Kremlin Compromise To quiet obstreperous Deputies, Yeltsin triggers a referendum

FIRST HE TRIED PERSUASION. THEN HE OFFERED COMpromise. When that didn't work, Boris Yeltsin declared war. And that finally led to compromise. After eight days of haggling with Russia's supreme legislature, Russia's first | democratically elected leader took the podium on Thursday and proceeded to heap buckets of scorn upon the Congress of People's Deputies, a legislature populated with Soviet holdovers. Their simmering feud had finally boiled over. He blasted the body for "blocking reform," for orchestrating a "creeping coup." He accused Deputies of defiling the Kremlin meeting hall with "the sick ambitions of failed politicians." Then he called for a referendum to end the political stalemate. "I am asking the citizens of Russia to make it clear," he said, addressing the electorate. "Which side are you on?"

Yeltsin was furious at the Congress for refusing to confirm acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, his handpicked architect of reform. When confronted with a stark choice of submitting or facing the President at the ballot box, the balky Deputies under leader Ruslan Khasbulatov became more inclined to deal. So, on reflection, did Yeltsin. By week's end he had agreed to submit three candidates for Prime Minister and modified his referendum. Although a popular vote would still be Yeltsin's to lose, Russians will not be asked to choose directly between him and the Congress. Instead, they will determine who should have more power by voting on a new constitution on April 11.