In 1991, Boris Yeltsin stood atop a tank in front of the parliament building in Moscow and called on the people to resist the communist hardliners in the August coup.

Several months later, at the end of the year, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, leaving Yeltsin as the president of Russia.

Fast forward to December 31, 1999: Yeltsin grabbed the world by surprise once again when he resigned during a live televised address.

In between those shock events, Russia went through an enormous economic, social, and political transition as the state tried to adjust to the global economy following the dissolution of the USSR. During that tumultuous decade, Russia was also involved in two Chechen Wars and was slammed by a financial crisis in 1998.

We put together 53 archived photographs from Reuters and AP of Russia’s 1990s. (Most of the captions are from Reuters or AP, lightly edited for clarity or additional background information.)

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Thousands of Muscovites march to Red Square carrying a giant Russian tricolor white, blue, and red flag, celebrating the failure of the three-day hard line Communist coup attempt in Moscow, August 22, 1991.

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Two free marketeers display their goods at the central market in Petropavlovsk, the capital city of the far eastern peninsula of Kamchatka, March 1993.

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In 1993, there was conflict between Yeltsin and the parliament, which ultimately resulted in the use of force. In October, Yeltsin ordered troops to seize parliament from opponents. In the photo below, a Russian tank leaves its post in front of the Moscow's White House building on October 5.

Source: BBC, BBC, New York Times

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A Russian Cossack rides up to a road-side kiosk to pick up a bottle of vodka after riding in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Moscow. The event, not traditionally Russian, was sponsored by the foreign business community in the city, March 1994.

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Russian veterans talk and a World War II seaman takes a cigarette break as they gather in the centre of Moscow in front of the Bolshoi theatre on Victory Day, May 9, 1994.

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Russian soldiers exercise near the village of Plesetsk on June 1994. Several months later, in December 1994, the First Chechen War began.

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A Russian soldier with a piano left behind in a central Grozny park in Chechnya on February 6, 1995. At the time, the Russian army was fighting with some of groups of Chechen guerillas in Grozny during the First Chechen War, according to Reuters.

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Soldiers wearing bulletproof vests patrol a bridge in downtown Moscow, March 1995.

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Workers chat beside the monument to Georgy Zhukov, April 1995. Stalin appointed Zhukov as deputy commander-in-chief of the Red Army in 1942 during WWII.

Source: BBC

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British top model Naomi Campbell strolls through the Red Square in Moscow, April 21, 1995.

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Then-US President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton drink colas while visiting a Moscow Coca-Cola plant in May 1995 prior heading to a two-days state visit to Ukraine. The banner reads "drink Coca-Cola" in Russian.

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Legendary ballet star Maya Plisetskaya smiles as she welcomes admirers during a gala concert in Bolshoi Theatre, which was devoted to her 70th birthday, November 1995.

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A Russian butcher cuts a side of imported beef at a meat processing and packing factory in Moscow, March 1996.

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A Russian commando talks to Chechen children drinking soft drinks at a check point near the city of Grozny, March 1996.

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Boris Yeltsin dancing with a singer during a pop concert in the city of Rostov, June 1996. At the time, Yeltsin was on a pre-election campaign tour around Russia.

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Astronaut Kevin Chilton (L), STS-76 mission commander, gets a warm goodbye from cosmonaut Yuriy Usachov, Mir-21flight engineer, as the space shuttle Atlantis was about to be separated from its link with Russia's Mir space station on March 28, 1996. Atlantis and Mir moved slowly away from each other later that day, following an undocking.

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Two boys living at an orphanage at the Saint Trinity church in the town of Vyazma, some 250 kilometers west of Moscow, eat lunch, May 1996.

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Russian Orthodox nuns select apples which have been sprinkled with holy water in central Moscow, August 1996.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger poses with Russian girls dressed in national costumes during the opening ceremony of Moscow's "Planet Hollywood Cafe," September 1996.

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A Chechen woman covers her face as she walks past a group of women sweeping an abandoned street in the center of Grozny next to a building destroyed during the First Chechen War, September 1996. The Khasavyurt Accord, which marked the end of the First Chechen War, was signed in August 1996.

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A Russian fisherman casts his rod as he stands on the embankment of the Moskva river, September 1996. Dozens of fishermen gathered here all year round despite the heavy pollution in the water, claiming that the fish caught here is suitable for eating.

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Animal rights activists of PETA are arrested by police as they demonstrate naked and only covered with a banner near Red Square, September 1996.

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Michael Jackson looks at a tray featuring Moscow's coat of arms offered to him by then-Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, September 1996.

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A couple walk past wall graffiti in the center of Moscow, October 1996. Some people in Russia were hit hard by pro-market economic reforms and were nostalgic for the Soviet era.

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Donald Trump visits a reception as he checks out sites in Moscow for luxury residential towers, November 5, 1996.

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Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky smiles as he points a gun while sitting beside a double of Russian singer Alla Pugacheva during a press conference in Moscow, December 7, 1996. Zhirinovsky acted in a movie called "Корабль двойников" ("Ship of Doubles") with doubles of many famous personalities.

You can find the movie on Youtube.

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Two boys play on top of a surface-to-air missile on display at an open air museum in St. Petersburg just before classes were about to start after the holiday break, January 1997.

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A street vendor feeds a stray dog at an illegal food market in the outskirts of Moscow, January 1997.

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An elderly WWII veteran holds a portrait the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin during a rally devoted to the Victory Day in central Moscow, May 9, 1997.

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A street vendor holds on to his camel in the center of the Russian capital as he waits for clients who want to go for a ride, July 24, 1997.

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Nine year old Kolya makes his way through a mud training session, July 1997. More than forty boys aged from 9 to 17 spent their annual summer vacation at the children's military camp preparing them for their future service in the Russian army.

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A man crosses a bridge in the center of St. Petersburg, April 1998.

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Striking coal miners rest on the rail tracks in Shakhty, May 1998. Coal miners went on strike over months without pay by blocking the Trans-Siberian Railway that month.

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Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev (C) and his US colleagues James Voss and Susan Helms train in the waters of the Black Sea near the city of Adler, June 1998. They were training to be the second crew due to fly to the International Space Station in 1999.

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Boris Nemtsov, who was temporarily deputy prime minister, checks his watch, August 1998.

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An elderly man sells cucumbers by the roadside in Orlovo outside Moscow, August 6, 1998. Pensioners sometimes sold vegetables they grew in suburban plots during Russia's economic crisis, according to Reuters.

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In August 13, 1998, about a year after the Asian financial crisis, Russian markets collapsed on worries that the country would run out of money and default. Yeltsin called an emergency session of parliament shortly after, saying there would be no ruble devaluation. But then on August 17, the ruble was devalued and Russia announced a 90-day moratorium on foreign debt repayment, according to PBS. The crisis reverberated across global markets, with the Dow plunging 512 points on August 31. In the photo below, a Russian dealer winces during a morning session at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX), September 1998.

Source: PBS

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A mother with child look at an empty counter on a wholesale market in the Russian capital, September 1998. Muscovites hit the streets and stocked up on goods as the currency continued to free fall.

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Elderly Russian women sell cheap vodka on a street of central Moscow, September 1998.

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A Russian student wearing a gas mask waves a Soviet flag during a rally in the centre of Moscow, October 1998. Around this time, Russia created an emergency food reserve and approved an emergency spending plan that required the central bank to print at least $1.2 billion to help pay wages, support banks, and get food to poorer regions, according to PBS. At the end of the month, the IMF said it wouldn't give Russia the $4.3 billion installment of an aid package and would not resume negotiations until it produced a realistic budget for 1999.

Source: PBS

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Russian newlyweds give money to beggars as they leave a church after a ceremony in the central Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, October 1998. According to Reuters, the dramatic fall in living standards and rising uncertainty at the time resulted in a reduction in the number of couples who wanted to get married.

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A young Khanty girl walks in -30C (-22F) past a team of deer on November 6, 1998 in Aksarka village about 2,000 kilometers from Moscow. Living standards in the remote Yamalo-Nenets region were very low due to hard climate conditions and expensive transport connections.

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Customers stand in a long queue to buy cheap milk from a container in the eastern part of Moscow, November 1998.

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A woman is seen through a car window as she walks under an umbrella along the Neva river embankment in front of the Peter and Paul Fortress, November 1998.

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A woman shakes a stick as she protests in front of the British embassy, December 1998. Russia's leaders had earlier denounced American and British missile strikes against Iraq.

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Chechen boys play with toy guns in the streets of Grozny, December 1998. The Second Chechen War began several months later on August 1999.

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Muscovites enjoy fireworks as they celebrate New Year on Red Square near St. Basil Cathedral early morning January 1, 1999. President Boris Yeltsin admitted 1998 was a hard year for him personally and said the future depended on the hard work of Russia's citizens, according to Reuters.

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A Russian soldier and member of a military orchestra yawns before a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier on a snowy Moscow morning, January 1999.

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Tourists pass through gates to see St. Basil cathedral in Moscow's Red Square February 3, 1999. The temperature in the Russian capital fell below -25C (-13F) posing serious dangers for the city's homeless population, according to Reuters.

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Russian masked tax police officers arrest a suspect and check his identity in the town of Serpukhov, some 100 kilometers south of Moscow, February 1999.

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Protesters burn a flag outside the Russian government building in Moscow, March 31, 1999. Hundreds of Muscovites protested further air strikes against Yugoslavia by marching through the city's streets and singing hymns for their "Slav brothers" in Serbia, according to Reuters.

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Kids in front of a poster of Peter the Great, May 23, 1999.

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Boris Yeltsin announced his shock resignation on television on December 31, 1999. He added that Vladimir Putin would become Russia's acting president until the next elections in three months time.

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