The authors analyze the experiences of the full population of postcommunist states of Eastern Europe and Eurasia from 1991 to 2007 from cross-national and longitudinal perspective and find that Russian democracy under Yeltsin was, relatively speaking, a success. In fact, not a single leader of any of the twelve states of the CIS nurtured democratic institutions in the 1990s significantly more successfully than did Yeltsin. The study also demonstrates the pivotal role played by presidential leadership in Russia’s transition from communism.