THE DAY OF RUSSIA: JUNE 12

THE DAY OF RUSSIA 

BORIS YELTSIN 

Returns to his car after voting 

Moscow, June 12, 1991 

On June 12, 1990, Russia in the guise of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin, declared sovereignty -- while still part of the USSR. One year later, on June 12, 1991, Russia held its first election for president, and Yeltsin won. By the end of the year, the Soviet Union was no more. 

June 12 was later designated Russia's National Day, the "Day of Russia." 

To show that he was closer to the people than his rival, Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of the USSR, Yeltsin allowed people to literally come up close and personal. In the photograph above Yeltsin is returning from his polling place to the car (for a photograph of Yeltsin holding his putting-the-ballot-in-the-ballot-box pose, look here under June 12, 2006). Some of the fervor he inspired, and the scrambling to get near him, can be sensed. Boris Yeltsin has the car door in his hands; his chief bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, has his back. And the crowd is pushing, pushing. 

Subjecting himself to a popular election won Yeltsin a meeting with U.S. President George Bush in the U.S. nine days later, and then, on July 30, a courtesy call by President Bush on President Yeltsin in his new Kremlin office (a photograph of the meeting can be found here). 

Today, June 12, 2009, George Bush turned eighty-five and went sky-diving in Kennebunkport, Maine. 

"RUSSIA REDUX"