The Struggle for Russia by Boris Yeltsin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Not a single reform effort in Russia has ever been completed."

I can't get away from reading books about Soviet/Russian leaders of the second half of the 20th century. Almost half of my life, until 1982, I had lived in the shadow of the Soviet empire. Boris Yeltsin's memoir The Struggle for Russia is the ninth book on the topic that I am reviewing here on Goodreads (the full list is below the rating). The publisher states that the book is a lightly edited text of Mr. Yeltsin's journal from the period between August 1991 and October 1993, one of the most turbulent periods in the Russian (no longer Soviet!) history.

Disregarding chronology, the book begins with Mr. Yeltsin's notes from 1993. Particularly captivating is the journal entry dated October 4, 1993, during the dramatic days of the so-called "constitutional crisis" - a standoff between Yeltsin, Russia's president, and the Russian parliament, freshly dissolved by the President. Yeltsin orders the army to storm the Moscow's "White House," and his opponents try to get the Air Force to bomb Kremlin. There are heavy casualties.

The journal entries are arranged in such a way that the reader can see political, economic, and social developments that led to the crisis of fall 1993; the book concludes with Mr. Yeltsin's return to reminiscing the dark days of Sep and Oct of 1993.

The actually chronological beginning, Chapter 3 of the memoir, portrays the August 1991 coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. This is fascinating read, events are described hour-by-hour with high degree of realism, when no one knows anything, and all events seem completely chaotic. We read about Mr. Yeltsin's famous speech atop the turret of the tank. He writes:

"This improvised rally on the tank was not a propaganda gimmick."

I am not quite sure if I believe it. It might have been a well designed turning point in the struggle. Anyway, the coup fails, Mr. Yeltsin signs a decree to suspend the activities of the Communist party in Russia, and in a few months the dissolution of the Soviet empire becomes a fact.

Reading about the "awkward months" between August and December 1991, when Mikhail Gorbachev yielded power and Soviet Union, one of the most powerful empires in the history of mankind, ceased to exist, is captivating. For me, perhaps the most interesting layer/motif in the book is the relationship between two men who managed to changed the world so significantly: Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Yeltsin. Although they often were bitter political enemies, Mr. Yeltsin's admiration for Mr. Gorbachev is patently obvious from the pages of the journal.

Readers will likely enjoy Mr. Yeltsin's impressions from his contacts with leaders of other countries, such as Margaret Thatcher, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl, and Lech Wałęsa. There is some humor in the text, like the passage about an incident when Mr. Yeltsin's car got stuck in the ditch; he had to walk 10 miles to the nearest village for help, yet every single resident of the village was drunk.

There is a lot of serious stuff in the memoir: about Russia, its people, its history, and its problems. I am unable to rate the book higher because I believe that the book will be fully understood only by people like this reviewer, who know what life under Soviet rule was.

Three stars.

My previous reviews of books on Soviet leaders:

Gorbachev: Heretic in the Kremlin - by Dusko Doder and Louise Branson

The Andropov File - by Martin Ebon

Against the Grain - An Autobiography - by Boris Yeltsin

Lenin to Gorbachev: Three generations of Soviet Communists

Brezhnev, Soviet Politician - by Murphy

Khrushchev - by Roy Medvedev

Gorbachev and His Revolution - by Mark Galeotti

Andropov - by Zhores Medvedev


View all my reviews