The Rise and Fall of Mikhail Gorbachev

The Rise of Yeltsin
Within the U.S.S.R., the 15 republics that made up the Union grew increasingly fractious and defiant. Turmoil rocked the Baltic, Central Asia and the Caucasus as each of the republics sought greater independence from Moscow. Around the same time, the Russian Federation elected as its leader a charismatic politician from Sverdlovsk named Boris Yeltsin, above left, who defeated a Gorbachev-backed candidate by a wide margin.

• Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall