Yeltsin: A Life

In this penetrating biography, Timothy J. Colton—one of the English-speaking world’s foremost experts on Russia—traces the life and struggles of Russia’s first popularly elected president, Boris Yeltsin. Colton vividly narrates the life of a man who rose from agrarian roots to forge a new destiny for Russia and whose attempt at bringing democracy to his countrymen remains one of the great unfinished stories of our time. Yeltsin provides a refreshing portrait of this controversial yet critical leader who buried the Soviet Union and birthed its troubled heir.

Timothy J. Colton is Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies and Director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. The author of numerous books and articles on Soviet history and politics, he lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.