Ousted Moscow Party Chief Begs for Pardon, Gets Nyet

Boris N. Yeltsin appealed to the Communist Party conference today to clear him of blame for an attack on reform efforts that cost him his job as Moscow party chief last fall and his seat on the ruling Politburo.

But the Kremlin’s No. 2 leader, Yegor K. Ligachev, told the conference that Yeltsin had learned nothing from his mistakes. During the Moscow summit, Yeltsin accused Ligachev of blocking reforms sought by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and said he should resign.

Ligachev said Yeltsin has “not drawn the necessary conclusions from his mistakes and the principled criticism of his party comrades.”

“I think my only mistake was that I spoke too early, before the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution,” Yeltsin said before Ligachev’s rebuff. In October, the party was trying to display unity and celebrate its successes.

“Taking to heart what happened, I ask the conference to change the decision of the plenum of the Central Committee,” Yeltsin told the delegates. “If you find it possible to do this, you will rehabilitate me in the eyes of Communists.”

Remarks of both officials published by the official news agency were an unprecedented airing of sharp differences between top party officials in public.

Frank Criticism

Gorbachev called the conference to evaluate his 3-year-old program of reforms and point a course for the future. The gathering of 5,000 delegates was drawing to a close after four days of extraordinarily frank criticism of the party’s old guard and the bureaucracy.

Soviet television said Gorbachev presided over this evening’s session at which Ligachev and several other prominent officials spoke. The report said that debate was then halted and that the conference went on to hear a final address from Gorbachev and adopt its final resolutions.

The 57-year-old Yeltsin, a leading reformer and former protege of Gorbachev, was fired from his Moscow job in November but retained sufficient status in the party to be chosen a delegate.

Yeltsin took the floor today to answer questions from many delegates about the circumstances of his ouster and about his demand that Ligachev resign. He had told Western television interviewers last month that Ligachev was the party official most responsible for holding back Gorbachev’s reforms.

Tass press agency said Yeltsin also criticized what he described as last-minute preparations for the conference and the selection of delegates in an undemocratic fashion.

“In the opinion of the orator, the preparations for the conference were carried out hurriedly,” Tass quoted him as saying. “The theses of the Central Committee were published late. Even a majority of the members of the Central Committee did not take part in working them out.”