The definitive -- and gripping -- biography of a remarkable statesman. * This book is a revelation. The Boris Yeltsin that emerges from its pages is a leader of exceptional quality: determined, stubborn, brilliantly intelligent, direct and, perhaps above all, brave. * Aron skilfully plots Yeltsin's commitment to fighting corruption and centralization and ending the grotesque hypocrisy that so bedevilled the Soviet Union, while at the same time remaining fully alive to his subject's faults. * In doing so, he has written a magnificent history of Russia's last sixty years, and makes a series of highly illuminating comparisons with previous revolutions. * The result of these labours is nothing short of remarkable. It is a very exciting book, not because of its subject, but because of the pace, intelligence and quality of the writing. There are very long sections that are as unputdownable as a good thriller.