A sitting world leader was found on Pennsylvania Avenue. In his underwear. Drunk. Demanding a pizza. This is not the scandal. The scandal is what came next.

Boris Yeltsin — Russia's first elected president and the man who dismantled the Soviet Union — spent the 1990s visibly, spectacularly drunk while Russian democracy collapsed around him. Behind the chaos, he was handing power to a quiet former KGB agent to save himself from prosecution. That man did not waste the gift.

Melissa breaks down the Yeltsin drunk timeline and the political aftermath that shaped modern Russia. Sam breaks down vodka — its history, its cultural grip, and why it was never just a drink in Russian political life.

Cold War. Soviet collapse. Oligarchs. The rise of authoritarianism. One drinking problem changed everything.

A Drinking Story — when history was drunk, and what they were drinking when they were.

Sources

1. Boris Yeltsin — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin

2. The Peculiar Truth About Boris Yeltsin — Medium https://medium.com/the-peculiar-truth/the-peculiar-truth-about-boris-yeltsin-77a87c645a8e

3. No. 10 Feared Boris Yeltsin Was Drinking Himself to Death — The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/no-10-feared-cuddly-bear-boris-yeltsin-was-drinking-himself-to-death-bprnct5qr

4. Yeltsin Restores State Monopoly on Alcohol — Jamestown Foundation https://jamestown.org/yeltsin-restores-state-monopoly-on-alcohol/

5. Boris Yeltsin — NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18273852

6. Boris Yeltsin — ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82447&page=1

7. Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin's 1994 State Visit — History.com https://www.history.com/articles/bill-clinton-boris-yeltsin-drunk-1994-russian-state-visit

8. Launching the Clinton Administration's Russia Policy — National Security Archive https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2023-02-07/launching-clinton-administration-russia-policy-1993

9. Russia's Failure of Democracy — Carnegie Endowment https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2016/06/the-road-from-1996-russias-failure-of-democracy

10. Why Russia's Democracy Never Began — Davis Center, Harvard https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/why-russias-democracy-never-began

11. The Legacy of Boris Yeltsin — RUSI https://www.rusi.org/publication/legacy-boris-yeltsin

12. Kellogg Institute Working Paper on Russian Democracy — Notre Dame https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/352_0.pdf

13. Putin Is Perfecting the Authoritarian Model — The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/156987/putin-perfecting-authoritarian-model

14. The Constitutional Dark Arts Spreading from Russia — Lowy Institute https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/constitutional-dark-arts-spreading-russia-world

Want to Understand Trump's US? Look at Putin's Russia — Democracy for Sale https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/want-to-understand-trumps-us-look-putin-russia-oligarchy-autocracy