Gorbachev Unquestioned Star; Vote Count Is Tedious : In Soviets’ New Congress, ‘Everyone Wants to Speak’

It was clear in the first 10 minutes that this was going to be a meeting unlike any ever held behind the Kremlin’s walls.

As the first speaker read a traditional statement of congratulations Thursday to the newly elected members of the Congress of People’s Deputies, an unidentified deputy strode to the front of the hall and seized the microphone.

Standing beneath a 20-foot-tall statue of the founder of the Soviet state, V. I. Lenin, he demanded a minute of silence in memory of 21 people killed by Red Army troops in a protest demonstration last month in the republic of Georgia.

Only after the 60 seconds had passed was the chairman of the Soviet Union’s election commission, Vladimir Orlov, allowed to continue.

“I was flabbergasted,” a Radio Moscow political analyst said of the incident in a commentary delivered before the morning session was over. “This is something unheard of before. This is truly democracy.”

The first day of the first competitively elected Soviet legislature was full of such moments of spontaneity and verve, a far cry from the staid party meetings of the past.

Unprecedented live television and radio coverage kept everyone on the edge of his seat, from taxi drivers to factory workers. Hotel workers gathered in lobbies around black-and-white TV sets, and in parking lots the sound of the deputies’ voices could be heard issuing from car radios.

In the Kremlin’s plush Palace of Congresses, the mood among the 2,250 deputies was one of intoxication.

“Everyone wants to speak, and no one wants to wait until tomorrow,” the Moscow Radio commentator said.

Deputies lined up for a chance to say their pieces about topics ranging from special privileges for party officials to the need to let the people elect their president directly.

One deputy, Alexander Obolensky of Leningrad, even gave a brief history of his own life as he offered his candidacy for president, saying it was important that someone run against Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“I don’t kid myself into believing I have a chance against Gorbachev, but I promised my constituents I would run,” he said.

The runaway star of the show, of course, was the animated, lively Gorbachev himself.

Scolded Deputies

He scolded deputies for wandering down the aisle while a colleague was speaking at the podium.

“I don’t think that’s right,” he said.

He held up his hand to silence a deputy who yelled from his seat that Deputy Andrei D. Sakharov, a former dissident, was making too long a statement.

“It’s my fault,” Gorbachev said. “I didn’t set a time limit, but now I will. How about five minutes?”

When a deputy shouted something muffled from the floor, he said jokingly: “What, you want to overthrow me? I’m not giving you enough democracy?”

The newly elected deputies demonstrated clearly that they are a varied bunch, including among their number a Muslim mufti and a Russian Orthodox patriarch, ethnic nationalists who seek partial independence as well as senior Communist Party members.

The deputies spent much of the first two hours stumbling through procedural questions such as whether they should follow the party-prepared agenda--questions never asked here before.

“It’s like dancing lessons for legless people,” said Deputy Vitaly A. Korotich, editor of the liberal weekly Ogonyok. “It’s partly because we are such a mix of champagne and tequila. On one side of me sits a taxi driver, and on the other is a first secretary of a regional party organization.”

Votes were taken on several issues, and counting the ballots was, without doubt, the most tedious part of the session.

In the past, state-run television showed all the members of the Supreme Soviet raising white cards to vote as one. There was no need to count. But on Thursday there were abstentions, even nay votes. So the first order of business was to decide how to vote.

One deputy suggested that the name of each deputy be read from the podium and that the person who is named respond with a “ da “ or a “ nyet “ so that their constituents could know how they voted.

But this drew audible grumbling, and, to the relief of many, it was rejected as too time-consuming.

Instead, the deputies adopted the traditional method of raising white cards. Ballot-tallying deputies were chosen to move through the aisles to count them.

This meant that it took, in a typical case, more than five minutes to count 11 abstentions. Several speakers called on the Kremlin to install an electronic balloting system for the next congress.

Some deputies said privately they hoped that cash registers might also make an appearance before the next congress. Deputies could buy snacks on the top floor of the building, including caviar, cake and fruit, and, as in most stores in this country, the charges were tallied by women using abacuses.