Yekaterinburg unveils monument to Russia’s first president

An extraordinary event happened on February 1 in Yekaterinburg — for the first time in modern Russian history a monument was erected to a contemporary statesman, Boris Yeltsin, on the 80th anniversary of his birth. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev came to Yekaterinburg to participate in the commemorative events. According to him, modern Russia has to be grateful to Yeltsin for the transformations he realized. He also remarked that “the resolution and will,” that he considers to have been Yeltsin’s best qualities, “are embodied” in the monument. “Today’s Russia has to be grateful to President Yeltsin that in its most difficult period the country didn’t stop reforms, realized very difficult transformations, and is moving forward today,” emphasized Medve­dev. He also remarked that Yeltsin’s way was very complicated, as “the first president has always to deal with very difficult issues, to change the principles of the state, and Boris Yeltsin had to do it as well.” Medvedev came to the conclusion that “Boris Yeltsin honorably discharged his duties, having laid the [country’s] economic and political foundations, based on which modern Russia is developing.” The widow of the first Russian president Naina Yeltsina also attended the ceremony. “He wanted to see our country prosperous and free, so that all Russians could be proud of it,” she said in an interview to the radio station Ekho Moskvy. According to her, the monument symbolizes the mighty personality of the Russian leader. The monument itself, which took almost a year and a half to be created, is 10 meters high and is made of white marble. Its author is Georgy Frangulyan, who also created Yeltsin’s headstone opened in Moscow in 2008. In the sculptor’s opinion, the obelisk symbolizes the breakdown of the old views and the first steps into a new life, full of hopes.

In his interview to Hazeta Po-Ukrainsky the Russian politician Boris Nemtsov commented on Yeltsin’s rule: “He overthrew communism, introduced the basics of the market economy, and gave freedom to the Russians. However, they didn’t appreciate it.” He also pointed out two mistakes of Yeltsin’s era “the war in Chechnya and Putin.” “By the way, he gave liberty to the Ukrainians as well, because he supported the independence of Ukraine,” remarked Nemtsov. “The fact that the Ukrainian state was born in peace, without military conflicts with Russia, is Yeltsin’s merit to some extent.”

At the same time the former head of Yeltsin’s presidential administration Valentin Yumashev admitted that Yeltsin would be disappointed with Putin’s policy. “He would think that having the present resources, possibi­lities and favorable market conditions at the beginning of the new millennium, [Russia] would be able to do more,” said Yumashev.

The Day has asked the chief editor’s assistant of the newspaper Vremya Novostei Semen NOVOPRUDSKI to comment on whether Yeltsin’s role in Russia was adequately assessed.

“It is obvious that Yeltsin’s role in Russia has not been properly assessed. The government organized the ritual celebration with films shown on television. However, it is absolutely clear that the vast majority of Russians, and especially the Russian government — although all of its key personalities owe Yeltsin their careers — didn’t hold him in proper esteem and even can’t ima­gi­ne what Yeltsin did for Russia. He actually founded it. Unfortunately, the new Russian government didn’t inherit his policies and his political ideals, which is even sadder than the misunderstanding of his role in the history.”

In his time Yeltsin said that Rus­sian officials have to think about Ukraine every morning. Does the Russian government lack this approach concerning Ukraine now?

“As for me, Russian officials wake up and think about their business-assets and the opportunities to convert power into property. Unfortunately, it takes up the whole of the minds, the whole of our officials’ memories. Probably, it was the main reason for all those political failures that happened during the last decades. Boris Yeltsin’s main difference compared to today’s Russian government, and on the whole of the post-Soviet space, is that he instinctively felt on the level of his political conscience that the states were independent. As for our modern political officials, they don’t consider Ukraine as a mentally independent country. This is their main problem with Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. This is the main reason why Russia doesn’t have any strong political partners in the post-Soviet space.”