He created democracy in Russia and broke the stranglehold of Communism. But his time as leader was marred by inconsistency and a battle with alcohol. Lindsay Jennings looks at the life of Boris Yeltsin.

AS school reports go, it could have definitely been better. The young Boris Yeltsin - born to a peasant family in the village of Butka, in Russia - had a reputation as a hard worker, but lacked discipline and was often unruly. He took part in street fights and was always in conflict with his teachers.

But Yeltsin also showed glimmers of the powerful showmanship which would one day steer Russia to democracy. When his seven-year education certificate was revoked, he reportedly demanded that a committee be formed to investigate the case - eventually seeing the certificate restored and the teacher responsible for the revocation fired.

It was this contradictory nature which would see him rocket in popularity but prove unable, or unwilling, to prevent the looting of state industry as it moved into private hands during his nine years as Russia's first freely-elected president.

He steadfastly defended freedom of the Press, but was a master at manipulating the media. He amassed as much power as possible in his office - then gave it all up in a dramatic New Year's address at the end of 1999.

Yeltsin had risen in politics through the Communist Party, portraying himself as a streetwise leader. But after his reforming zeal angered the old guard, and he was demoted after a fall out with then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he left the Communist Party in July 1990.

He later persuaded the deputies in the Russian parliament to amend the constitution and establish an executive presidency for Russia.

The same year proved to be one of his finest. As the Communists attempted a coup in August 1991, he was pictured standing atop a tank, inviting the army to break away from the coup - which they did. The failed coup exposed the political bankruptcy of the Communist Party and its leader, Gorbachev, resigned in December the same year.

Yeltsin went on to make a stunning debut as Russian president. He introduced many basics of democracy, guaranteeing the rights to free speech, private property and multiparty elections, and opening borders to trade and travel.

He pushed through free-market reforms, creating a private sector and allowing foreign investment. In foreign policy, he assured independence for Russia's Soviet-era satellites, oversaw troop and arms reductions, and developed warm relations with Western leaders such as John Major and Bill Clinton. He even put an end to seven decades of estrangement between Russia and the British monarchy, since the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children in 1918. The Queen became the first British monarch to set foot in Russia since 1908 during a state visit in October 1994.

And throughout his nearly decade-long leadership, he remained Russia's strongest bulwark against Communism.

But there was another Yeltsin.

He was hesitant to act against crime and corruption - beginning in his own administration - while they sapped public faith and stunted democracy. His government's wrenching economic reforms impoverished millions of Russians - poor people whose wages and pensions were often not paid for months byYeltsin's government.

In the course of the Yeltsin era, per capita income fell by about 75 per cent, and the nation's population fell by more than two million, due largely to the steep decline in public health.

Yeltsin was a master of Kremlin intrigues, and preferred the chess game of politics to the detailed work of solving economic and social problems. He played top advisers off against each other, and never let any of them accumulate much power, lest they challenge him.

He was an inconsistent reformer and he damaged his democratic credentials by using force to solve political disputes, though he claimed his actions were necessary to keep the country together.

He sent tanks and troops in October 1993 to flush armed, hard-line supporters out of a hostile Russian parliament after they had sparked violence in the streets of Moscow. And in December 1994, Yeltsin launched a war against separatists in the southern republic of Chechnya. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the Chechnya conflict, and a defeated and humiliated Russian army withdrew at the end of 1996. The war solved nothing - and Russian troops resumed fighting in the breakaway region in 1999.

Ill with heart problems, and facing possible defeat by a Communist challenger in his 1996 re-election bid, Yeltsin marshalled his energy and sprinted through the final weeks of the campaign. The challenge transformed the shaky convalescent into a spry candidate.

But his political resurgence did not last.

He fired the entire government four times in 1998 and 1999. The economy sank into a deep recession in summer 1998 and Yeltsin rarely commented on the troubles and never offered a plan to combat them.

He was quick to act if anyone threatened his hold on power, standing fast even when his traditional allies called on him to step down and he easily faced down an impeachment attempt by the Communist-dominated lower chamber of parliament in May 1999.

In foreign affairs, he struggled to preserve a role for his former superpower. He called for a ''multipolar world'' as a way to counterbalance what Russia perceived as excessive US global clout, and in spring 1999 he sent Russian troops to Kosovo - ahead of Nato peacekeepers - to underline that Moscow would not be kept out of European affairs.

He wrangled with the West in disputes over Nato expansion and Russia's relatively warm relations with Iran and Iraq. But as Russia's political and economic might withered, Yeltsin had little to offer other nations.

In his later years, Yeltsin was dogged by ill health and alcohol problems. He underwent a successful quintuple heart bypass operation in 1996 but was never fully fit again.

His behaviour, too, became more erratic. One of his strangest moments came in 1994 when the then Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds was left standing on the runway at Shannon Airport, waiting for Yeltsin to come off the plane for talks on the Northern Ireland peace process. The president never emerged and said later: "I can tell you honestly, I just overslept." Commentators observed it was more likely due to the Russian president's fondness for heavy drinking.

Yeltsin was 76 when he died from suspected heart failure. The mixed tributes last night highlighted his contradictory nature. Just like in the school classroom all those years ago, he never lost his penchant for conflict, nor his taste for a good streetfight.