Yeltsin Takes Oath as 1st Popularly Elected Russian President : Soviet Union: The essence of his course is ‘radical reform,’ the populist says. Gorbachev vows cooperation.

To the pealing of Kremlin bells and the fanfare of trumpets, Boris N. Yeltsin was inaugurated Wednesday as the first popularly elected leader Russia has ever known, assuming his hard-earned place as president of a vast republic that stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

“Great Russia is rising up from its knees,” Yeltsin told a festive crowd that included Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. “We will turn it into a prosperous, democratic, peace-loving, law-abiding and sovereign state.”

The tall, silver-haired populist pressed his hand to his heart as he took a presidential oath to defend the law and human rights in his republic of 150 million people and acclaimed his own election as a sign that, after centuries of monarchy and dictatorship, the Russian Federation had chosen democracy.

“The president is no god, nor a new monarch, nor a miracle worker,” said Yeltsin, who earlier could be seen on television monitors biting his lip and fighting back emotion as he waited to speak. “He is an ordinary citizen in whom is vested a great responsibility for the destiny of Russia and his compatriots.”

Gorbachev, in a speech that lasted longer than Yeltsin’s, congratulated the new Russian president and promised him the central government’s cooperation--further evidence that the two leaders have put aside their feud.

“As the president of the country, I am in favor of a strong, united and democratic Russian Federation,” Gorbachev said. “Without such a Russia, the renewal of our state will not take place.”

In remarks that appeared aimed at the Western leaders who are expected to consider his appeal for economic help in London next week, Gorbachev also said that Yeltsin’s election and recent cooperation with the Kremlin show that the Soviet Union now has the elements it needs to get out of crisis: political consensus, an economic program and an improved system of government.

Yeltsin said earlier this week that he and other republic leaders support the economic plan that Gorbachev is expected to present to the Group of Seven meeting in London, and on Tuesday he said that he could support Gorbachev in national elections.

In his inaugural speech, Yeltsin promised that the Russian Federation under his administration will be free of “ideological dictates” and summed up his plans in one simple sentence: “The essence of the presidential course is radical reform.”

Yeltsin said: “For centuries, the interests of the state were put higher than those of the individual, his needs and aspirations. Unfortunately, we realized later than other civilized nations that the strength of the state lies in the well-being of its citizens. The denial of this sacred principle destroyed the greatest empires of the past.”

But now, Yeltsin said, “We have all made our choice in favor of a peaceful, legal and democratic means of transformation.”

Yeltsin’s inauguration crowned the incredible political comeback that the 60-year-old former Communist boss has made, rising from a disgraced party renegade who had dared to clash with Gorbachev in late 1987 to an idol of the masses spearheading political and economic reforms. He swept June 12 presidential elections with 57% of the vote.

Alexei II, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, called on Yeltsin at the inauguration ceremony to lead with tolerance, wisdom and forgiveness.

“The people need understanding, love and patience,” the patriarch said. “You can’t change everything in one night or in 500 days”--a reference to Yeltsin’s blueprint for crash economic reform.

The ceremony in the Kremlin’s Palace of Congresses focused on Russian tradition, with a well-known Soviet actor running down the long list of Russia’s great figures, from Pushkin to Tchaikovsky, from Peter the Great to Dostoevsky.

But it also emphasized a break with the traditions of the last 73 years of Communist rule, which in the narration was termed a historical “dead end.” Even the giant relief of Soviet founder V. I. Lenin that had always graced the front wall of the hall at public events was nowhere to be seen.

A military choir, accompanied by a brass band, sang the new Russian anthem, a revamped arrangement of a triumphal theme from a 19th-Century opera by Mikhail Glinka.

In the midst of the inauguration, the red and blue Russian flag was hoisted to wave in the breeze above Yeltsin’s new offices in the Kremlin.

Profile: Boris N. Yeltsin Born: Feb. 1, 1931 Birthplace: Sverdlovsk, Ukraine Education: Urals Polytechnic Career highlights: Trained as a construction engineer. Served as first secretary of the Sverdlovsk District Central Committee (1976), deputy to Supreme Soviet, secretary of the Central Committee (1985-86), first secretary of Moscow City Party Committee (1985-87). Elected to Congress of People’s Deputies in 1989.