Maverick former Russian President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1931–2007) was born on this date in Sverdlovsk, Siberia. At eleven, he lost two fingers on his left hand while playing with a live grenade. That injury did not stop him from playing competitive volleyball in college or graduating with an engineering degree.

“A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can,” he said. “In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.”

In 1961, Yeltsin joined the Communist Party and built a reputation as a strong leader, a hard worker, and someone determined to stand above corruption. He was named Sverdlovsk’s top party official in 1976. With the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union, he became Russia’s first elected president in 1989, then was reelected in 1996.

“The main problem with being president is the constant sense that you are inside a glass bowl for everyone to see, or in a kind of barometric chamber with an artificial atmosphere where you must stay all the time,” he reflected in 1994.

A lover of vodka whom President Bill Clinton once called “bold, blunt, even defiant,” Yeltsin dismantled the communist system and helped end the Cold War. He attempted to build a market economy amid chaos, corruption, and inexperience. While attempting these enormous tasks, his popularity inside Russia sharply declined.

With declining health and customary drama, he announced his surprise resignation on the last day of 1999, the final day of the twentieth century. He urged new leadership for a new era, named Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acting president, and was later granted immunity.

With the clarity of time, Yeltsin’s legacy asks for a steady heart. He opened doors long sealed, yet what followed showed how fragile freedom can be when it is assumed rather than carefully tended. Like air, it can slip away quietly.

“I want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never came true,” he said in his farewell address. “And I also want to beg forgiveness for not having justified your hopes.”