April 25, 2007 8:37 AM

On the Boris Yeltsin That Once Was

Boris Yeltsin passed away this week. I ran into a Russian immigrant friend of mine on the streets of New York last night and asked him what he thought of the news. His response: "I had thought he was dead already."

Many people had thought that, actually, and in many ways the spirit and impact of Yeltsin had died years ago, suffering as debilitating a decay as the man himself, who suffered through his final years from health problems exacerbated by his own self-abusive lifestyle.

The past decade has seen a Russia in which economic promise was betrayed by corruption and mismanagement, in which the public's embrace of liberty weakened as Russians accepted more authoritarian leadership in government, and in which the rivers of hopes that flooded into the country after the fall of Communism have become pools of stagnant water, dirty and distasteful.

So, following Yeltsin's poor performance as President and Putin's successive subjugation of the nation, it's no wonder Yeltsin is remembered more as the flabby, flaccid, failed symbol of what could have been.

That said...

When I was watching the news, and the anchor said, "Yeltsin may best be remembered for this photo," I looked up, expecting to see an image of a hale, defiant, angry man atop on a military tank, leading the Moscow masses to reject a military coup -- a moment in time that vaulted Yeltsin to prominence, ushered out Gorbachev, and embodied a robust, rowdy nation ready for liberation.

It was disappointing instead to see Yeltsin dancing at a Russian party, looking like a clownish dancing bear. Yes, also a famous photo...but it shouldn't be the one for which he most remembered.

Yeltsin was not a superb President. He was a deeply flawed man, who brought problems on his own life and on his country. But he also provided the challenge against Gorbachev, then against the would-be military rulers, that allowed Russia to stagger forward in history. At that moment, on top of the tank, he was a hero.

It may be too grandiose to compare Yeltsin to Moses, and remind the world that the Biblical leader let the Israelites out of Egypt, but never himself made it to the Promised Land. Russia is still wandering through the desert, but Yeltsin deserves some credit for wading head-on into the Red Sea...or, in the case of Mother Russia, into the Black Sea.

Spacibo bolshoye, Mr. Yeltsin. RIP.