How did Boris Yeltsin change Russia?

Answer 1

It entirely depends upon your political point of view, although in my opinion, Yeltsin was a change for the worse. The USSR under Gorbachev combined political liberalisation and an improvement in Russia's human rights along with many of the good things about Communism, i.e. equal free health care for all, universal housing, employment, public transport etc. etc. Yeltsin oversaw the destruction of all these benefits whilst doing little to take political and humanitarian freedoms much further than they already went under Gorbachev- he encouraged the collapse of most state provision in favour of rampant 'bandit capitalism', permitting millions of people to become impoverished, destitute and unemployed for the sake of constructing a market economy that allowed the rise of the oligarchs. A tiny handful of buisnessmen and entrepreneurs became colossally wealthy at the expense of the majority of ordinary people, and Yeltsin did little to allieviate their suffering for as long as it lasted. It took the attempted Communist counter-revolution of November '93, along with the collapse of the Russian economy in '98, to force him to take the welfare of the masses seriously. It's true that Yeltsin did sign some significant arms reduction treaties with the US, and also that the death penalty was abolished in Russia under his leadership, although in the latter case, this wasn't until towards the end of his Presidency.