Foes of communism owe a debt of gratitute to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who died of heart failure Monday at age 76.

Unlike former Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the Communist who headed the Soviet Union, including Russia, from 1958 to 1964, and who at one point warned the United States that "we will bury you," it was Yeltsin who remained Russia's strongest obstacle to communism during his nearly decade-long leadership.

It was Yeltsin who paved the way for the peaceful demise of the Soviet state on Dec. 25, 1991, just four months after he had rallied resistance to a coup by Communist hard-liners who tried to overthrow Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev, who ended up being the last Soviet president, had implemented a program of democratic reforms that had set in motion a process that seemed destined to erode communism's position of dominance in the former superpower.

When Yeltsin won Russia's first popular presidential election by a landslide vote in June 1991, he was admired initially for his defiance of the monolithic Communist system. He introduced many basics of democracy; he guaranteed the rights of free speech, private property ownership and multiparty elections, and he opened the borders to trade and travel.

In addition, he was a strong defender of freedom of the press, although he was a master at manipulating the media.

Of course, Yeltsin laid the groundwork for his eventual national leadership during a long career as a Communist Party official, beginning when he was 30, although that career was rife with battles with higher party officials.

In 1990, he quit the Communist Party and walked out of its final convention.

In 1996, while ill with heart problems, he defeated a Communist challenger in his re-election bid and then successfully overcame an impeachment attempt by the Communist-dominated lower chamber of parliament in May 1999.

A figure who at one time had shown so much promise in terms of his ability to promote communism instead became one of its worst nightmares, much to the delight of the West and others weary of the Communist threat to world peace.

With the news of his death, the world reacted in predictable fashion. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Yeltsin "an important figure in Russian history," although that description ignores the broader scope of Yeltsin's impact.

Reflecting on Yeltsin's time on the leadership stage, Gorbachev referred to Yeltsin as one "on whose shoulders are both great deeds for the country and serious errors."

Those "serious errors" to which Gorbachev referred were economic policies that contributed to a serious decline for his nation. Per capita income fell about 75 percent during the Yeltsin era; prices soared, wiping out many people's savings. Inflation skyrocketed and production fell.

He was hesitant to act against crime and corruption, including in his own administration.

Finally, he damaged his democratic credentials by employing force to solve political disputes, including the war against separatists in Chechnya.

But regardless of the failings on the Russian domestic front, many people throughout the world overlook that as they recall Yeltsin's role in defusing the threat communism had posed since the end of World War II. For the United States, the deeper meaning was that the policies of Yeltsin — unintentionally — allowed this country to become the world's only superpower, essentially nullifying Khrushchev's ominous prediction.

Although Yeltsin always will be regarded as an adversary of this country, he nonetheless was an international figure who recognized the value of life and tried to be a source of improvement on many fronts, even though he failed in many ways.

Yeltsin wasn't a close friend, but he won't be remembered in U.S. history books as a ruthless tyrant.