BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin died on Monday at the age of 76.

    The following is a profile of Yeltsin.

    Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born on Feb. 1, 1931.

    After graduating from Urals Polytechnical Institute in 1955, he worked as a construction-worker with various organizations in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).

    In 1961, he joined the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union (CPSU).

    In 1981, he was elected member of the central committee of the CPSU of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

    In 1985, he was appointed first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU and in 1986, an alternate member of the party's top decision making body, the politburo of the central committee..

    In July 1989, he was elected a co-chairman of the interregional parliamentary group.

    In May 1990, he became president of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. On July 12, 1990, at the 28th Congress of the CPSU, he announced his withdrawal from the party.

    On June 12, 1991, he was elected the president of the Russian Federation. In June 1996, he won a second term as president.

    On Dec. 31, 1999, he resigned from the post of president and transferred power to Vladimir Putin .

    The former Russian president has been suffering from heart diseases. In November 1996, he underwent a successful quintuple heart bypass operation in the Central Clinical Hospital.

Former president Boris Yeltsin, seen here leaving a Berlin hospital in 2006, the first Russian leader after the fall of the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 76, a Kremlin spokesman told AFP. (AFP Photo)  Photo Gallery>>>

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin (C) watches a military parade in Moscow in this May 9, 2006 file photo. (Photo: Reuters)  Photo Gallery>>>

Russian President Boris Yeltsin gestures as he speaks to the Forum of Democratic Press at the President Hotel in Moscow in this September 1, 1995 file picture. (Photo: Reuters)  Photo Gallery>>>