B.N. Yeltsin’s visits to the Russian Far East in the context of Moscow’s policy towards the Far Eastern regions in the 1990s

The purpose of the article is to identify the content and significance of Boris Yeltsin’s visits to the Russian Far East in the 1990s. The historical research is based on the concept of the relationship between the center and the regions at different stages of the past. It is complemented by a positional analysis in which the belonging of a person or group to the elite is determined by their status and influence in the institutional structure of society. The article reveals the historical traditions and innovations of the phenomenon of visits to the region by representatives of the highest political circles. According to the authors of the article, all of them were associated with both turning events in the internal life of the country and landmark foreign policy events. Their distinctive feature was that they often turned out to be “accompanying” events when the leaders went to meetings with their counterparts from foreign countries. The content of the visits of state leaders to the Far East clearly shows the relationship with certain changes in power relations, with the implementation of the industrial course of development in the region, and the involvement of its resources in the all-Union economic complex. The conclusion is made about the peculiarities of Boris Yeltsin’s trips, first as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, and then as President of Russia in the face of the danger of disintegration during radical reforms. Yeltsin used visits to the Far East as a way to demonstrate his liberal ideas and focus on foreign experience. His visits provided a certain illusion of stabilization in relations between Moscow and the Far Eastern region, both for Yeltsin himself and among the local political elite.