If the last post focuses upon the start of our period (the Crimean War), this post might initially seem too late. In February 2011 a statue was unveiled to Boris Yeltsin in, of all places, Yekaterinburg. It was one of the first statues to be built to a former ruler since the collapse of Communism, and happened at a time when statue to Lenin and Stalin were being pulled down across the rest of the former Soviet Union.
Yeltsin was of the first president of Russia (1991 – 1999), and is remembered as the leader ensured that there would be no swift return to hard line Communist policies. The extent too which he then failed to live up to this initial success is a matter of debate, however is some respects it makes more sense to conclude a comparative course on Tsarism and Communism in 1991 than 1964. Indeed, this might be the course I am teaching your children !
You might like to think about the parallels between Yelstin and Khrushchev as Communist reformers, or compare the fates of Tsarism and Communism.
News Report on the unveiling of the Yelstin statue
Statue of Stalin pulled down in his home town
