TIME FOR BATTLING BORIS

By Kevin Fedarko

OVER THE YEARS, YEKATERINburg has been good to Boris Yeltsin. It was in this industrial city in the Urals that Russia's first freely elected President spent his boyhood years. It was here that he built his early career in the Communist Party. And it was to Yekaterinburg that he came, in 1991, to inaugurate his campaign for the presidency. The city has been an auspicious place for him, which is why he returned there last Thursday to launch his bid for re-election.

Though Yeltsin may personify the post-Soviet era, all the elements of a successful politburo-style road show were in place: the mink-hatted acolytes, the handpicked entourage of veterans, the phalanx of sullen, gray-coated security agents. But as Yeltsin delivered his rambling speech, it was apparent that something had gone awry. One moment he was pledging to save Russia from a new Bolshevik revolution, the next he was suggesting that female employees of a local chocolate factory pair off with single military cadets. When he finally wound down, the lackluster applause demonstrated all too clearly that even in Yekaterinburg, Yeltsin had lost his appeal. "We've heard so many promises, but what's been done?" asked Nikolai, an 81-year-old veteran. "Factories aren't working, people aren't being paid, pensions aren't being received."

That complaint, which is echoed all across the country, offers a preview of how far Yeltsin must go to regain the support he once enjoyed; how rough-and-tumble the oncoming campaign will be; and how little clemency he can expect from those determined to unseat him. But for better or worse, the race is on: Yeltsin's speech marked the opening of a contest that over the next few months will decide not only Russia's next President but also the future of its experiment with economic and political reform. To qualify for the ballot, each candidate must collect 1 million signatures by April 14. The election is expected to be a two-step process, with a runoff in June or July between the two top contenders.

If Yeltsin wins a place in the runoff, he has a reasonable chance of returning to office, but he faces a daunting battle to survive the first cut. His approval ratings barely make it into two digits, his policies are under siege, and his health is shaky. He has succeeded in wrenching his nation from its statist past, but he has failed to shove it into a stable and prosperous capitalist future. Corruption, chaotic change and arbitrary rules are exploited by criminals and a class of well-connected nouveau riche, while ordinary Russians seethe over lost jobs, unpaid wages and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Those unsettled by reform are angry at Yeltsin, but reformers are too. He has dumped most advocates of a market economy from his Cabinet, and he has turned to a hardfisted style of leadership, surrounding himself with ever more authoritarian aides. Last week, after bragging about how much he has done to promote a "genuinely free" media, he fired the head of Russia's state-owned television network. (The station, it seemed, was engaged in too much muckraking.) Vyachelsav Kostikov, who once served Yeltsin as press secretary, said that for the President, "power is his ideology, his friend, his concubine and his mistress."

But the issue that will perhaps weigh most heavily on Yeltsin's candidacy is the war in Chechnya. The army has conducted it with terrible incompetence and terrible brutality. The Russians have leveled Grozny, the capital, and last week they pointedly added to the devastation by using three demolition blasts to bring down the shelled remains of Chechnya's presidential palace, the main symbol of rebel resistance. Yeltsin now faces the impossible dilemma of either withdrawing in humiliation or carrying on a bloody and costly occupation. "If we pull out our troops, there will be a massacre," he has said, "but if we don't, it's pointless for me to run."

All this offers fertile ground for Yeltsin's most formidable opponents--the newly revitalized communists who last December won more seats than any other party in the Russian legislature. Last week they held a convention in Moscow to nominate their leader, Gennadi Zyuganov, a former party bureaucrat. According to the latest polls, Zyuganov is virtually assured a spot in the runoff.

The reformers' nightmare is that the other place in the runoff will go to ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose party won the second largest number of votes in December. To prevent that, the reformers must unite behind one candidate, but with Yeltsin in the race, the liberal vote will probably split. In the past 1,000 years, no Kremlin leader has ever given up power voluntarily. In keeping with that tradition, Yeltsin seems determined to fight on--even if doing so puts his achievements for Russia at risk.

--Reported by Dean Fischer/Washington and John Kohan/Moscow

With reporting by DEAN FISCHER/WASHINGTON AND JOHN KOHAN/MOSCOW