Against The Grain (Boris Yeltsin)

...at times promote the rise of highly intelligent, independent-minded boy from the most oppressed and disadvantaged class of the population – the peasantry. Never before has a Soviet politician risen to the highest level of the system – the Politbureau – then fallen from grace, and not only lived to tell the tale but done so with a blistering frankness only possible in a country which has no law of libel. What’s more, after a spell in ‘political banishment’, Yeltsin has bounced back and carved out a second political career for himself as a parliamentarian in the newly reformed Soviet legislature. There Yeltsin, the eternal maverick, plays the part of unofficial leader of an embryonic ‘loyal opposition.’ Every chapter of the book contributes to built up a three-dimensional portrait of a remarkable individual: when you finish this book, you will know the man.