YELTSIN RESIGNS: THE OVERVIEW; Yeltsin Resigns, Naming Putin as Acting President To Run in March Election

Boris N. Yeltsin shocked his nation and the world today, announcing his resignation as president six months before the end of his term and handing over power to his favored successor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.

Mr. Yeltsin, 68, concluded his political career on the same note of surprise and high drama that accompanied his entire path from early convert to perestroika to erratic master of a free but floundering Russia.

The man who became the first senior party boss to quit the Communist Party, who faced down Communist plotters from atop an armored personnel carrier and signed the breakup of the Soviet Union, chose a historic New Year's Eve to make his grand exit, and to try to assert control over a succession battle that could determine Russia's course for years to come.

By appointing Mr. Putin acting president today at a private Kremlin ceremony with a personal blessing by Aleksy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Mr. Yeltsin seemed determined to try to put a lock on Mr. Putin's succession to the presidency in an election that will be held three months from now, on March 26, in accordance with the Russian Constitution. Mr. Putin will also remain prime minister.

''I am resigning ahead of time,'' Mr. Yeltsin told a bewildered nation in a noontime special broadcast filmed against the backdrop of a traditional Russian New Year's tree. ''I have realized that I have to do so. Russia must enter the next millennium with new politicians, with new personalities and with new smart, strong and energetic people.''

Mr. Putin, 47, is the latest and most popular of a string of prime ministers Mr. Yeltsin had appointed in hopes of finding a malleable and viable successor. Since his appointment in August, Mr. Putin, a former K.G.B. official, has become Russia's most popular politician because of his tough-minded conduct of the war in Chechnya. He is now more than ever considered a strong favorite for the March elections.