Three decades after Boris Yeltsin was inaugurated as Russia's first president, images made by his personal photographers offer a fascinating glimpse into the Yeltsin presidency -- and Russia -- through the 1990s.
In Photos: The Yeltsin Years
- By Amos Chapple
1
Russian President Boris Yeltsin is greeted with a traditional offering of bread and salt while visiting Krasnoyarsk in July 1994.
2
Yeltsin (right) sits with American President Bill Clinton in Hyde Park, New York, in October 1995.
3
Yeltsin lunches with Mintimer Shaimiyev, the president of Tatarstan, in August 1994.
They are sitting on the bank of the Volga River as their cruise boat awaits.
These images were taken by official Yeltsin photographers between July 10, 1991, the day when Yeltsin's presidency began, and December 31, 1999, when Yeltsin handed power to Vladimir Putin.
The photos are just some of the thousands of images held in the archive of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, a museum and cultural center that opened in Yekaterinburg in 2015.
They are sitting on the bank of the Volga River as their cruise boat awaits.
These images were taken by official Yeltsin photographers between July 10, 1991, the day when Yeltsin's presidency began, and December 31, 1999, when Yeltsin handed power to Vladimir Putin.
The photos are just some of the thousands of images held in the archive of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, a museum and cultural center that opened in Yekaterinburg in 2015.
4
Yeltsin with South African President Nelson Mandela in New York during celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in October 1995. Yeltsin lost two fingers from his left hand as an 11-year-old after he stole two hand grenades from a storehouse and attempted to smash one open with a hammer.
5
Yeltsin poses with a lineup of sailors in southern Russia in the spring of 1995.
6
Yeltsin has makeup applied ahead of a television address in the Kremlin in August 1995.
7
England's Queen Elizabeth II chats with the Russian president during her visit to Russia in October 1994. The trip marked the first time a British monarch had visited Russia since relations between the two countries were soured by the Bolsheviks' 1918 killing of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The Russian tsar was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth's grandfather.
8
Yeltsin listens to a live translation as British Prime Minister John Major speaks in London in September 1994 during an official visit by the Russian president.
9
Yeltsin is welcomed to Russia's Tatarstan region in May 1994 with a cake in the shape of the kremlin towers in Moscow and Kazan, Tatarstan's capital.
The cake is shaped from "chak-chak", a traditional Tatar dessert made from small pieces of crispy, deep-fried dough bound together with honey syrup.
10
Queen Elizabeth II of England speaks with a Russian man during a walk with Yeltsin on Moscow's Red Square in October 1994.
11
Uzbek President Islam Karimov meets Yeltsin in Moscow in March 1995.
12
Yeltsin has traditional clothing adjusted by locals while on a trip to the southern Russian city of Kyzyl, in June 1994.
13
Yeltsin walking with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Naples, Italy, in July 1994.
14
Yeltsin and Clinton in front of the massive Tsar Cannon inside the Kremlin in January 1994.
15
Spectators perch in trees to watch Yeltsin give a speech in Russia's Bryansk region in January 1992.
16
Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (left) aboard a boat with other officials on the Yenisei River in November 1997. Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in 2015 near the walls of the Kremlin, is partly visible to the right of Yeltsin. When this photo was taken, Nemtsov was Russia's first deputy prime minister.
17
An impressive layout of food presented in September 1997 during a trip to Russia's Oryol region.
18
Yeltsin and King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden walk through a guard of honor in Stockholm in December 1997.
19
Yeltsin greets Victoria, the crown princess of Sweden, during his visit to the country in 1997.
20
A meeting between presidents Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan, Askar Akaev of Kyrgyzstan, and Yeltsin (left to right) in Moscow in October 1997.
21
Yeltsin waves to crowds during the opening of Moscow's Manezh exhibition complex in September 1997.
22
Yeltsin relaxing with a game of billiards during a vacation in Karelia in July 1997.
23
Yeltsin with his wife, Naina Yeltsina, in the Kremlin in 1997.
24
World leaders -- including Britain's Tony Blair, U.S. President Bill Clinton, and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl -- pose for a picture on a Denver rooftop during a G8 meeting in June 1997.
25
Hillary Clinton, then the first lady of the United States, meets Naina Yeltsina in Yekaterinburg in 1997.
