Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in Moscow on Friday, was one of the most charismatic Russian politicians of the post-Soviet era, a tireless campaigner and fiery orator renowned for his uncompromising opposition to the Putin regime.
上周五在莫斯科被枪杀的鲍里斯•涅姆佐夫(Boris Nemtsov)是后苏联时代最有魅力的俄罗斯政治家之一。他是一名不知疲倦的活动家和慷慨激昂的演说家，以毫不妥协地反对普京政权而闻名。
He rose from humble origins to scale the heights of Russian power and was once touted as a future president. But after being booted out of office in 1998 he gradually emerged as one of the Kremlin’s most outspoken critics.
他出身于普通家庭，后来一步步进入俄罗斯最高权力阶层，并一度被誉为未来的总统人选。但在1998年失势之后，他逐渐成为最直言不讳批评克里姆林宫的人士之一。In words that now sound prophetic, Nemtsov recently expressed fears for his life. In a February 10 interview with Sobesednik, a news website, he related how his mother would often say: “When will you stop railing against Putin? He’ll kill you!”
涅姆佐夫不久前表达了对自己人身安全的担忧，这些话现在听起来像是预言。在今年2月10日接受新闻网站Sobesednik采访的时候，涅姆佐夫提到了自己母亲经常说的话：“你什么时候才会停止批评普京？他会杀了你！”
Asked if he feared for his life, he said: “You know, yes, a little bit. But if I was really scared, I would hardly be the leader of an opposition party.”
在被问及是否担心自己的性命时，他说道：“你知道，是的，有点担心。但如果我真的害怕的话，我就很难成为反对党的领袖。”Nemtsov was born in the Black Sea town of Sochi in 1959 of a Jewish mother and Russian Orthodox father. In the 1980s he studied physics at the state university of Nizhny Novgorod, known as Gorky in Soviet times.
涅姆佐夫于1959年出生于黑海岸边的索契市，母亲是一名犹太人，父亲信奉俄罗斯东正教。上世纪80年代，他在下诺夫哥罗德(Nizhny Novgorod)国立大学攻读物理学专业——下诺夫哥罗德在苏联时代被称为高尔基市。He was swept up in the intellectual and political ferment of the glasnost era and by 1990 had been elected to the Russian Supreme Soviet or parliament. There, he caught the eye of Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first democratically elected president, who appointed him governor of Nizhny Novgorod the following year.
涅姆佐夫迅速投身于俄罗斯开放时代的思想和政治运动浪潮中，到1990年，他当选为俄罗斯最高苏维埃（即俄罗斯的议会）人民代表。在那里，他引起了俄罗斯首位民选总统鲍里斯•叶利钦(Boris Yeltsin)的注意，后者在第二年任命其担任下诺夫哥罗德州州长。In this position, he turned the city into a laboratory of market reforms. Nemtsov was one of the first provincial officials of the Yeltsin era to auction farmland and sell state-owned shops and other businesses. And with his distinctive unruly black curls, engaging smile and colourful language, he was the closest thing Russia had to a popular, western-style politician.
涅姆佐夫在下诺夫哥罗德任职期间积极开展市场改革试验。他是叶利钦时代首批拍卖农田并出售国有商店和其他企业的省级官员之一。涅姆佐夫有着独特不羁的黑色卷发、迷人的微笑和风趣的言辞，广受欢迎，是俄罗斯最接近西方风格的政客。In 1997, Yeltsin brought him to Moscow to work in the government. During this period, in which he rose to the rank of deputy prime minister, he was closely associated with liberals such as Anatoly Chubais, the architect of Russia’s privatisation programme.
1997年，涅姆佐夫受叶利钦提携进入俄罗斯政府工作。在此期间他曾担任俄罗斯副总理，并与俄罗斯私有化项目设计师阿纳托利•丘拜斯(Anatoly Chubais)等自由派人士关系密切。He grabbed headlines with eye-catching initiatives such as insisting that Russian ministers switch from Mercedes to domestically produced cars. Many saw him as a potential successor to Yeltsin.
涅姆佐夫坚称，俄罗斯部长应将座驾从奔驰换为国产车，这类吸引眼球的提议让他登上了新闻头条。许多人将其视为叶利钦的潜在接班人。But he lost his job in August 1998 during the fallout from a financial crisis that saw Russia default on its domestic debt and which tarnished the reputation of the Yeltsin-era reformers.
但在1998年8月他丢掉了副总理职位，当时金融危机肆虐，俄罗斯无力偿还国内债务，叶利钦时代改革家们的名声受损。He later drove efforts to create a liberal party that would bring together all reformist forces in Russia. He was one of the founders of the “Union of Right Forces” and was elected to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament where he sat between 1999 and 2003. But his star waned with the rise of Vladimir Putin, who after becoming president in 2000 gradually curbed the democratic freedoms of the Yeltsin era.
涅姆佐夫后来致力于创建一个将俄罗斯所有改革派力量联合起来的自由党派。他是“右翼力量联盟”(Union of Right Forces)的创始人之一，并在1999年至2003年当选为俄罗斯杜马（即议会下院）议员。但随着弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)的崛起，他的光环褪色。普京在2000年当选总统之后逐渐遏制了叶利钦时代的民主自由力量。Unlike other leading liberals of the 1990s, such as Chubais, Nemtsov refused to reach an accommodation with the Putin regime, remaining an implacable opponent of the new leader.
与上世纪90年代的丘拜斯等其他主要自由派人士不同，涅姆佐夫拒绝与普京政权达成和解，依然不遗余力地反对普京。He continued to found and lead liberal parties, and ran for mayor of Sochi in 2009, coming second with 14 per cent of the vote despite little coverage in the mostly state-run media. In 2013 he was elected to the regional parliament of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow.
他继续创立和领导自由党派，并在2009年竞选索契市市长，以14%的得票率位列第二，不过基本上由政府控制的俄罗斯媒体对此鲜有报道。2013年，他当选位于莫斯科东北方向的雅罗斯拉夫尔(Yaroslavl)州杜马议员。But he was better known for organising street protests and rallies, and became a driving force behind the anti-Putin demonstrations of 2011 and 2012. He was often detained by police, and was sentenced to 15 days in jail in January 2011.
但他更为人所知的是组织街头抗议和集会活动，并推动了2011年和2012年反对普京的游行示威。他经常被警方拘捕，并在2011年1月被判处15天监禁。He also published reports on official corruption, and in recent months had been investigating Russian involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine.
他还发表了关于官员腐败的报告，最近几个月一直在调查俄罗斯是否卷入乌克兰东部的战争。The attack on him came less than two days before he was to take part in another rally to protest against what he called “Putin’s covert war against Ukraine”. After Friday’s events, that was turned into a memorial march to mark Nemtsov’s eventful life — and tragic death. Guy Chazan and Kathrin Hille
在涅姆佐夫遭枪杀之时，距他原本要参加被其称为“普京对乌克兰隐秘战争”的抗议活动已不到两天时间。在上周五的事件之后，这场抗议活动已转变为对涅姆佐夫跌宕起伏的一生及其悲剧性死亡的悼念活动。