Tough Challenge Seen for Gorbachev as Deputies Convene : New Soviet Congress: No Rubber Stamp

When the new Congress of People’s Deputies convenes today for its historic first session, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev may get more than he bargained for, with deputies fired up by a taste of democracy demanding a voice in reforms ranging from the economy to the KGB.

The demands of what the press here is calling the poslantzi naroda --”messengers of the people”--are a challenge to the plans of the top party echelon, which has had a series of closed-door meetings to develop its own, still-secret agenda for the congress.

Gorbachev himself is likely to face a tough challenge in the next few days as he attempts to maintain a delicate balance between giving the independent-minded deputies the greater openness he has promised and at the same time appearing to be firmly in control.

Representatives to the congress, the first elected nationwide legislature since shortly after the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, have already questioned the credentials of such top party officials as Yegor K. Ligachev, the party’s leading conservative, and Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, a Gorbachev ally.

Boris N. Yeltsin, the outspoken former Moscow party boss who is one of the most popular Soviet politicians, has even called for a chance to evaluate Gorbachev’s performance during his first four years in office.

The newspapers have printed letter after letter from citizens calling on the congress’ 2,250 members to discuss a wide range of topics--the plight of Soviet soldiers missing in action in Afghanistan, the space and military budgets, an acute housing shortage and the bare shelves in the shops.

The deputies have taken the concerns of their constituents to heart.

‘People Counting on Me’

“At first, I didn’t take it so seriously, but then I realized that the people were counting on me,” Vitaly A. Korotich, editor of the weekly Ogonyok, who was elected from the city of Kharkov in the Ukraine, said in an interview. “I can’t let them down.”

Deputy Gennady Burbulis of Sverdlovsk told the weekly Moscow News: “The elections exerted a powerful influence on the spiritual atmosphere in this country. It became clear that this contribution to democratization had to be followed by an extraordinary session of the congress.”

The new deputies want far more power than was initially envisioned. The constitution gives the congress the narrowly defined job of meeting once a year for a few days to discuss in a broad way major political and constitutional matters.

Also, the congress is to choose a president--Gorbachev is expected to win without significant opposition--and elect 542 of its members to the Supreme Soviet, a more powerful body that is to sit in regular session for up to eight months a year.

But the reformers, elected from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea, want the full congress to have the right to discuss the nuts and bolts of issues, and to take as long as is needed.

They met in Moscow this week to try to coordinate their efforts. Among the concerns they raised were those of saving the environment, meeting ethnic nationalist demands in Georgia and the Baltic republics, and overseeing the KGB security police, which has promised to be more forthcoming about its operations in keeping with glasnost , Gorbachev’s program to bring greater openness to Soviet society.

Whether they will succeed is an open question. The 100 deputies elected this week by the Communist Party, in separate closed-door meetings, came up not only with an agenda for the congress but also with at least a partial list of people the party believes should be elected to the Supreme Soviet.

Still, even though 80% of the deputies are Communist Party members, it is not at all clear how many of them will toe the party line.

Complaints on Methods

Many deputies, even some of those reportedly designated for seats in the Supreme Soviet, are complaining that the back-room methods used by the party’s top echelon resemble the old ways and are not in keeping with Gorbachev’s reforms.

The newspaper Soviet Industry said that five deputies from the district of Komi in northwestern Siberia had been told that they were to be elected to the Supreme Soviet.

“It’s the first we heard about it,” one of them, Vladimir Lushnikov, was quoted as saying. “In fact, we don’t even know what is on the agenda.”

Historian Yuri S. Afanasiev, a deputy from Moscow, said that “if someone stands up with a list, and we approve it, we have failed.”

Although the outcome of this tug-of-war between the party and the reformers is unknown, it is clear that the inaugural session of the congress will require skillful maneuvering by Gorbachev.

In the face of demonstrations in China demanding greater democracy, the Kremlin is likely to move carefully in restricting the congress’ power, and may use it as a safety valve to let off some of the steam that glasnost has generated.

Yeltsin has said that the representatives will defy any attempt to impose an agenda on them.

Another deputy, former dissident Andrei D. Sakharov, has gone even further and argued that the delegates should block the formation of a Supreme Soviet and insist that the entire congress consider legislation.

Some representatives are questioning long-held values. Sergei Stankevich, a deputy representing the Academy of Sciences and a leader among the reformists who met this week in Moscow, criticized the symbolic importance long given to workers in the Soviet system.

“It is high time we stopped insisting that workers’ interests are best protected by a machine tool operator,” he told his fellow deputies Tuesday. “A competent and honest economist is perhaps the best person to represent working-class interests in Parliament.”

Another representative from the Academy of Sciences, biologist Alexei V. Yablokov, has made the environment his area of concern, complaining that the country is in a dangerous period of “ecological deterioration.”

In a speech last week in Moscow, Yablokov labeled Premier Ryzhkov an “ecological illiterate” and called on the Congress of People’s Deputies to consider whether he should be replaced.

Crusading prosecutor Nikolai K. Ivanov, a deputy representing Leningrad, has said Ligachev’s name came up, along with that of former Politburo member Mikhail S. Solomentsev, during an inquiry he conducted into corruption. Ivanov himself is under investigation for his prosecuting practices. Ligachev has denied the allegations.

The progressive deputies say these divisions, although shocking even in this time of reform, are nevertheless necessary and a sign that democracy is taking root.

“The old unity of opinion was extraordinarily dangerous,” Deputy Daniel Granin, a writer, said on Soviet television. “We have lost a lot because of it.”