Boris Yeltsin. The Decade That Shook the World

The literature on Yeltsin is vast. Memoirs have been produced not only by politicians — first-hand participants in the events, Yeltsin himself penned three volumes of recollections — but also assistants, press secretaries, political analysts, journalists, MPs, retired members of Gorbachev’s Politburo, public figures now long forgotten, generals of special services and security service staff. I started working on Boris Yeltsin’s biography when he was still alive. I hoped he would read my manuscript but I did not make it in time. In my work, I used not only publicly accessible documents that had been printed or made otherwise accessible but also interviews that that were unknown to general public. They are published for the first time, in this book. I received huge help and support from my friends, my journalist colleagues and Boris Yeltsin’s family — particularly the series of interviews with his wife Naina and daughter Tatiana, for which I am deeply grateful.