Boris Yeltsin joined the Communist Party in 1965 and quickly climbed the ranks, serving as the First Secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party from 1976 to 1985.

He was appointed the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party in 1985. While in this position, he pushed for significant reforms within the party and the Soviet Union, which earned him both supporters and detractors. Yeltsin's public criticism of the Soviet leadership led to his removal from the Politburo in 1987.

However, Yeltsin's political aspirations did not wane. In 1989, he was elected as a People's Deputy to the Congress of People's Deputies, the newly-established Soviet parliament, representing the Sverdlovsk region. His charisma and criticism of the Soviet regime resonated with the public, and Yeltsin became a prominent figure in the emerging democratic movement. In 1990, he was elected as the Chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, a position that provided him with a platform to challenge Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

 

In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the Russian Federation with 57% of the vote, defeating Gorbachev's preferred candidate, Nikolai Ryzhkov. Yeltsin's election symbolized the beginning of a new political era, as he advocated for rapid and radical economic reforms and a decentralization of power. His early policies aimed at dismantling the Soviet command economy and replacing it with a market-oriented system, a process known as "shock therapy."