By 1999, the spicy vodka could not alleviate the anxiety in Yeltsin's heart, in fact, since 1998, he has not been easy, impeached by the State Duma, facing the collapse of the Soviet Union, shelling the White House, starting the Chechen war, collapsing the military industry, genocide five counts of charges, all kinds of voices to overthrow him, he is under great pressure.
He had never been so depressed in his political career.
He was the son of a farmer, and shortly after his birth, his parents carried him to a local Orthodox church for baptism, and as a result, the priest who baptized him drank too much, soaked him in water and forgot to fish him up, almost drowning him.
To commemorate this life-and-death experience, his father named him Boris (meaning "fighting spirit" in Russian).
Maybe the name gave him strength, or maybe he was born with the gene not to accept defeat.
In short, without any family background, he has come to the peak of power step by step with his own efforts.
Many people think he is a speculator, but he himself does not think so, and he firmly believes that he is the guardian of Russia. He wants the country to get better.
However, he was clearly not good at running the country by studying architecture.
The pinnacle of his life stopped at Moscow's Red Square in 1991.
Every time he thought of that thrilling moment, Boris couldn't help but drink a cup of vodka.
He was bold and fierce, and he thought he had perfectly inherited the blood of the East Slavs.
However, all this has become a thing of the past along with the vodka that has been drunk in one drink.
In the days that followed, he fell into confusion.
Boris once thought that his all-round attitude toward the West would win their approval, and he rushed to the european countries non-stop, even despite domestic public opposition and Clinton's approach.
All these efforts are only for the West to accept Russia's promises and pull a hold at a critical moment. The Russian economy in 1991 was so poor that Boris advocated change precisely because he wanted his people to live the life described in the West. Bread, music, vodka, and sun and sand.
He seemed to succeed because the West gave him the impression that he had agreed to accept Russia, and he even envisioned joining NATO in the future.
So he drastically implemented "shock therapy" as recommended by the Americans.
Privatization, marketization, the capitalists come in, the oligarchs rise. However, there was no imaginary economic revival, on the contrary, the already weak national economy soon fell into collapse, and the people were destitute overnight.
Moreover, the promised aid from the West has been delayed.
The Americans even took the opportunity to make some claims involving sovereignty.
Boris realized that he had been slashed.
Unsupported abroad, and hunted by oligarchs at home, Boris soon fell into the arms of the capitalists.
Especially in the 1996 election, in a precarious situation, it was the oligarchs who contributed to the success of Boris's re-election, and he was completely reduced to a puppet of the oligarchs.
One of the "Seven Oligarchs," Berezovsky, president of the Union Bank, once had an arrogant saying: "If I want, I can let a monkey be president." ”
He heard about it, but there was no way to object, only to numb himself by drinking more vodka.
These cattle flies sucked heavily on the already weak Russian economy, and they even wanted to suck away the soul of Russia after sucking enough blood.
He was finished, his country was finished, and Russia slid step by step into the abyss.
The financial collapse, the ruble became waste paper, the ruble suddenly depreciated dozens of times against the dollar, and many old Russians, whose life savings were worth only one or twenty dollars, had to look around the garbage can for food.
The economy collapsed, hyperinflation, prices rose like crazy every day, unemployment soared, wages were not paid, and people saw any hope in their lives. The wealth accumulated by the SOVIET Union over seventy years was divided up in a few years by the new bourgeois economic oligarchs.
Political collapse, anarchism, the inability of higher governments to command lower levels of government, the central government to command the localities, and more and more federal member states moving in the direction of division.
Ideological collapse, moral collapse, legal system collapse, shameless prevalence, bribery is rife, corruption is everywhere, gangs are prevalent, young people suddenly believe in religion, various cults are rampant, people are wandering in this life and the next life, young girls openly rush to foreigners on the street to throw flattery, and even run to the hotels where foreigners live and knock on the door. Crime is rampant, crime is public, and a large number of criminals and criminal gangs have suddenly appeared.
Education collapsed, schools were in chaos, teachers didn't have the heart to teach, students didn't have the heart to learn.
The municipality is dilapidated. Some neighborhoods of Moscow, like battlefields where battles have been fought, are in ruins. In less than a decade, the average life expectancy of Russian men fell by more than a decade, during which time the population loss in Russia exceeded the population loss in Russia in World War II. Russia's economy, as the inheritor of the Soviet Union, one of the world's two hegemons, fell to the eighteenth place in the world in less than a decade.
The Russian people fell into the abyss, weeping every day, crying the earth, desperate.
The most deadly thing was that the army that the Russians were proud of also began to fester, the national defense was hollowed out, the soldiers could not receive salaries, the equipment was old, the morale was low, and the Red Army, which had conquered Berlin, was surrounded and annihilated by the rebels in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and nearly 10,000 people were killed and wounded. At the end of the First Chechen War, Russia had to recognize the de facto independence of Chechnya due to the unfavorable battlefield.
Wait, everything indicates that the empire that once terrified the West is about to split and come to an end.
Russian director Alexander Nevzorov documented all this with a film called "Purgatory", yes, "Purgatory" life.
For Russia in this period, many Chinese people know that the situation is not so bad, and that Russia in 2000 is still a great power. These people ignore the suffering caused to the people by the so-called democratic revolutions in the West, and open their eyes and preach nonsense.
This propaganda also appeared after the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their souls should be sent to purgatory.
Boris did not fail to work hard, and in 8 years, he replaced 7 prime ministers, 7 directors of security, 10 secretaries of finance, and 7 presidential chiefs of staff.
But all efforts have been fruitless.
Because he could not solve the fundamental problem, that is, the control of the oligarchs over the country's economy and the West's looting of the country through "marketization." He himself was deeply involved in it, and to put it bluntly, the root of the problem was in himself. He did not have the courage and ability to overthrow all this, nor did he even dare to mention the idea of the state regaining control of the economy, and the "public ownership" that he himself had attacked countless times and was condemned as a natural enemy of the "market economy."
But the government left everything alone, and it wanted to defeat the oligarchs and the West through the market, which was simply whimsical.
In 1999, Boris completely lost the confidence to save the country, and the outbreak of the Second Chechen War gave him an unprecedented smell of blood, and he knew that in this direction, Russia's separation was inevitable (the Kosovo War made the West cheer, and they found the best way to dismember their opponents, that is, to incite hatred and create war). The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has fallen, and the next one will be Russia).
Boris thinks most about how to avoid being liquidated, and thinking of the "five crimes" attack that began in 1998, he worries about the fate of himself and his entire family. The elections in March of the following year will predictably sound the death knell of his and his family's fate.
The Russian people have fallen into purgatory, and he doesn't want to be one of them.
He had to prepare ahead of that day.
He has his own advantages, can choose his own successor, as long as he can guard the fate of him and his family, he is willing to make sacrifices.
Maybe it's the heavens that don't destroy Russia and get them a Putin.
Many years ago, this young man entered Boris's sight because of his loyalty, and then he showed outstanding strategic ability and courage in the struggle, which he appreciated.
The KGB (Russian intelligence group), who had been fighting on special fronts for many years, did not initially work for Boris, he was once a former supporter of Boris, and later a political opponent, Sobchab's right-hand man, who was a young man's college teacher.
But then Sobchabu was ostracized for political discord with Boris, and even faced jail time. It was with the help of this young man that Sobuchabu managed to escape overseas. Such an adventure would be enough to ruin the political future and even the lives of young people. But the young KGB used action to explain what loyalty is and what faith is.
After helping his teacher escape, the young man chose to retire and ran a taxi.
But talent will not be buried after all, let alone he is so loyal.
Boris was also a tyrant, and he did not anger the young man because of Sobchabu's escape, and even decided to reactivate him after careful consideration (of course, someone recommended him).
Thus, Boris, who was already in a high position of power, learned the young man's name, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and those who knew him well called him Valodia.
Not disappointed by Boris, Valoja started as deputy director of the Presidential Affairs Bureau in 1996 and soon entered Boris's core department, and the following year he was promoted to deputy director of the President's Office, at the age of 45. In May 1998, Valoja went further and became more integrated into Boris's circle, becoming the first deputy director of the President's Office. In July of the same year, he became the bearer of the country's most mysterious department, the Federal Security Service Directorate. At this point, Valoja won Boris's full trust with loyalty and ability.
Since then, all of Boris's troubles have been resolved by Valoja, including dealing with the opposition's "five charges."
In order to settle the entanglement of Attorney General Skuratov, Boris racked his brains. Later, it was Valoja who came forward and arranged for two female agents to play a "fairy jump" and filmed a video to stink Skuratov's reputation.
Valoja famously said, "It is better to be hanged for loyalty than to be betrayed." ”
He interprets the meaning of this sentence with action.
When Boris began to think about the way back for himself, he immediately thought of this loyal subordinate.
The spring of 1999 came particularly late, and the turn of the century was destined to be extraordinary, and the hearts of many peoples were in the middle of winter, such as Serbs, Chinese, and Russians.
Beginning in March, NATO bypassed the United Nations and brazenly launched air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the name of "human rights", and the Kosovo War broke out; in May, the Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was bombed, and hundreds of millions of Chinese spent May in anger; in August, the Chechen rebels realized that there was an opportunity to suddenly invade the southern region of Russia's Dagestan and declared independence, the Russian army came forward to suppress it, and the Second Chechen War broke out.
The world was in turmoil, deepening Boris's inner fears, and he sped up the pace of the layout.
In March 1999, Valodia was appointed Secretary of the Federal Security Council and, on 20 August, became Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
When everything was ready, only 4 months later, on the last day of 1999, Boris, who had completed his three-month term, announced that he had resigned as president of Russia early, and according to the constitution, Valodia became acting president! This speed is unprecedented, and it is difficult to have a comer behind.
And just like that, a century is over, and when we're all debating whether there will be millennials ushering in the new century, the country has completed an era change.
Boris was really tired and couldn't do anything about it.
In front of the world, he handed over to Valoja a pike pen, a lockbox for controlling the nation's nuclear weapons, and 17 million square kilometers of territory on the verge of collapse and 140 million Russian people living in dire straits.
The last time she left tears for this country said: "Take care of our Russia." ”
Putin, who came up as the "top tank", is the last hope of this country.
Boris didn't look at the wrong man, it was an absolutely loyal subordinate, but he didn't know Valoja's heart.
Valodia regarded loyalty as life, as faith, but he was loyal to the country, to all the Russian people.
A KGB loyal to only one person cannot live long, and a KGB who has no faith in his heart cannot pass the test.
And Valodia was a good KGB.
The bells of the century ring, the cold wind is fierce, and the air is full of killing machines.
In 2000, the Putin era came, and he would lead the Russian people back from purgatory to the human world.
On his first day in office, on January 1, 2000, Valoja personally flew a Su-27 fighter jet to the Front Line in the North Caucasus to reward combat officers and men. This is an extremely strong signal, as if announcing to the whole world that the War in Chechnya must be won, and for this reason, the president of a country will not hesitate to personally go to the battlefield.
The encouragement of this action to the front line cannot be ignored, and the situation, which had been slow to progress, advanced rapidly, and the Russian army took the opportunity to launch a third phase of the offensive.
This torrent of steel, which had made the whole of Europe tremble, regained the courage to invade Berlin, the Chechen rebels were defeated, and after just over a month, the rebel leaders were killed, and the Russian flag was planted in the Chechen capital. On February 6, Valoca announced that major military operations in Chechnya had ended and that 99 percent of the land had been recovered by the end of February.
In March, Valodia officially became president of Russia through elections (during which Time Boris, as an old politician, successfully completed the "escort" mission). With the arrival of spring, a new era has arrived.
Valoja was loyal to his people, but at the same time he was a grateful man, as can be seen from his teacher who sacrificed his political future to protect himself.
Valoja did not forget his promise to escort Boris the whole time, and soon after taking office, he announced in the form of a presidential decree that no one could pursue any criminal responsibility for bolisians and their families in the future.
But for other oligarchs who suck the marrow of the Russian people, Valodia is not prepared to let go easily.
The first to be picked up was the president of the Union Bank, Berezovsky, who had declared that "a monkey could be made president."
Valoja did not resent oligarchs for making money, but he resented these people playing politics, and his past experiences made him very clear about what these people were.
As soon as he took office, he recruited the 7 oligarchs to the Kremlin and warned them in a low voice: it's okay to make money, but don't touch politics.
But apparently, the dictatorial oligarchs did not take this seriously, and even felt that Valodia was somewhat ignorant, including Berezovsky.
The mathematical-phD-turned-financial oligarch was a lifelong scheming man, and after receiving hints from Boris, he immediately formed a political party with the only platform to support Valoja. In the December 1999 Duma election, he mobilized his media to attack Valoja's opponents, trying to keep Valoga's Unity Party far ahead. Therefore, he has always considered himself to be kind to Valoja and regards himself as a "minister of orphans".
He had thought that after Valoja came to power, the first thing he would do should be to discuss with them how to divide the interests, and he was even ready to bargain, but he did not expect to receive a warning.
Like other oligarchs, he did not take Valoja's two flights of fighter jets over Chechnya as a different statement. They were ready to deal with Valoja with the trick against Boris, and they even planned to change to a "monkey".
Soon, through his own media, Berezovsky launched a fierce attack on Valodia through the explosion of the nuclear submarine "Kursk" on August 12, 2000.
This clearly touches the bottom line that Valoja draws.
Just two months later, Berezovsky was wanted on three charges: money laundering, hiding foreign exchange earnings and instigating financial fraud. At that time, Bethy, who was in France, fled to Britain for political asylum and never returned to Russia.
During his exile, the Beshi never gave up on overthrowing Valoja, but there was not even the slightest possibility of achieving it, and the former billionaire gradually fell into poverty.
On 23 March 2013, he was found to have died mysteriously in the bathroom of his London apartment. Some say it was suicide, some say it was murder. The day before his death, he suddenly gave an interview to Fortune magazine in the United States and said an intriguing sentence: "I underestimated Russia's strength and greatly overestimated the Western countries." ”
What he really underestimated was the KGB, which was not very tall (as far as the Russians were concerned).
In addition to stabilizing the situation in Chechnya (for this place that has caused Russia a headache since ancient times, he is both soft and hard, and now the president of Chechnya claims to be Valoja's little brother and always obeys him), he also abolished some local elections and returned the rights of governments at all levels to the central government.
For important industries that concern the national economy and people's livelihood, Valoja did not hesitate to crack down on the greedy spokesmen of the Jewish consortium, re-cultivate the oligarchs who obeyed orders, and put more resources in the hands of the state.
Lukoil Chairman Alekpelov is a model in the industry. He never wore expensive watches, shirts did not have gold cufflinks, there was no private plane, and there were no bodyguards. His office was simply furnished with a two-headed eagle ornament hanging on the wall, and the only photograph on the desk was a black-and-white portrait of Valoja.
"Politics is close to me, but I don't have personal ambitions," he said. My only task close to politics is to help countries and companies. I didn't have a close relationship with Valoja, but I had a lot of respect for him. ”
This is the posture of the Russian oligarchs today.
Valodia rebuilt the efficiency and authority of governments at all levels and the public prosecutorial law, and formed the news giant Russia Today, which is invincible in the international news war, international network war, and competition for international discourse power.
More importantly, he aspired to rebuild a strong Russian army and work to rebuild Russia's great power status.
Everything that followed proved that these ideas were achievable, and with Valodia's efforts, Russia not only avoided division, but the Russian people were able to return to the human world.
The elderly don't have to go to the trash can to find food, the young people don't have to be kidnapped by gangsters and drugs, and young girls don't have to sell their dignity to survive.
When Valoja took office, he once said a saying that was praised by the world: "Give me 20 years, and I will give you a strong Russia." ”
The majority of the Russian people unconditionally supported Valodia's two decades in power. Now it seems that it must be more than twenty years. Of course, the evaluation of Valodia by the United States and Europe is completely opposite to that of most Russian people.
The United States and Europe believe that Valoca has transformed a democratic Russia into an undemocratic Russia, into a Russia of Valodia's personal dictatorship.
But does it matter? What matters is the russian people's own feelings, isn't it?
After writing this story, it was late at night, and my thoughts could not stop at all.
I can't help but wonder, what does 20 years mean for a country? Enough to fall into purgatory, enough to return to earth, and enough for some people to forget the pain of this process.
Not every country can have heroes on the brink of collapse, Russia has Valoja, Yugoslavia has?
The Yugoslavs of the 70s never thought that in 20 years they would be destroyed, and the Russians of the 80s would never believe that their people would be trapped in purgatory after the 20s Chinese.
Some people have forgotten about the crisis, indulged in singing and dancing, thinking that the enemy is no longer there, and they do not know how difficult it is to remain so-called strong, or even dominant, in this Western-dominated world.
They will never be able to understand the tragedy behind the phrase "I will live up to the people without myself."
Also do not understand: "we have no way but to win" what it means?
In the past few decades, which crisis that China has experienced has not escaped from death?
Forgetting means going to die.
I think today's Russians will never forget the humble knees of 20 years ago.
How can we forget?
End of the full text, thank you for reading.