Yeltsin Sees Discontent but No Soviet Coup

Soviet Communist Party populist Boris N. Yeltsin said Sunday that the possibility of a coup in his country is “pretty unrealistic” and that predictions of civil war growing out of violence among the restive Soviet minorities is a “scarecrow” designed to frighten people.

Yeltsin, who staged a strong political comeback after being sacked as Moscow city party boss, warned, however, that ordinary Soviet citizens are losing hope in perestroika’s program of economic reforms and its author, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

“I spent 2 1/2 years in the Politburo, and I know how that operates, and I do not think the idea of a coup is likely at all,” the 58-year-old outspoken politician, who leads an opposition parliamentary group, told his first formal news conference during his first visit to the United States.

Unrest Not Foreseen

Yeltsin said Gorbachev did not foresee massive unrest among nationalities when perestroika was introduced. He warned that friction will continue to grow in the Soviet republics unless a broad spectrum of decentralized grass-roots reforms is put into place.

“The problem is, perestroika was never thought through in a complex way before it was introduced,” he said. “It should have been thought through as a step-by-step process with measures being planned for each stage; and as a result, there was no real foresight about the emergence of the nationalities problem.”

Yeltsin said he is worried that Gorbachev’s authority and popularity will decline.

‘Very Concerned’

“I am very concerned about it,” he said. “It is up to everybody in the country to do what has to be done to be sure we get better results from the process of perestroika, and people have more hope.”

However, he played down somewhat this weekend’s warnings by Gorbachev that ethnic unrest is undermining change in the Soviet Union.

He labeled talk of civil war “a useful scarecrow designed to scare people” and said that American experts have calculated that in such a war, perhaps 5% to 7% of the Soviet population would be killed.

“What we need is definitely a revolution from below since we are not getting a revolution from above,” Yeltsin added. “We do not want a revolution from below like in (18th-Century) France and in other countries with terror leading to military dictatorship. We want a peaceful change and a peaceful revolution.”

Yeltsin arrived Saturday in the United States on a private visit that includes a cross-country lecture tour and meetings with congressional, business and foundation leaders. Immediately after stepping off the plane from Moscow, the husky, gray-haired member of the Supreme Soviet became a media celebrity, mobbed by reporters and wooed by TV producers.

On CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, he reiterated his theme that Gorbachev’s popularity is ebbing and that Soviet society is in crisis. He said, however, that there is no immediate danger of Gorbachev losing his Kremlin leadership.

“We are in an economic and financial and social crisis . . . the party as well--the whole of society is in crisis,” he said. “ . . . We have to stop being so dogmatic as we were before.”

Hopes to Meet Bush

Yeltsin said he hopes to meet with President Bush during a visit to Washington later in the week.

“I have something to tell him,” Yeltsin said, refusing to elaborate.

He added, however, that if he meets with the President, among the topics he will discuss is how the Soviet Union should be encouraged to promote direct investment by American business.

“I think a joint flight to Mars would be an area of . . . cooperation,” he added.

Asked whether he favors a summit meeting next year between Bush and Gorbachev, Yeltsin said he hopes it will take place.

Yeltsin spent his first full day in the United States as a tourist in New York, staring at buildings on Fifth Avenue, visiting a Korean fruit seller and circling the Statue of Liberty twice in a helicopter.

“I felt twice as much free as when we started,” he said.

‘Impressed by Efficiency’

“One could go into a restaurant and get something to eat,” he added. “I was particularly impressed by the Korean fruit store we were in. I was impressed by the efficiency.”

Yeltsin’s news conference was held in a symbol of capitalism: an expensive, 27th-floor co-op apartment overlooking Manhattan’s Central Park. His host was the New York director of the Esalen Institute’s U.S.-U.S.S.R. exchange program.

Yeltsin’s trip is being sponsored by the San Francisco-based Esalen Institute and the Foundation for Social Innovation, a Moscow-based group with ties to Soviet radicals, who have advocated their own plans for perestroika.

In the modern, white-walled living room with its huge glass coffee table, flagstone floor, plants and Oriental rug, Yeltsin, speaking through a translator, covered topics ranging from economic reform to wrongful Soviet stereotypes of New York City. He was as relaxed as a familiar guest at a cocktail party, obviously enjoying being the center of attention.

“I can tell you this: The impression that was pounded into me in the Soviet Union my whole life has been turned around 180 degrees by my experience in New York,” Yeltsin said with a smile. He continued:

“It seems as if capitalism is not rotting away. . . . Rather, it seems to be prospering. Americans are in no way aggressive or badly behaved. They are optimistic, well-intentioned. New York is not a series of gravesites with slums in between.”

But his humor gave way to bluntness at times when he talked about Soviet problems.

Yeltsin said the Communist Party should answer to the elected Congress of People’s Deputies and should “no longer have a leading role or a guiding role in society,” concentrating instead on ideological matters.

“The words party and power shouldn’t be used together. It is an improper combination of words,” he added. “ . . . The party apparatus is extremely bureaucratic. People hold onto their seats with such tenacity, you can’t get rid of them unless you catapult them together with the seats out of the picture altogether.”

‘Economic, Social Crisis’

He was especially grim while discussing the Soviet economy. “The economic position of the country today is worse today than it has been for several decades,” he said. “We are having an economic crisis, a financial crisis, a social crisis, a political crisis.”

Yeltsin said 47 million people in the Soviet Union live below the poverty line.

“There are measures that could be taken to improve the situation, but we need a person who is more decisive than Gorbachev,” he continued.