How did boris yeltsin become the first leader of the russian federation?

(d) seems the closest, but is misleadingly worded. Yeltsin was no populariser of Gorbachev's ideas. He had his own, more radical than Gorbachev's, and the two seemed to dislike each other personally. However, they had an enemy in common (the hard-line Communists). So the popular movement he inspired did have a nominal support for Gorbachev and his reforms, but without much enthusiasm.