Boris and Naina Yeltsin: 50 years of selfless devotion and one soul for two

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Boris Yeltsin, as a politician and the first president of Russia, can be treated in different ways: criticize, accuse of cruelty, incriminate and expose. The only thing that is not subject to any doubts and disputes is his phenomenal loyalty. Boris and Naina Yeltsin lived together for more than half a century, and for all these years Boris Nikolayevich did not even allow the thought that another woman might be in his wife's place.

You and I are girlfriends

After leaving school, Anastasia Girina was going to enter the medical institute. She was already on her way to the admissions office, but on the way she met friends who were studying at the Ural Polytechnic. The story of her comrades about the atmosphere and the student fraternity impressed the girl so much that she resolutely went to the post office and sent the documents to the Polytechnic Institute. And she never had a reason to doubt her decision.

It was at the Polytechnic that she met the tall and charming Borey Yeltsin, with whom almost all the students fell in love. Both at home and at the institute, Anastasia was called Naya or Naina, and she did not even respond to her full name. Much later, she just went to the registry office and asked her to change her name so that there was no confusion. Then this became the reason that Boris did not call her by name for a whole month.

And then, in his student years, he became the kindest and most faithful friend of Naina. Even a casual kiss did not change anything in their relationship. Boris and Naina, it seemed, lived their own lives. The girls, in love with the active and vital Boris, even consulted with Naina how to charm a handsome classmate. She, out of the kindness of her heart, not only helped her friends, but also advised Yeltsin to pay attention to one of the girls.

It seemed to him that Naina knew his true attitude towards her. But the girl really considered Boris just a friend. He periodically tried to claim his rights to her: he removed the photo of the boyfriend from the bookshelf, tried to find out who she sympathized with. And he called himself her friend.

After defending her diploma, it turned out that Naina was returning to Orenburg, while Boris remained in Sverdlovsk. It was then that Yeltsin said that they could not part so easily. They definitely need to get married! Naina did not immediately understand: he was not joking. But they agreed to part ways for a year, to check their feelings.

She had a job and a little brother requiring attention and care. He has his own business. She already knew that she loved Boris. But she did not show any initiative. I waited for him to talk about his plans. Naina even stopped responding to his letters. And friends wrote about Boris's romance with another. True, that novel turned out to be a fiction.

My heart is bleeding

Later a telegram came from their mutual acquaintance. He wrote about Boris's heart disease and the need for her presence in Kuibyshev. There she saw perfectly healthy Boris at volleyball competitions. It turned out that his heart ached from love for her. Their hearts were forever united that evening. And it was completely incomprehensible how they lived all the time without each other.

On September 28, 1956, they became husband and wife, Elena was born a year later, and Tatiana three more later. Boris Nikolaevich and Naina Iosifovna dreamed of a son, but after the birth of their youngest daughter, this issue was closed. It turned out that girls are even better than boys.

Jealousy and loyalty

They lived happily and amicably. True, for Boris Nikolaevich, work was always in the first place. But he carefully guarded and valued his family. No matter how busy he was, he always kept his promises to his daughters and wife.

Hard and even tough at work, at home he was gentle and affectionate. They never spoke at home about loyalty, but Naina Iosifovna never had to doubt his loyalty. Once she saw how attentively he treats his employees and tried to throw a scene of jealousy on Boris Nikolaevich. He just shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment: he simply reciprocates the respect expressed to him, nothing more.

He simply could not imagine how he could cheat on his wife. It is significant that for some time he stopped communicating with his comrade, who got married after the death of his wife. He did not understand how to replace a loved one. Even when communication was restored, he still did not understand. For Boris Yeltsin, there was only one - Naina.

Until death do us part …

No matter how much Boris Nikolayevich worked, the tradition of Sunday dinners remained unchanged in the family. At first, four people gathered at one table. Then the daughters got married, they had their own children. While Boris Nikolayevich was president, everyone lived together. Naina Iosifovna prepared dinner herself, orders from the Kremlin were delivered to the Yeltsin family only during large and almost official receptions.

Naina Iosifovna was always close to Boris Nikolaevich and supported him in everything. Until they moved to Moscow, she constantly worked. After that I was only engaged in home, children and grandchildren.

She had a very difficult time when Boris Nikolaevich became president. By nature, modest, she was slightly weary of the attention to herself and the role of the first lady prepared for her. But she never murmured, standing next to her husband during an official reception or performing any public duties.

Naina Iosifovna very painfully perceived criticism of her husband, numerous attacks on him from political opponents and ordinary people.

When he was gone in April 2007, her world seemed to be empty. She often goes to his cemetery, revises photographs, communicates mentally. Naina Iosifovna continues to gather her large family on Sundays and every time she feels how much she misses his eyes, his warm hands. His love and tenderness. If she is invited to do an interview, she always talks about it. About Boris Nikolaevich, whom he will love until his last breath.

Devastation, hopelessness and desolation - this is how the foreign photographer Walter Schmitz saw Russia in 1995. The review presents Russia since Boris Yeltsin - pictures from trains, planes, and railway stations. People went in search of a better life, and this path seemed endless …