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MOSCOW MAVERICK, IN SHIFT, IS SEATED IN SUPREME SOVIET

MOSCOW MAVERICK, IN SHIFT, IS SEATED IN SUPREME SOVIET
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May 30, 1989, Section A, Page 1Buy Reprints
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In the face of mounting public indignation, the four-day-old Soviet congress reversed itself today and voted to give Boris N. Yeltsin, the maverick Communist, a seat in a new legislature.

The election of Mr. Yeltsin, made possible when a legislator agreed to sacrifice his seat, was the most dramatic of several indications that the 2,250-member Congress of People's Deputies was feeling the impact of public opinion, stirred by live television broadcasts of its every move.

Although 964 members voted against seating Mr. Yeltsin in the 542-member legislature in a secret ballot early Saturday morning, no one publicly opposed the change of course today. Gorbachev's Choice Approved

The congress, the first in seven decades chosen mostly by competitive elections, is to rule on important issues and set general policy. It elects from its ranks the smaller organization, the Supreme Soviet, which is to be the standing lawmaking body and is to meet for two sessions a year.

The congress also approved President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's choice as Vice President, Anatoly I. Lukyanov, a 59-year-old lawyer and nonvoting member of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo. In the event of Mr. Gorbachev's death, Mr. Lukyanov would fulfill the duties of President until a special session of the congress could choose a successor.

But it was clear that the Soviet tradition of faceless, collective rule was giving way to a new standard of personal accountability. Before giving overwhelming approval to Mr. Lukyanov, a friend of Mr. Gorbachev since university days and most recently his chief legal adviser, members subjected him to intense questioning. The topics ranged from his role in several controversial laws and Government decrees to his activities as a Kremlin legal adviser during political upheavals in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Decree's Revision Suggested

Pressed, Mr. Lukyanov said he had personally supported a decree last month that provided up to three years in prison for statements ''insulting or discrediting'' the Government, but he said that on further consideration he believed the decree should be revised.

One questioner asked why Mr. Lukyanov, as a senior legal official, should not be held responsible for the dramatic rise in crime, and two federal prosecutors suggested he had helped obstruct their investigations into high-level corruption.

Mr. Gorbachev underwent a similar questioning last week before the congress elected him President.

The mute reverence for authority customary in official gatherings has also disappeared. Today Mr. Gorbachev was accused of exerting too much influence by signaling his opinion before votes were cast. Members also urged that Politburo members be obliged to leave their special seats in a raised loge and sit among the other deputies. The Sting of Public Anger

In a secret ballot that stretched into the early hours of Saturday morning, the congress eliminated from the legislative ranks Mr. Yeltsin and a number of Moscow deputies who have been outspoken proponents of far-reaching political and economic change.

The exclusion of Mr. Yeltsin, who won the election to represent the city of Moscow in a landslide, was a satisfying victory for Communist Party regulars who have been the butt of his attacks on the establishment.

But the congress quickly felt the sting of public anger. Thousands of Muscovites rallied in protest at the outcome and many deputies said today that they had received phone calls and telegrams from constituents upset at the treatment of the radical insurgents.

Georgi K. Shakhnazarov, a top Gorbachev aide, said in an interview today that the President himself had been distressed at Mr. Yeltsin's exclusion but saw no way around it. 'I Would Have Been Ashamed'

But this evening Aleksei I. Kazannik, a university law lecturer from Omsk, unexpectedly announced that he would forfeit his seat in the legislature if the congress would give it to Mr. Yeltsin.

''If I were a regional party secretary, I would not be making such a decision,'' Mr. Kazannik told the stunned congress. ''I would go quietly home and lock myself away from the people. But as for me, I would have been ashamed to face my voters.''

Mr. Gorbachev quickly gave his blessing to a legal procedure that enabled Mr. Kazannik to surrender his seat to Mr. Yeltsin.

Tonight Mr. Yeltsin's walk from the Kremlin up Gorky Street toward his apartment turned into a triumphal procession. Hundreds of Muscovites flocked around him, pumping his hand and handing up babies to be kissed. A Talk With Gorbachev

Mr. Yeltsin said the decision to admit him was a reaction to an outpouring of anger.

''I think it shows the growth of the level of democratization in the congress itself,'' he said. ''Step by step, from the first day, people have begun to figure out the atmosphere.''

Mr. Yeltsin said he had recently had a 90-minute talk about his future with Mr. Gorbachev.

''I think we have had a rapprochement,'' he said of Mr. Gorbachev, according to Reuters. ''We have always had good, normal relations, maybe with the exception of a year ago when some members of the leadership helped relations grow colder.

''I think there is a warming, without a doubt. I always supported the strategic line of Comrade Gorbachev, and moreover I fought for it.''

No rescue seemed in sight for the Moscow radicals who fell victim in the vote Saturday, but in speeches today it was evident that they had also benefited from a show of public support. The Attacks Die Down

Where on Saturday many deputies were openly scornful of the Moscow group, today the Muscovites were repeatedly praised for their boldness. Some deputies, citing telegrams from constituents, said the Muscovites' speeches had struck a popular chord in the country.

Open attacks on the Moscow group were rare today, although the conservatives were still bitter about the Moscow deputies who on Saturday had railed at those who voted against them as ''the aggressively obedient majority.''

Gennadi I. Kolbin, the Kazakhstan Communist Party chief, said in an interview that he was angry at the way Muscovites like Andrei D. Sakharov, the physicist and human rights advocate, had been allowed to speak so often.

''Every day they begin this thrusting of ideas at us, which have to be discussed and which divert us from the main questions,'' he said.

As for Mr. Yeltsin, he said, ''I wouldn't let demogogues like that come near the rostrum.''''

Mr. Gorbachev said today that several deputies had sent him notes proposing to reconsider the live television broadcasts of the proceedings on the ground that some members were using the opportunity to grandstand. He urged that they drop this idea.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: MOSCOW MAVERICK, IN SHIFT, IS SEATED IN SUPREME SOVIET. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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