By June 1991, after quashing a series of challenges to his leadership, he became the first elected president of Russia; two months later, real power fell into his hands, after the failed putsch against Gorbachev of August 1991 by conservatives seeking to prevent the Soviet Union’s disintegration. For most Westerners and many Russians, his finest hour came on August 19th that year, when he stood on a tank outside the Russian parliament and defied the hardliners who had seized power.
到1991年六月，在平息了对其政权的一系列挑战之后，叶利钦成了俄罗斯第一个民选总统。两个月后，在保守派于1991年八月发动的企图阻止苏联解体，反对戈尔巴乔夫的暴动失败后，叶利钦掌握了实权。对大多数西方人和许多俄罗斯人来说，他最辉煌的一刻是那一年八月19日，他登上俄罗斯议会外的坦克同掌权的硬派作战的时候。