R.I.P victims of Yeltsyn's regime, October 1993

[Heathen Hammer]

16 years ago, after Yeltsin tried to illegally dissolve parliament, and got impeached by it as a result, he illegally took power from Russian Parliament by assaulting the parliament building and killing 187 and wounding 437 of parliament supporters during street-fightings in Moscow.
After he usurped power he continued "privatization" which resulted in huge increase of poverty and unemployment rates in 1990s.
R.I.P Russian heroes who were defending Parliament and thus Russian freedom that day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Ru...utional_crisis

[Nikitn]

I never understood the "don't speak bad about the dead" BS. So I will say it right now. Yeltsin was nothing more than a drunk, corrupt criminal dog who deserves to be buried in a pile of .

[Heathen Hammer]

I never understood the "don't speak bad about the dead" BS. So I will say it right now. Yeltsin was nothing more than a drunk, corrupt criminal dog who deserves to be buried in a pile of .

True. When Yeltsin died me and couple of my Russian buddies bought a case of beer and celebrated that. Although its a shame that he died a peaceful death instead of facing a trial for treason.

[Rodina38]

The pig couldn't even stand straight during ceremonies - bad enough he managed to drop Russia's economy over 60% in two years and lose a war, he ruined Russia's international prestige when he was too drunk to say anything of proper sense.

[Odovacar]

The pig couldn't even stand straight during ceremonies - bad enough he managed to drop Russia's economy over 60% in two years and lose a war, he ruined Russia's international prestige when he was too drunk to say anything of proper sense.

Not to defend him, but change from "socialism" to capitalism actually transforms society and such transformations cause much anxiety, tremendous corruption, and severe loss of prestige, as the country is losing wealth and vitality meanwhile.

Russia is fortunate that this transformation was not even more long, but I guess there are plenty things to renovate still.

[Nikitn]

Not to defend him, but change from "socialism" to capitalism actually transforms society and such transformations cause much anxiety, tremendous corruption, and severe loss of prestige, as the country is losing wealth and vitality meanwhile.

Russia is fortunate that this transformation was not even more long, but I guess there are plenty things to renovate still.

Are you joking? The reasons for things like half of former GDP wasn't really due to reforms, but to the incredible corruption and incompetence.

The 1990's are easily the worst years in Russia since Stalin's time.

Barry Ferguson, it WAS Yeltsin who killed the Soviet Union (despite that vast majority of people didn't want that, except in Baltic's). But that is not why he is hated, he is hated because he did it in such a fast, horrible manner.

Corpse Helvetica, that theory is horrible - but classical in your spirit. Did you read it off some Estonian article, or did you come up with it yourself?

[Keravnos]

I never understood the "don't speak bad about the dead" BS. So I will say it right now. Yeltsin was nothing more than a drunk, corrupt criminal dog who deserves to be buried in a pile of .

What do you think the situation would be today in Russia, had Yeltsin lost?

Real GDP percentage change in Russia, 1990-1994[4].
1990 -3.0%
1991 -13.0%
1992 -19.0%
1993 -12.0%
1994 -15.0%

[Nikitn]

What do you think the situation would be today in Russia, had Yeltsin lost?

Real GDP percentage change in Russia, 1990-1994[4].
1990 -3.0%
1991 -13.0%
1992 -19.0%
1993 -12.0%
1994 -15.0%

First of all, if Yeltsin hadn't gotten to power, chances are things would have been far more decent now (and maybe we could've kept the Union).

Second, The GDP virtually evaporated in a few years. Huge amounts of services and industries were destroyed, millions of lost jobs while the rest would be lucky to even get a part of their payment.

PS. Why do you keep writing about the USSR/Russia in general? It has been proven many times that you know nothing of this, yet you keep on going.

Brezhnev didn't believe in reform while Krushchev did to an extent as was apparent with his "thaw" in policies

Indeed, Brezhenv & co did not believe in reforms.

PS. Khrushchev was a very reformist and liberal leader.

[Keravnos]

USSR could never continue in its past form. Gorbachev tried to keep "the good parts going" but that failed as well. Only if Gorbachev did exactly what Yeltsin tried to could something be salvaged, but do take in consideration that all Baltic states wanted out, as well as those of Central Asia. Yeltsin, even as he was an alcoholic managed to stave off complete disaster and keep Russia united. It is no secret that resources rich areas in western siberia or central one were threatening to abandon Russia.

I understand that you feel betrayed because of the loss of everything you used to know and hold dear, but you can't turn back the clock. Life goes on and I do believe anything that was worth keeping from the USSR has been kept including its amazing cultural achievements, free higher education and competent institutions for the welfare of the people. What didn't remain in place, was because it couldn't have.

Back in 1994, IIRC, I do remember a time when most people would brace themselves for an inevitable breakup of not just the Soviet Union (which had happened already) but of Russia itself. I remember reading about a cartoon about a "independent republic of Ivan and eve", which spoke of the fear of watching tens of countries in what now constitutes Russia, many nuclear armed, and all with a score to settle with their neighbors. Yeltsin did break the stalemate between his government and the soviet era times parliament in which Communists and ultranationalists fought so hard that almost all its decisions were deadlocked and created a workable system that still is in place today. That's not too bad for a drunkard, all things considered.

[Nikitn]

USSR could never continue in its past form. Gorbachev tried to keep "the good parts going" but that failed as well. Only if Gorbachev did exactly what Yeltsin tried to. Yeltsin, even as he was an alcoholic managed to stave off complete disaster and keep Russia united. It is no secret that resources rich areas in western siberia or central one were threatening to abandon Russia.

I understand that you feel betrayed because of the loss of everything you used to know and hold dear, but you can't turn back the clock. Life goes on and I do believe anything that was worth keeping from the USSR has been kept including its amazing cultural achievements, free higher education and competent institutions for the welfare of the people. What didn't remain in place, was because it couldn't have.

lol dude, that is wrong from start to finish. Yeltsin achieved absolutely nothing. He was a very, very corrupt, power-hungry man (Mafia), who did idiotic decisions. Only parts which wanted to secede from Russia was Chechnya and some surrounding republics, not Siberia. His "reforms" of the economy concentrated a part of it to a few people (oligarchs), and the rest was more or less lost.

He was thinking about selling Kamatchatka to Japan for anti-aids medicine though...

PS. I didn't experience USSR, but I experienced the 1990's.. I remember them very well. It was only in the late 1990's and early 20th century things started to be stabilized.

[HansDuet]

[Thorn777]

Yeah RIP.

[razor-]

[Atterdag]

R.I.P Russian heroes who were defending Parliament and thus Russian freedom that day.

I'm actually pretty interested in this as we're not really taught about the disbandment of the SU and Russia in the early 90s. How "free" (by comparative standards to both the West and the Soviet Union) was Russia actually at this point?

[Heathen Hammer]

I'm actually pretty interested in this as we're not really taught about the disbandment of the SU and Russia in the early 90s. How "free" (by comparative standards to both the West and the Soviet Union) was Russia actually at this point?

Well, most of media was controlled by financial elite - "oligarchs", who privatized a lot of public property, thus becoming extremely rich from it. Basically, in terms of freedom of speech, you can say what you want, but it wouldn't help much, since all the money and media power (and thus control over public opinion) is at hands of oligarchs. Nevertheless, it didn't stop the west from supporting Yeltsin in the parliament shooting in 1993.

How much was Yeltsin's drunkeness an act? He had to make it clear to the West that Russia was not the Soviet Union, and that Russia wanted to be friends

Well, the main reason why he is widely hated in Russia is because he took power illegally and did not do anything to improve the country. All he did was helping oligarchs to steal more money from whatever was left from Soviet Union. And by his drinking he diplomatically embarrassed Russia many times.

[clandestino]

Not that I sympatise with Gaidar and company but Yeltsin was worse thing that happened to Russia since the Time of Troubles, I wander if he was a foreign agent or he was simply corrupted?

[Barry Ferguson]

How much was Yeltsin's drunkeness an act? He had to make it clear to the West that Russia was not the Soviet Union, and that Russia wanted to be friends

[RTW Fan]

Yeltsin will go down as one of the most hopeless leaders of modern times. He basically destroyed his country. That was his political career. Think about it, when he began it was a bi-polar world with the Soviet Union leading one of the poles. When he left, Russia had lost everything and was an international joke with some even coming up with the bright idea of selling off Siberia to China.

Yeltsin was the best leader that the west ever had, pity he was supposed to be working for Russians.

[Barry Ferguson]

Yeltsin will go down as one of the most hopeless leaders of modern times. He basically destroyed his country. That was his political career. Think about it, when he began it was a bi-polar world with the Soviet Union leading one of the poles.

No, the Soviet Union had already fallen. Yeltsin had to pick up from the chaos after Gorbachov and the fall of Communism

[Heathen Hammer]

No, the Soviet Union had already fallen. Yeltsin had to pick up from the chaos after Gorbachov and the fall of Communism

Yeltsin has played a huge role in USSR collapse, since he was a very huge political figure back than. He also opposed the august coup of 1991, which resulted in Russia further descending into oligarch chaos and finally he ordered the shooting of his own parliament which took all the legitimacy from him as a politician.