Yeltsin's Big Gamble

JUST A COUPLE OF HOURS BEFORE Boris Yeltsin was scheduled to address the Russian people last Saturday, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the Soviet Union, attended a reception at the Moscow Writers' Club. "My wish to the Russian President," he said, "is to take the initiative in his own hands." Few knew better than Gorbachev the fate of those who failed to show courage at the decisive moment: when the August coup of 1991 collapsed after three days, Gorbachev chose to closet himself in the Kremlin instead of rushing out to the barricades and embracing the man who had stood up to the plotters and vowed never to surrender.

This time there were no barricades, no marching troops, no calls for strikes or demonstrations. Nevertheless, another hour of truth had come for Boris Yeltsin. Instead of climbing on top of a tank and shaking his fist, he looked into television cameras and spoke in measured tones for 25 minutes. There was no mistaking the import of his words. He was taking the heady, reckless gamble of plunging Russia into a struggle for power as fateful as the one begun by the earlier coup attempt -- and probably even more chaotic.

Yeltsin was attempting a coup of his own in the name of democracy. Humiliated by the parliamentary opposition two weeks ago when it voted to strip him of much of his power, the Russian President struck back by announcing that he had signed orders opening a period of "special rule." For the next five weeks he proposed to govern by decree. No more futile attempts to compromise with the country's two legislative bodies, the Supreme Soviet, or parliament, and its parent, the Congress of People's Deputies. Yeltsin said he would not dissolve them -- yet. He would just ignore them. They could continue to meet and conduct legitimate legislative business, but if they tried to countermand his decrees, he would deem their acts invalid.

Then, on April 25, the people would speak. Yeltsin planned to ask them in a nationwide referendum to give him a "vote of confidence," endorse a draft of a new constitution setting up a two-chamber parliament and approve a law setting up elections for this new legislative body. If the electorate said da three times, the Supreme Soviet and Congress of People's Deputies would quietly -- in theory -- pass out of existence, and the country would enjoy a spanking new, popularly elected, democratic and legitimate government.

What a bold and perhaps foolhardy move for a man who had seemed to lose his scrappy, street-fighting spirit in the yearlong struggle with the Congress. This was the old Yeltsin again, showing rebellious parliamentarians that he was ready to absorb whatever blows they delivered -- and then hit them harder than ever before. It may have come too late. His enemies threatened to impeach him before he could even get a popular vote organized. But on Sunday he won crucial support from the entire government, including the ministers of defense and security, that could keep him safe until April 25.