Boris Yeltsin — "You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long."
You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Boris Yeltsin
"Democracy is not a sausage. You cannot just buy it in a store."
"I am a democrat, but I am also a patriot."
"The future of Russia is in its youth."
"I love Russia, but I am not a nationalist."
"We have to learn to live in a new way, in a democratic way."
About Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007)
First president of post-Soviet Russia (1991-1999), who climbed atop a tank to defy the August 1991 coup and oversaw the chaotic privatization of the 1990s. Closely associated with Mikhail Gorbachev (his predecessor and rival reformer). For an intellectual contrast, see Gennady Zyuganov, Russian Communist Party leader — Zyuganov came within 3 percentage points of beating the ailing Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential runoff — the closest free election Russia has had, and arguably the moment that decided whether Russia would reverse to communism or continue down the path that led to Putin.