KEY POINTS:
An outline of the career of Russian former president Boris Yeltsin, who died on Monday.
1985 - New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev brings Yeltsin, a Communist Party boss in the Urals city of Sverdlovsk, to Moscow to oversee construction. He then becomes Moscow city party boss.
February 1986
- Yeltsin is made a candidate member of the politburo, the inner cabinet of the Soviet Union's ruling party.
October 1987 - Sacked from the politburo after complaining at the slow pace of reform. He is hospitalised after a breakdown.
May 1990 - The Russian Federation's Congress of People's Deputies, the republic's parliament, elects Yeltsin as chairman.
June 1990 - Yeltsin quits the Communist Party.
June 16, 1991 - He becomes Russia's first directly elected president, defeating communist and nationalist rivals.
August 1991 - Yeltsin plays a key role in putting down a hardline coup against Gorbachev and soon eclipses his rival. Yeltsin's decision to climb atop a tank during the coup gave rise to one of the seminal images of the collapse of communism.
Oct 29, 1991 - Yeltsin announces plans for radical reforms with a team headed by little-known economist Yegor Gaidar.
Dec 8, 1991 - He and the leaders of Belarus and Ukraine sign agreement ending Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigns.
June 16, 1992 - Yeltsin appoints Gaidar acting premier but later that year, facing opposition to his reforms, replaces him with former gas industry boss Viktor Chernomyrdin.
Sept 21, 1993 - Yeltsin dissolves parliament, accusing it of blocking constitutional reforms and elections. Rebel deputies barricade themselves inside the White House parliament building.
Oct 4, 1993 - Supporters of parliament stage an armed attack on Moscow TV station. The following day Yeltsin uses tanks to storm the White House and put down the rebellion.
Dec 12, 1993 - Voters approve a constitution giving Yeltsin increased powers.
Aug 1994 - Yeltsin behaves erratically on a visit to Berlin marking withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany. He stumbles after a champagne lunch and grabs the microphone to sing.
Sept 30, 1994 - On refuelling stop in Shannon, on return from the United States, Yeltsin fails to get off his plane to meet Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds.
Dec 11, 1994 - Yeltsin sends troops to Chechnya region to try to quell a separatist drive. Tens of thousands are killed in 21 months of fighting.
July 11, 1995 - He is kept in hospital for two weeks with heart problems. More heart trouble later keeps him away from Kremlin for two months.
July 3, 1996 - Yeltsin wins a second term in office despite disappearing from view at times during campaign. Kremlin later says he suffered several heart attacks during this period.
Aug 31, 1996 - Alexander Lebed, his security adviser, signs deal ending Chechnya war.
Nov 5, 1996 - Yeltsin undergoes quintuple bypass surgery.
March/April, 1997 - Back at the Kremlin, Yeltsin completes a government reshuffle and puts reformers in key positions.
March 23, 1998 - Yeltsin sacks Chernomyrdin and cabinet for failure to push through reforms. He names former Energy Minister Sergei Kiriyenko as new premier.
Aug 17, 1998 - Under increasing financial pressure, the government is forced to let the rouble slide and default on some debts, triggering a severe economic crisis.
Aug 23, 1998 - Yeltsin sacks Kiriyenko and his entire government. Thwarted in bid to restore Chernomyrdin, he names Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov as new premier instead.
January, 1999 - Yeltsin is rushed to hospital with a bleeding stomach ulcer which keeps him out of public view for much of the first part of the year.
May 12, 1999 - Yeltsin sacks Primakov and names loyal top policeman Sergei Stepashin as premier. Three days later Yeltsin survives an impeachment vote over Chechnya.
Aug 9, 1999 - Yeltsin sacks Stepashin, names little-known security chief Vladimir Putin as new prime minister, says he wants Putin to succeed him as president.
Sept 23, 1999 - After clashes in Dagestan province near Chechnya and bombs in Russian cities, Russia bombs Chechen capital Grozny, signalling the start of a new conflict there.
Nov 29, 1999 - Yeltsin again in hospital with pneumonia.
Dec 31, 1999 - Yeltsin resigns, names Putin acting president.
- REUTERS