When Yegor Gaidar and Boris Fyodorov left the Russian cabinet many commentators called them "the last hope for reform." But in a different way the departure of Ella Pamfilova was even more symbolic.


Pamfilova, 40, was the last woman in the cabinet. One of Yeltsin's longest-serving ministers, appointed in November 1991, she had clung to the post of Minister of Social Security through a string of crises.


Despite the nature of her job, which was to protect the rights of the old, the sick and the growing army of Russia's unemployed, Pamfilova was a loyal ally of Gaidar, the author of Russia's monetarist policies. In last December's elections she was the third name on the party list of Russia's Choice, the party that Gaidar heads.


Pamfilova denied there was any contradiction between these two positions, saying that a strong welfare program could only be built on sound anti-inflationary policies.


She made her career as an engineer and trade union leader before making her mark as a deputy in the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies, where she served as secretary to the committee on privileges.


Soft spoken, she nonetheless won a reputation for toughness as she denounced party privileges and luxuries.


She has kept up this theme to this day. As minister she arranged for the dachas of the Social Welfare Fund under her control to be rented out to organizers of rest programs for children and invalids. Following her resignation, they have now been claimed back.


Pamfilova also furiously denounced the lavish refurbishment of the White House and the project to build a new parliament building for $500 million, which has now been scrapped.


"It's hard to explain to people why we find it so hard to come up with crumbs to solve social problems," Pamfilova told the television program "Itogi," "when at the same time the government buys a parquet floor in Switzerland for the White House."


Pamfilova announced her resignation at the same time as Gaidar -- the second time she had done this in fact, and made it plain that she held Chernomyrdin responsible.


"My departure is a protest against the discrediting of the idea of reforms being carried out, which are acquiring more and more the characteristics of a bureaucratic criminal handing out of resources," she told the weekly newspaper Argumenty i fakty.


Her statements clearly struck a chord because her resignation was not finally accepted until this week.


As she left, in typically bold style, Pamfilova gave some fascinating insights into life at the top.


Even as a minister, she told Argumenty i fakty, she could not get access to Chernomyrdin. Once, she said, she had tried to see him on a Saturday and ended up waiting the whole day.


Most revealingly she relayed an account of her meeting with Yeltsin in which she described the 63-year-old president almost as one of the pensioners in her care. Yeltsin, Pamfilova said, was a lonely man with no one to talk to.