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.