Defeat for Gorbachev: Lithuanian Congress Deputies Walk Out

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev suffered his first defeat in the Soviet Union’s new legislature Thursday when most of the deputies from the Baltic republic of Lithuania walked out to protest what they saw as his attempt to establish a new constitutional court whose rulings are likely to run counter to Lithuanian interests.

Gorbachev, nonplussed by the dramatic protest, which was broadcast live on national television and radio, quickly adjourned the session of the Congress of People’s Deputies in the midst of a vote on the committee’s membership. He said a compromise would be sought overnight with the Lithuanians.

Although there had been previous challenges to his authority during the two-week parliamentary session, Gorbachev had always managed to prevail--until Prof. Kazimira-Danute Prunskiene, a respected economist and leading member of the Lithuanian reform movement Sajudis, gathered her bags and briefcases, got up and led a procession of more than 50 Lithuanian deputies up the long aisle out of the Kremlin’s Palace of Congresses.

Even after two weeks of tumultuous debate, itself a breakthrough after decades of cultivated political me-tooism, this was high drama: public defiance of the country’s top leader on a major issue of national importance.

Until now, Gorbachev had assumed, as had most of the nation, that he would prevail on any crucial issue simply through the force of his personality and his ability to define and dominate any issue.

Gorbachev appeared stunned, watching in disbelief as most of the Lithuanian delegation followed Prunskiene. A few deputies from the neighboring Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia joined them.

As other deputies began to shout angrily at the Lithuanians, Gorbachev said, “Comrades, comrades, please be quiet. This is a very serious moment, a critical moment. We will have to discuss what to do now.”

The two basic issues that sparked the protest had arisen several times in the past two weeks:

-- Many deputies objected to the way in which the proposed Constitutional Review Commission, a form of constitutional court, had been formed and its members nominated.

“Once again, we are faced with a familiar situation--one name for one job and no options,” Deputy Alexander Obolensky, who challenged Gorbachev for the presidency simply as a matter of principle, told the congress. “The compilers of this list are anonymous, we received the list a couple of hours before we were to vote, there were the briefest of biographies and nothing, absolutely nothing, on where the proposed members stood on major issues.

“We have no right to proceed; in fact, it would be criminal to consider any of these appointments until everything has been clarified.”

-- Lithuanian deputies, as well as representatives from the other Baltic republics and the Ukraine, objected, even more strongly, to the formation of the commission while the Soviet constitution, now a relic of the politically discredited era of President Leonid I. Brezhnev, is still in force.

“We need a new constitution, one that takes into account the legitimate interests of all republics,” a Lithuanian deputy said on behalf of the three Baltic delegations. “We do not need a commission to enforce the old constitution.”

Other questions were raised, including the past political standards of the candidates as well as their ages, well over 60 for most, although they were supposed to serve 10-year terms.

“It is all right,” Gorbachev said soothingly as more questions were raised. “We have thought about this.”

A Latvian deputy then argued that the whole constitutional process should begin, much as the American constitution did more than 200 years ago, with the separate republic’s constitutions reflecting particular beliefs and interests and leading in time to a new national constitution and later to a court that would enforce its provisions.

As deputies shouted “Autumn, autumn!” and urged postponement of the whole question until the congress meets again in October, Gorbachev grew very serious and calmed the congress for several minutes with a frank speech.

“I have a dark and growing suspicion that people are trying to derail the work of this congress,” he said. “We are being pulled into fruitless discussions and endless debates, but by whom and for what?”

According to Soviet officials, there were 433 votes against the basic proposal to confirm those whom the leadership had nominated and 61 abstentions--but many more, perhaps half, of the 2,250 deputies chose not to participate in the vote.

After the issue was put off until today, Gorbachev called for a surprise, closed-door session, the first of the congress, clearing the hall of press, government officials and other observers and ending the live broadcasts. Deputies later said that the congress had discussed this week’s ethnic riots in the Soviet Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan.

This adjournment came as tellers were counting the votes for the appointment for chief state prosecutor. After much controversy, involving a dozen different court cases, Alexander Sukharev, 66, was confirmed in the post.

Earlier in the day, Nikolai Shmelyev, a leading economist, had told the congress that the country was headed for an economic crash within three years unless urgent measures are taken to cut the government’s budget deficit and reverse other policies.

“Over the next two or three years, if we do not stop inflation, the decay of the consumer market and the monstrous budget deficit, then we face economic collapse,” Shmelyev said.

In a full-scale plan for the nation’s economic and fiscal recovery, Shmelyev proposed a program of $23 billion in imports of consumer goods this year and next followed by $9 billion a year for several years to satisfy consumer demand and absorb the “hot money” in the economy.

He supported proposals to pay Soviet farmers in “dollars,” or some form of hard currency, for producing more grain, meat or vegetables than required by state plan--and thus saving on imports of agricultural produce.

Shmelyev then ticked off a dozen even more controversial proposals, all designed to save money and put the economy on a steady footing:

-- Reduced assistance to Cuba, which now receives the equivalent of $6 billion a year through inflated Soviet payments for its sugar exports.

-- The sale of agricultural land to private farmers, who would not only pay for the title but then invest considerable money developing the land.

-- Issuance of bonds, at attractive interest rates, to finance capital investment in major state enterprises.

-- An end, for at least a decade, to major state development projects, such as the second Trans-Siberian Railway, which is nearing completion after nearly 20 years of investment.

Shmelyev called for the Congress to be given accurate figures on the country’s finances--Soviet economists were working largely from figures compiled by Western intelligence agencies--and an end to the unquestioning printing of money whenever the government needs funds to balance its spending.