Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president, died on April 23rd, aged 76
Apr 26th 2007 | from the print edition Reuters
HE was almost dead when his mother scooped him out of the baptismal font in a small village in the Urals. The local priest, plied with liquor all morning by happy parents, had dunked the baby in the water and forgotten him. The boy survived and was christened Boris, a fighter. The story may be legend, but survival against the odds was a constant in Boris Yeltsin’s life. He nearly killed himself dismantling a grenade; he played cards with criminals on the roofs of speeding trains; he almost lost his life to diehard Communists. But like some character from a Russian fairy tale, he always came through.
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