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The American Spirit Foundation was a foundation sponsored by United States entertainment figures to "enlist the entertainment industry's leadership, creativity and resources in developing and applying creative solutions to critical challenges facing America." [1]
The foundation was founded in 1989 by the actor James Stewart and convicted drug dealer and securities felon Peter F. Paul. [2] The foundation concentrated on both the development of education programs for public schools in the U.S. and the support of democracy movements in the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc.
In its European activities, the foundation worked with the interdisciplinary studies director of the Smithsonian Institution [ who? ], Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Polish President Lech Wałęsa. [3]
Stewart served as honorary chair of the Foundation.
The Foundation gave its Spirit of America Awards to people from all professions whose "lives and careers demonstrated the vitality and success of those principles upon which the American Dream is based." [1] Thirty people received the award, including Muhammad Ali, Jaime Escalante, Yo Yo Ma, Bob Hope, Helen Hayes, Ronald Reagan, Irene Dunne, Richard O. Anderson, Roy Campanella, Buzz Aldrin, Rafer Johnson, George Argyros, Ernest Hahn, Howard Finster, Michael Crawford, Boris Yeltsin, and Lew Wasserman.
The Entertainers for Education project was launched at the Fourth Spirit of America Awards Gala in Beverly Hills, December 13, 1990.
The history of Russia from 1991 to the present began with the dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) on 26 December 1991. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was the largest republic within the USSR, but until 1990 it had no significant independence.
The President of the Russian Federation, is the head of state of the Russian Federation, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. It is the highest office in Russia.
Boris Abramovich Berezovsky, also known as Platon Elenin, was a Russian business oligarch, government official, engineer and mathematician. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Berezovsky was politically opposed to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin from Putin's election in 2000; he remained a vocal critic of Putin for the rest of his life. In late 2000, after the Russian Deputy Prosecutor General demanded that Berezovsky appear for questioning, he did not return from abroad and moved to the UK, which granted him political asylum in 2003. In Russia, Berezovsky was later convicted in absentia of fraud and embezzlement. The first charges were brought during Primakov's government in 1999. Despite an Interpol Red Notice for Berezovsky's arrest, Russia repeatedly failed to obtain the extradition of Berezovsky from Britain; the situation became a major point of diplomatic tension between the two countries.
Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was a Russian politician and businessman. He was the first chairman of the Gazprom energy company and the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of Russia (1992–1998) based on consecutive years. He was a key figure in Russian politics in the 1990s, and a participant in the transition from a planned to a market economy. From 2001 to 2009, he was Russia's ambassador to Ukraine. After that he was designated as a presidential adviser.
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais is a Russian politician and businessman who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration in the early 1990s. During this period, he was a key figure in introducing market economy and the principles of private ownership to Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt made by Communist leaders of the Soviet Union to take control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the party. The coup leaders were the top military and civilian leaders of the USSR just below Gorbachev. They were hard-line opponents of Gorbachev's reform program, angry at the loss of control over Eastern European states, and fearful of the new union treaty that was about to be signed. The treaty decentralized much of the central government's power to the 15 republics. The hard-liners were very poorly organized. They met defeat by a short but effective campaign of civil resistance mainly in Moscow, led by Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who had been both an ally and critic of Gorbachev. The coup collapsed in only two days and Gorbachev returned to office, while all the plotters lost office. Yeltsin became the dominant leader and Gorbachev lost much of his influence. The failed coup led to both the immediate collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the USSR four months later.
The 1996 Russian presidential election took place in Russia on 16 June 1996, with a second round on 3 July. It resulted in a victory for the incumbent President Boris Yeltsin, who ran as an independent. Yeltsin defeated Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov in the run-off, receiving 54.4% of the vote. His inauguration ceremony took place on 9 August.
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY) is an American indie pop band from Springfield, Missouri. They are named after Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Their first full-length album, Broom, was independently released in 2005. They are now signed with Polyvinyl Record Co.
Leonid Ivanovich Abalkin was a Russian economist.
Yeltsinism is a rarely used neologism characterising the political and economic policies of Boris Yeltsin after he became the effective ruler of Russia following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The term "Yeltsinism" occurs most often with negative connotations. Yeltsin's critics blame him for the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called "The geopolitical catastrophe of the century". Others imply that Yeltsinism involves the outward appearance of democracy while actually concentrating power in a form of authoritarianism and consider the current political system in Russia "a continuation and rejection of Yeltsinism". Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, for example, described it as "observing the minimum requirements necessary to appease western sensibilities and stave off accusations of openly violating the rules of democracy in terms of form, while actually violating those rules in terms of substance."
Decommunization in Russia is the process of dealing with the communist legacies in terms of institutions and personnel that tends towards breaking with the Soviet past. Compared with the efforts of the other former constituents of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, it has been restricted to half-measures, if conducted at all.
Semibankirschina (семибанкирщина), or seven bankers, was a group of seven Russian business oligarchs who played an important role in the political and economical life of Russia between 1996 and 2000. In spite of internal conflicts, the group worked together in order to re-elect President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and thereafter to successfully manipulate him and his political environment from behind the scenes.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Russian and former Soviet politician who served as the first President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990, he later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with conservatism and Russian nationalism.
Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL) is a coeducational and public research university located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded on 1931. MSAL was renamed after Kutafin in 2012 and was then known as Kutafin University. Its current rector is Viktor Blazheev.
The Russian Presidency of Boris Yeltsin, was the executive branch of the federal government of the Russian Federation from June 12, 1991 to December 31, 1999.
Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, also known simply as the Yeltsin Center is a social, cultural and educational center, which opened in Yekaterinburg in 2015. The architect of the project is Boris Bernaskoni, the founder of BERNASKONI interdisciplinary bureau that works on intersection of architecture, communication, art and industrial design.
The First Inauguration of Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia took place on Sunday, May 7, 2000. The ceremony was held for the first time in the Grand Kremlin Palace and lasted exactly one hour.
Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia, died of cardiac arrest on April 23, 2007, twelve days after being admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. Yeltsin was the first Russian head of state to be buried in a church ceremony since Emperor Alexander III, 113 years prior.
Cabinet of Boris Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidar was Russian Cabinet of Ministers under the leadership of President Boris Yeltsin and First Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar. Worked from 6 November 1991 to 23 December 1992.
Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University is a university which is jointly operated by the Kyrgyz government and the Government of Russia, located in city of Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyzstan.