Boris Yeltsin & Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the Soviet Union, and Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation, are inextricably linked to the fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing chaos of the 1990s.

More revered abroad than at home, Russians are taking a second look at both men as the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union approaches.