Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first democratically elected leader in the federation’s thousand-year history, died on April 23, 2007. During his presidency, Yeltsin institutionalized the vital liberties that Mikhail Gorbachev had granted only provisionally and often by default: freedom from government censorship of speech and of the press; free elections; freedom of political opposition; a largely privatized economy; demilitarization of state and society; decentralization of the traditionally unitary Russian state; increasingly assertive and independent courts; and a stronger civil society.

Despite these notable advances, the Russia that Yeltsin left behind also reflected the contradictions of its democratic founding father. While striving to diminish authoritarian coercion and embrace competition for power arbitrated by popular vote, Russia under Yeltsin remained a semi-authoritarian polity, corrupt and mistrusted by its people. For many Russians, Yeltsin will be remembered as the leader who initiated notorious “shock therapy” reforms, employed force to suppress the armed rebellion in support of the lawfully elected parliament he dissolved, created a class of extravagant “oligarchs,” and launched a bloody war in Chechnya.

How will history judge Yeltsin? Will the current “restoration” under Russian president Vladimir Putin reverse all the gains of the Yeltsin era? On May 8, a panel of prominent Russia scholars will gather to remember Boris Yeltsin and to assess the impact of the revolutions he presided over and shaped in three areas: the country’s politics, its economic system, and the post-imperial Russian state.