Democratchniks

Few places have borne witness to so much modern history as the fifth-floor corner conference room at No. 4 Staraya Ploshchad, a few blocks from the Kremlin. Seated in brown leather swivel chairs around a wooden table, the ruling Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union made its decisions to invade Afghanistan, reduce nuclear weapons, settle questions of Kremlin succession. It was in this room that Mikhail Gorbachev first discussed reform policies that would change the world and bring the U.S.S.R. to an end. Today the headquarters of the once powerful party belongs to Russia's new democratic leadership: Boris Yeltsin's team.

At 10 a.m. on most Thursdays, President (and Prime Minister) Yeltsin takes his place at the head of the table. The chair on his left is reserved for Vice President Alexander Rutskoi. Gennadi Burbulis, Yeltsin's top political strategist, and First Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the point man of Russia's economic reforms, sit on the right. The old Politburo table had to be lengthened to seat the 35 ministers in the government and 30 state-committee chairmen. Most of Yeltsin's staff must scramble for chairs along the walls.

While the President glances through a green folder, the officials responsible for each item on the day's agenda begin briefing him from a lectern beside the table. One day the topics might be land reform and the economic difficulties of Russia's Far North. On another day the focus might be on more immediate problems, like the conflict with Ukraine over the Black Sea fleet. Yeltsin usually listens in silence, his immobile face looking as if it were carved in stone. He has the reputation of being a tough taskmaster, but he is also said to be fair and -- most of all -- loyal to his staff.

This glimpse of Yeltsin, the team manager, coping with ordinary affairs of state, is in marked contrast to the larger-than-life image of the Russian leader that the world came to know during last August's putsch. He displayed ruthless daring again last December, when he delivered the political coup de grace to Gorbachev and to the empire he ruled. But Yeltsin has been dogged by one persistent doubt: Could he transform himself from a defiant leader of the opposition, bent on destroying the old order, into a competent statesman capable of building a new one?

There have been times when Yeltsin has come close to squandering what he calls his "credit of trust" with the Russian people. He has been known simply to drop out of sight for days at a time -- leaving squabbling subordinates to govern. Opponents have raised questions about the President's reputed fondness for alcohol, accusing him of arriving drunk for a meeting last month in Uzbekistan. Yeltsin denounced the charge as "a big campaign to discredit the President, reform and authority." Still, he possesses one quality of leadership that sets him apart from Gorbachev: he is courageous and confident enough of his mandate as Russia's first democratically elected President to take the unpopular measures necessary to bring about radical change.