Rewriting history
The Yeltsin period witnessed changes in Russian historiography. During the Soviet period, history was written on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, which placed class struggle and the inevitable emergence of communism at the centre of history. With the collapse of the Soviet Union—and with it Marxist-Leninist dogma—Russian historians began to reevaluate the historiography of the Soviet and tsarist periods. They were aided by the opening of archives in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Historians engaged in serious debate as to whether the events of 1917 were inevitable or not. The belief that the Bolshevik Revolution had thrown Russia off the evolutionary course traveled by other European countries gained wide acceptance. Popular histories began to glorify the tsarist period, and Peter I, Catherine II, Alexander II, and others became positive figures in Russian history. Nicholas II was viewed more sympathetically, with emphasis placed on his great love for his family and Russia. The reburial of his remains and those of the immediate imperial family, all of whom were executed together in 1918, in the Peter-Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg in 1999 brought to a head the partial transformation of Nicholas II's position in Russian history. The opening of the archives also gave historians an unprecedented opportunity to rewrite the history of the Soviet period. The Stalin period and the role of Lenin in the emergence of a totalitarian state after the revolution were the first targets of this new history. Documentary evidence reflecting thinking at the highest levels during and after World War II also gave historians an opportunity to reevaluate the origins of the Cold War, which in many instances led to debunking conventional wisdom among Western historians of Soviet intentions at the time.
Martin McCauley Dominic Lieven
The Putin presidency
Toward the end of Yeltsin's tenure as president, Vladimir Putin (Putin, Vladimir) began playing a more important role. During the Soviet period, he joined the KGB and worked in East Germany for many years. Fluent in German and proficient in English, Putin worked for the liberal mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, in the initial post-Soviet period and ended up in Moscow when Sobchak failed to be reelected mayor in 1996. In July 1998 Putin became director of the Federal Security Service, one of the successor organizations of the KGB, and in August 1999 Yeltsin plucked Putin out of relative obscurity for the post of prime minister.
Separatism
As prime minister, Putin blamed Chechen secessionists for the bombing of several apartment buildings that killed scores of Russian civilians, prompting the Moscow government to send Russian forces into the republic once again. (Evidence never proved Chechen involvement in these bombings, leading some to believe that the Russian intelligence services played a role in them.) The campaign enjoyed some initial success, with Grozny falling quickly to the Russians. Putin's popularity soared, and Yeltsin, having chosen Putin as his successor, resigned on Dec. 31, 1999. Putin became acting president, and his first official act as president was to grant Yeltsin a pardon for any illegal activities he might have committed during his administration.
In the presidential election held in March 2000, Putin easily defeated Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov in the first round of balloting, winning 52.9 percent of the vote to secure a full term as president. Although the Russian military was able to win control of Chechnya, Chechen fighters fled to the mountains and hills, threatening Russian forces with a prolonged guerilla war. Fighting continued during the next two years, but by 2002 it had abated, and Putin, confident in Russia's military position, sought talks with what remained of the Chechen leadership. Nevertheless, in October 2002, Chechen separatists seized a Moscow theatre and threatened to kill all those inside; Putin responded by ordering special forces to raid the theatre, and during the operation some 130 hostages died—mostly as the result of inhaling gas released by the security forces in order to subdue the terrorists.
Despite worries arising from his years working for the intelligence services, many Russians came to believe that Putin's coolness and decisiveness would enable him to establish economic and political order in the country and deal with the Chechen problem. After years of Yeltsin's unpredictable behaviour, the upsurge in violent crime, and the decline in both living standards and Russia's prestige abroad, Russians were ready for a leader with an agenda and the mental capacity to implement it. Putin soon moved to reassert central control over the country's 89 regions by dividing the country into seven administrative districts, each of which would be overseen by a presidential appointee. The new districts were created to root out corruption, keep an eye on the local governors, and ensure that Moscow's will and laws were enforced. During the Yeltsin years, contradictions between Russian federal law and that of the regions had created great chaos in the Russian legal system, and Putin worked to establish the supremacy of Russian Federation law throughout the country. Putin even enjoyed success in taming the independent-minded regions, as the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan reluctantly brought their constitutions into accord with that of the Russian Federation in 2002.
Foreign affairs
Although Putin hoped to maintain a strategic partnership with the United States, he focused on strengthening Russia's relations (both security and economic) with Europe, particularly Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, after the September 11 attacks in 2001 on the United States by al-Qaeda (Qaeda, al-), Putin was the first foreign leader to telephone U.S. President George W. Bush (Bush, George W.) to offer sympathy and help in combating terrorism. Moreover, Russia established a council with NATO on which it sat as an equal alongside NATO's 19 members. Russia also reacted calmly when the United States officially abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, established temporary military bases in several of the former Soviet states in Central Asia, and dispatched special forces on a training mission to Georgia, where there were suspected al-Qaeda training bases.
However, Putin was wary of U.S. unilateralism and worked to strengthen Russian ties with China and India and maintain ties with Iran. In 2002–03 he opposed military intervention against Iraq (Iraq War) by the United States and the United Kingdom and developed a joint position with France and Germany that favoured a more stringent inspections regime of Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction (weapon of mass destruction) program rather than the use of military force (see also Iraq War).
Putin brought new life to the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) by providing relatively active Russian leadership, in sharp contrast to the Yeltsin years, and he strengthened Russia's ties with the Central Asian republics in order to maintain Russian influence in this vital area. Under Yeltsin the Russian army, starved of funds, had lost much of its effectiveness and technological edge. Russian defeats in the first Chechen war only underlined the appalling state in which the armed forces found itself. Through greater arms sales, Putin hoped to increase funding for the armed forces, particularly for personnel and for the research and development sector of the Russian military industrial complex.