World Notes SOVIET UNION

Tempers are smoldering across the Soviet Union as irate smokers vent their rage over the country's summer-long tobacco shortage. "No tobacco -- no work!" shouted angry factory workers in Kuibyshev who would rather strike than switch. In the Urals town of Perm, nicotine-starved crowds blocked the main street, and "tobacco riots" have hit other cities.

Soviet officials blame factory breakdowns, hoarding by black marketeers and reduced imports from Bulgaria for the cigarette shortage. The protests are regarded as a real threat to perestroika. Moscow's city council announced last week that it would immediately begin rationing cigarettes, limiting consumption to five packs a month. President Gorbachev fired Vladilen Nikitin, his appropriately named head of state procurement, after finding his explanation for the shortage "unconvincing and unsound." Soviet smokers seem to agree. "It was bad enough when they took our vodka away," grumbled a man in a tobacco line. "There was eau de cologne or home brew to replace it. But what do you smoke instead of tobacco?" Suggested a young man next to him: "Try some grass, dad."