Australian Left Review
Article Title
Profile: Boris Yeltsin
Abstract
Boris Yeltsin seems an unlikely candidate for a Soviet popular hero. Now aged 58, he has spent the past 20 years in the party machine, working his way up to membership of the Politbureau in 1987. At first appearance, he seems a typical bureaucrat, even down to his hair style and his taste for double-breasted suits and chauffeured limousines. He does not affect a beard and long hair, like many of his admirers among the youth and intelligentsia. Yet what does differentiate him from the usual bureaucrat is his flair for appealing to crowds. He reminds one, in that respect, of Khrushchev.