making body of the Soviet Union). Soon he was made the mayor of Moscow. Yeltsin antagonised Gorbachev when he began criticising the slow pace of reform at party meetings. His popularity with the people grew as he advocated democratisation of governance and economic reform.
He succeeded in winning a seat in the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies (the new Soviet Parliament) in March . A year later, on May , , the Soviet parliament elected him president of the Russian republic against Gorbachev’s wishes. He became the first popularly elected leader in , after the collapse of Soviet Union.