Presidential Profiles

Boris N. Yeltsin

Age: 61

Position: President of Russia

Background: Graduated from Ural Polytechnic Institute in 1955 with degree in engineering . . . spent 30 years in hometown of Sverdlovsk, western Siberia, before going to Moscow in 1985 as Communist Party construction department chief. . . In 1989, elected to Congress of People’s Deputies in Soviet Union’s first multi-candidate parliamentary elections . . . Quit Communist Party 1990 . . . Elected first Russian president in 1991.

Political status: Facing pressure from conservatives demanding that he slow his drive toward a market economy as the country faces the prospect of hyper-inflation and mass layoffs.

George Bush

Age: 68

Position: U.S. President

Background: Served as Navy pilot in the Pacific in 1942-43 . . . Graduated from Yale University with degree in economics . . . Worked in oil business, forming companies that dealt in oil field properties and drilling equipment . . . Elected to U.S. House of Representatives in 1966, representing Houston . . . U.S. envoy to China, 1974-1975 . . . Confirmed as CIA director in 1976 . . . Elected vice president in 1980 . . . Elected President in 1988.

Political status: At a low point of popularity as he struggles for reelection in what he Monday termed “a crazy year” politically, when many Americans believe the two-party system has failed.

Sources: Current Biography, International Who’s Who