yeltsin has proved that as a politician he is much stronger than any other politician in Russia." Yeltsin "came and went beautifully," Nemtsov said.

There was, in fact, little beauty in Yeltsin's career, though there was much drama and passion. Yeltsin, born in 1931, was a tough, disciplinarian Communist Party chief from Sverdlovsk, in the Urals. He made his career in Moscow under Gorbachev but constantly fretted that he was not given the authority he deserved. In mid-1991 Yeltsin became President of the Russian republic, then just a part of the Soviet Union. His finest hour came a few months later, when, with Gorbachev isolated in the Crimea, Yeltsin faced down a junta of ham-fisted communist leaders who were trying to reverse the tide of political change and liberalization. From that point on, he, not Gorbachev, was the unchallenged leader of the country.

There is also much blood in Yeltsin's legacy. Thousands of dead--in Chechnya, in the Russian parliament's revolt in October 1993 and in other smaller conflicts. The destruction of the Russian parliament was in many ways the turning point in his presidency. As rebels moved across Moscow, meeting little resistance, close aides went to his office to ask for instructions. They found Yeltsin sitting in a darkened room, seemingly paralyzed by depression or despair. After the parliament's revolt was crushed, Boris the populist disappeared. The man who had once expressed near physical revulsion at the luxury (very modest, by current standards) of Soviet leaders now lived in a series of opulent residences in and around Moscow. He became withdrawn, a tendency reinforced by his declining health, alcohol abuse and dependency on a small number of deeply manipulative aides.

The West managed for most of his rule to overlook the dark side of Yeltsin's personality and presidency. The 100,000 or so deaths during the first Chechen war were regrettable, Western officials said. His character was sometimes a problem, but things were never boring with Boris, they added indulgently. He insulted the West but never broke with it. He was firmly and uncompromisingly anticommunist.

But he failed to do what he had set out to achieve, many years ago, when he was an ambitious young populist. He brought neither predictability nor prosperity to his country. It was perhaps this he had in mind on New Year's Eve when, after apologizing for his failures, he told Russians in a plaintive farewell: "Be happy. You deserve happiness."