Midnight Diaries

Yeltsin, Boris

ISBN 10: 1565114094 ISBN 13: 9781565114098

Publisher: Highbridge Audio, 2000

Synopsis

"Today, on the last day of the outgoing century, I resign... Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians, with new faces, with new intelligent, strong, energetic people, and we who have been in power for many years must go."

On December 31, 1999, Russian president Boris Yeltsin stunned the world by stepping down six months ahead of schedule. His decision was cloaked in secrecy, and his announcement rivaled the Eiffel Tower fireworks for dramatic effect.

In his new memoir, Yeltsin looks back on the struggles and upheavals in Russia over the last few years and his own role as the man who held the strings. Opening with his now famous Millennial Eve speech, he reflects on a decade of leadership, decisions, and crucial events, from the coup of 1991 to his first showdown with Parliament in 1993, Chechnya, and more. He ponders politics, his family, his relationship with Bill Clinton, and how he wants history to remember him. The style throughout is "vintage Yeltsin" - pithy, direct, anecdotal.

Midnight Diaries is the ultimate insider's story of the Russian Federation from 1991 - 1999. It's also the portrait of a man who, despite reactionary forces and the pull of communist doctrine, was determined to give his country and people a better future.

About this title

About the Author:

BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH YELTSIN became Russia's first democratically elected President in May 1991. He was re-elected in 1996 to a second four-year term which expired in June 2000. He is also the author of Struggle for Russia, Against the Grain, and Putsch: The Diary: Three Days That Collapsed the Empire, August 19-21, 1991. Yeltsin lives in Moscow.

From AudioFile:

The former Russian president here gives his apologia, which, however self-serving, can only shed light on the history we have all lived through. The audio's success comes from the casting of John Randolph Jones. He has the maturity in his voice to give a reasonable impression of the aging and ailing Yeltsin. He possesses the artistic tact to read intelligently but neutrally. It would be so easy (and must have been a sore temptation) to color the lines with a subjective interpretation of the author's character. To err in the other direction would be deadly dull. Jones walks a fine line that allows listeners to draw their own conclusions. Y.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Highbridge Audio
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1565114094
• ISBN 13: 9781565114098
• Binding: Audio Cassette