WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT was 25 years ago today that Boris Yeltsin took one of the biggest gambles of his life with the Russian Government referendum that asked the people of Russia four questions, the first and most important of which was “Do you have confidence in the President of the Russian Federation?”

They were also asked “Do you support the economic and social policy that has been conducted since 1992 by the President and Government of the Russian Federation?” And “Should there be early elections for the President of the Russian Federation?”

The final question was “Should there be early elections for the People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation?”

Yeltsin won 59.9 per cent backing on question one, and also won a majority for his stance on the second and third questions, but lost on the fourth question as people were probably sick of going to the polls.

WHAT LED TO THIS?

A COMMUNIST Party apparatchik for much of his life, Yeltsin was selected by Mikhail Gorbachev to be effectively the Mayor of Moscow in 1985, and in the heady days of perestroika, Yeltsin was to the fore in demanding swifter reforms. He was also known as a rebel and resigned from the Soviet Politburo – the first person ever to do so – in 1987 before making a spectacular return to power two years later in the Congress of People’s Deputies where he organised a powerful pro-reform group.

All the time his personal popularity as a symbol of reform was growing and in May, 1990, he was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the ruling legislature. He caused outrage when he dramatically resigned from the Communist Party in July, 1990, but the following year, despite Gorbachev’s opposition, he won the democratic presidential election for the Russian Republic and proved his courage in August 1991 when he personally stood on a tank and faced down an attempted coup against Gorbachev, backed by the masses who supported him.

The end of the Soviet Union followed in December, with Ukraine in particular forcing the pace, and President Yeltsin then swiftly implemented reforms to widen democracy and dismantle Russia’s state-run economy and bring in free market principles. It was unsuccessful at first in economic terms, while all the time there was a huge split between politicians like Yeltsin who wanted a Western-style democracy and those who still wanted Soviet-style party domination.

The wrangles between Yeltsin and the Communist-dominated Russian Parliament came to a head in early 1993 when the Congress of People’s Deputies tried to impeach Yeltsin, but once again his popularity with the people won the day and Yeltsin decided to call the referendum on April 25, 1993, promising to resign if he lost.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

THE April 25 referendum encouraged Yeltsin to go much further, and ruling by decree at times, he survived crisis after crisis, most notably the constitutional crisis of late 1993 which saw him dissolve the parliament and then turn the tanks on it before another referendum gave him a majority for his new constitution which greatly increased the powers of the president.

HE WASN’T THE FOOL HE OFTEN PLAYED?

ON the contrary he was a consummate politician who at first had an instinctive feel for what the people of Russia wanted – reform. Gorbachev may have started it, but Yeltsin delivered it, and he also managed to win a second term as president against the odds in 1996, though only by siding with the oligarchs who now controlled the Russian economy which struggled badly in the late 1990s.

In failing health – he had major heart surgery – Yeltsin looked to the future and fixed the appointment of a new Prime Minister in 1999 who succeeded Yeltsin after he dramatically resigned live on television on Hogmanay that year. The Prime Minister became acting president and won the presidential election in 2000. His name is Vladimir Putin. So thanks for that, Boris.

BORIS DID LIKE A DRINK, THOUGH

IN the same way that his namesake Boris Johnson likes to annoy the world with wordplay, Yeltsin could act the boor and the clown, most famously when in 1994 he missed an entire visit to Ireland by falling asleep on his official aircraft at Shannon Airport while Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was waiting to greet him. As many videos show, Yeltsin loved to dance, conduct bands, and crack jokes with Bill Clinton.

Boris Yeltsin died in 2007.

ANY LESSONS WE COULD LEARN IN SCOTLAND?

NOT from Boris, but from that four-part referendum 25 years ago today, especially for the growing number of Yes campaigners who say that following a successful independence referendum, voters should be asked to give their approval or disapproval on proposals about such issues as Scottish membership of the EU and a new constitution including the monarchy or not. Yeltsin’s four-part referendum showed that people could work out the ‘multiple choice’ answers for themselves, and he followed it with the successful referendum on the constitution in December of that year.

On such major issues, surely Scottish voters could also participate in a two, three or four-part referendum to decide the make-up of a born-again country.