Estonia

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Topped by green, onion-domed cupolas, the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral overlooks the center of Tallinn, a reminder of Estonia's two centuries of domination by the Russian Czars. Last week a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered at the church portico to demonstrate support for the Estonian supreme soviet, or parliament, as it joined in a battle of wills with Moscow. Near the cathedral steps, an elderly woman clutched a pennant of blue, black and white, the colors of the long-banned Estonian flag. Students in blue and crimson visored caps unfurled banners. NO TO COLONIAL LAWS read a sign in Cyrillic lettering.

Across the square at Toompea Castle, 264 deputies were assembled in the parliamentary chamber for an extraordinary session. After a day of sometimes passionate debate that was broadcast live over radio and television, the legislators, in an unprecedented display of national assertion, voted unanimously to reject a package of proposed constitutional changes that will be presented next week to the Supreme Soviet in Moscow.

The deputies then took their defiance a long step further: they agreed to amend the Estonian constitution to grant the republic's own supreme soviet the right to "suspend or establish limits" on Moscow-promulgated legislation affecting Estonian territory. Another vote made state property the possession of Estonia rather than the Soviet Union. Yet another called for a new "treaty of the union" with Moscow based on "principles of parity." Never was the word independence mentioned, but the delegates made clear that Tallinn wanted a radically different relationship with Moscow. Declared Estonian Communist Party Leader Vaino Valjas: "The future of the country is in the hands of us all."

It was as if a mouse had suddenly decided to roar at a bear. The day after the session, the bear growled back. TASS announced that the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the national legislature, considered the Estonian decisions "at variance with the provisions of the current constitution of the U.S.S.R." The Presidium declared that it would consider the issue at its next meeting and "invited" Estonian representatives to be present.

That set the stage for a showdown between Moscow and one of the Soviet Union's smallest and most recently acquired republics. Nonetheless, on a state visit to India last week, Mikhail Gorbachev made an effort at conciliation. He praised Estonia for its "pioneering work to develop initiatives," and admitted that "there have been mistakes" in Moscow's dealings with the republic. "They have many constructive proposals, but there are also some which have been dictated by emotion," he said. "I hope we shall decide everything correctly."

Gorbachev's remarks contrasted with comments he had made just before the extraordinary session in Tallinn. During a speech at the southwestern agricultural center of Oryol, he acknowledged that his policies of glasnost had "brought to light a lot of problems . . . in interethnic relations." But Gorbachev declared, "We decisively condemn attempts at artificial aggravation of these questions, at advancing ultimatum demands."