February 22, 2000

Yeltsin's Surprise Resignation


Yeltsin's Surprise Resignation

 

 

 

"Today, on the last day of the outgoing century, I resign."

Boris Yeltsin

 

Dateline: 12/31/99

Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced, on television, Friday, his resignation as president of the Russian Federation; effective immediately. Acting president is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Presidential elections must be held in 90 days. Originally, the presidential election would have been held in June, 2000.

This shocking announcement took Russia and the world by surprise on this, the eve of the new millennium. With the recent Duma elections (Dec. 19th) still fresh, this event is certain to throw Russia into another chapter of political turmoil. Parties will, once again, be jockeying for votes.

It would appear that Yeltsin had waited for this Duma election and the resulting shift of power within the lower house of the Russian parliament from the Communists to the combined pro-Kremlin, centrist parties, to announce his resignation. In his television announcement, Yeltsin officially appointed PM Putin as acting President. Putin is Yeltsin's choice as successor to the presidency and is endorsed by the centrist parties. Putin has been Prime Minister since Yeltsin fired his government, for the third time in two years, on August 10, 1999.

Boris Yeltsin, age 68, has been president throughout the turbulent times of Russia's transition from that of a Communist nation to a democracy. He has seen good times and, most recently, times of extreme political and economic crisis. In his nation wide televised announcement, Yeltsin apologized to the Russian people for not meeting their hopes and expectations. This was a somber and sad announcement as Yeltsin left his country in new and younger hands as it enters the 21st century, later today.

According to the Russian Constitution, in the event of a presidential resignation, elections must be held within 90 days to elect a replacement (Section I, Chapter IV, Article 92, para 2) This presidential election has been set for March 26, 2000.

I want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never came true. And also I would like to beg forgiveness not to have justified your hopes . . . I beg your forgiveness for having failed to jump in one leap from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past to the clear, rich and civilized future.

~ President Boris Yeltsin; 30 December 1999, Moscow

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955