Adieu and Plea for Forgiveness

Today I am turning to you for the last time with New Year’s greetings. But that’s not all. Today I am turning to you for the last time as president of Russia. . . .

I have understood that it was necessary for me to do this. Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians, with new faces, with new, smart, strong, energetic people. And we who have been in power for many years already, we must go. . . .

I want to ask for your forgiveness.

For the fact that many of the dreams we shared did not come true. And for the fact that what seemed simple to us turned out to be tormentingly difficult. I ask forgiveness for not justifying some hopes of those people who believed that at one stroke, in one spurt, we could leap from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past into the light, rich, civilized future. I myself believed in this, that we could overcome everything in one spurt. . . .

Today it’s important for me to tell you. The pain of each of you has called forth pain in me, in my heart. Sleepless nights, tormenting worries--about what needed to be done, so that people could live more easily and better. I did not have any more important task.

I am leaving. I did all I could--not according to my health, but on the basis of all the problems. . . .

Bidding farewell, I want to tell each of you: Be happy. You deserve happiness. You deserve happiness and calm.

Happy New Year! Happy new century, my dear ones!

-- Yeltsin as translated by Associated Press