Russia Four Steps Away from the Third Millennium and a Second President: At His Last Breath: The Fin du Siècle of Boris Yeltsin

Abstract

"Well, that's that"—these words, without a doubt, can serve as an epigraph of the public mood after the end of the presidential election campaign in 1996. Despite all the behind-the-scenes political activity surrounding the new composition of the government, the opposition's statements, and the journalists' lively commentary, both the establishment and the public have descended into a natural state of mild but massive frustration. The reasons are obvious: after such a large-scale application of intellectual and emotional energies, it was inevitable that there would be subconscious expectations of prompt and equally large-scale results. A natural political pause is entirely logical, but, nonetheless, internally unpleasant for a significant portion of recent voters.