Czechs’ Premier Quits; Opposition Details Demands : East Bloc: Civic Forum reassures the Soviets on its intent to keep nation in Warsaw Pact. Defense chief vows army will not use force to prop up regime.

Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec resigned Thursday, opening the way for the possibility of the nation’s first non-Communist government since 1946, and representatives of the country’s main opposition group held meetings with the defense minister and the Soviet Embassy.

The opposition group, Civic Forum, reassured the Soviets that its leaders favor remaining in the Warsaw Pact, at least for the present. Defense Minister Gen. Miroslav Vacek, meanwhile, reassured Civic Forum’s leader, Vaclav Havel, that the Czechoslovak army would not use force to prop up the toppling Communist regime.

Armed with those assurances, Civic Forum for the first time Thursday publicly revealed its position in negotiations over a new government, a sweeping set of demands that would relegate the Communists to minority status and elevate to the rank of deputy prime minister two men who until recently were in jail for opposition activities. One of the two would become the second-ranked official in a new government; the second would become a deputy prime minister in charge, among other things, of the state security police.

Until Wednesday, Civic Forum, which insists it is not a political party, refused even to formally offer names of ministers it would support.

The Communists first came to power here in 1946 after winning 38% of the vote in the nation’s last free election and forming a coalition government. In February, 1948, the party staged a coup to block new elections and seized full power.

But now Communist power here is crumbling. Thursday, in a bid to retain some public credibility, the Communists, who will hold an emergency congress Dec. 20-21, expelled from the party two of its most powerful figures as of only three weeks ago--former party General Secretary Milos Jakes and former Prague party chief Miroslav Stepan.

The party has sought to fix blame on Jakes and Stepan for the Nov. 17 police attack on student demonstrators that launched this nation’s peaceful revolution.

Fixing blame has become crucially important to the remaining Communist officials as they witness the arrests of former Communist leaders across the border in East Germany and hear increasing calls here for punishment of those involved in the Nov. 17 attack as well as the Soviet invasion that suffocated the last reform effort here, in 1968.

“Whoever has a bad conscience is afraid of justice,” playwright Havel said at a press conference Thursday night. “I am not out for revenge,” he added, “but I think justice should take its course.”

At the same time, Civic Forum demanded the right to name historians to a panel that will investigate 1968, and student leaders announced they were supplying guards to keep watch over party and government archives to prevent officials from destroying evidence.

The resignation of Adamec and the expulsions of Jakes and Stepan increase the pressure for the resignation of the last member of the Communist old guard still in a position of power, President Gustav Husak. Havel called repeatedly on Husak to quit, as did speaker after speaker at a convention of a reform group within the party.

Last month, Adamec was on the reform edge of Czechoslovak politics. Last week, he was seen as a key transitional figure. By Thursday, events had passed him by.

Members of the reform group within the Communist Party, Democratic Forum, met with Civic Forum on Thursday seeking support, but Civic Forum offered a noncommittal response.

Where once the opposition was negotiating to see how much it could wrangle from the Communists, now the question appears to be how far the Communists will have to go to retain the support of Civic Forum.

The terms, outlined by Civic Forum’s spokesmen at a press conference, would require the Communists to forfeit much of their power.

The new government, which will lead the country until free elections are held, probably in the early summer of next year, must include people who can gain the “respect and trust of our people and who could, at the same time, represent a guarantee that the present process of change . . . will never be interrupted by anybody or anything,” Civic Forum declared in a statement.

Adamec, as his final act, proposed as his successor a longtime party functionary with an undistinguished record, Marian Calfa.

Civic Forum said it could “work with” Calfa, but only if, as a “precondition,” he agreed to name as No. 2 in the new government Jan Czarnogursky, a lawyer and prominent dissident with close ties to the Roman Catholic Church.

Czarnogursky, who hails from Slovakia, the poorer eastern portion of the country, was tried and convicted of sedition earlier this year for his opposition to the regime. He was only recently released from prison.

Havel, at his press conference, said he personally would like to see Czarnogursky as the new prime minister, although he would be willing to go along with him as the No. 2 man.

In addition, Civic Forum said, its support for Calfa would be based on the understanding that Husak’s successor as president would be a “non-party member who will have our support.” Havel, asked about this at his press conference, said he would be willing to accept Czechoslovakia’s presidency if offered, although he insisted he would prefer to return to his career in the theater.

Overall, at least half the members of the new government would have to be experts not connected with any party and acceptable to Civic Forum under the formula being pushed by the opposition group and the two small parties--former allies of the Communists--that have now formed a de facto alliance with the Forum.

The Communists would have to share the remaining half of the government with those two smaller parties, the Socialists and the People’s Party.

And in a letter to Adamec released at the press conference, the opposition made clear it was not seeking mere token posts. Civic Forum proposed its chief spokesman as foreign minister, a leading strategist as minister for labor and social welfare and a prominent reform economist with close ties to the opposition as the finance minister.

Further, as deputy prime minister in charge of the state police and security forces, Civic Forum proposed a prominent former Communist named Miroslav Kusy, a political scientist who was expelled from the party in the purge that followed the Soviet invasion of 1968. Kusy was later jailed for placing flowers on the grave of a Czechoslovak killed by Soviet troops during the invasion.

The opposition dropped a demand that the Defense Ministry be put in the hands of a civilian, a move that would leave the army chain of command intact.

EAST GERMAN REFORMS--Free election is set as party, foes meet. A14