Lithuanians Rally in a Signal to Kremlin : Secession: Demonstrators flout Soviet pressure against independence. A delegation will go to Moscow for talks.

About 25,000 Lithuanians rallied next to the Parliament building here Saturday in a nationalist demonstration intended to show the Kremlin that this republic will not be pressured into backing down on its declaration of independence.

“The goal of our work has been so our children can live in a free and clean Lithuania. We have interrupted our work to come to you, to rejoice with you that our work is proceeding well,” President Vytautas Landsbergis told the crowd, which began to chant, “Thank you, thank you,” in Lithuanian.

“Let all of Lithuania support us, even if they have to rise to the defense of Lithuania,” Landsbergis added, speaking from the steps of the library in this capital city of 500,000.

The demonstrators, some standing on rooftops or balconies overlooking the Square of the Soviets where the rally was held, sang Lithuanian nationalist songs and hoisted signs like one held by a 4-year-old girl: “I’m Going Toward a Free Lithuania.”

Also Saturday, the Lithuanian Parliament decided to send a delegation of seven deputies to Moscow on Monday. The delegation, headed by Lithuanian lawmaker Vydutis Antonaitis, who also is a member of the Congress of People’s Deputies, hopes to hold talks with Soviet leaders.

Neither Landsbergis nor any of the other speakers at the rally mentioned a telegram received late Friday from President Mikhail S. Gorbachev giving the republic three days to respond to a resolution of the Congress that invalidated Lithuania’s declaration of independence.

But there appeared to be no question of retreating among those gathered here on a balmy afternoon in the Square of the Soviets.

“We’re not afraid,” said Vladas Sceponas, a 45-year-old wrestling trainer. “We are ready to work. Our workers are diligent. We have an army of intellectuals that can solve any problem, and the economy is a mess now anyway; it can’t get any worse in the future.”

Small nationalist rallies also were reported in the other Baltic republics--Latvia and Estonia--where elections are scheduled today for each republic’s parliament.

Last Sunday, Lithuania, which was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 along with Latvia and Estonia, became the first republic in the country to adopt a resolution declaring its sovereignty and holding that the Soviet constitution is no longer applicable on Lithuanian soil.

In sessions last week, Lithuanian lawmakers took initial steps to clarify how they hope to achieve independence, ruling for instance that all ports and factories must report to Lithuanian ministries instead of to Moscow and that all Red Army recruiting offices in the republic must be closed.

Landsbergis, commenting to the Lithuanian Parliament on Gorbachev’s telegram, said it “sounds very much like pressure is being applied to us.”

On the other hand, he added, the words could be interpreted as a signal that Gorbachev, who said he wants to have a respectful dialogue with Lithuania, is ready for the dialogue to begin.

Landsbergis also rejected an earlier Gorbachev proposal that the republic hold a referendum on the independence issue. He said that to do so would be “a political mistake, as if we were admitting that the will of the people had not yet been expressed.” Besides, he added, “we have other things to do.”

Landsbergis concluded: “It can only be remarked that it (the telegram) was sent to the wrong address because we are no longer the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.”

Also in Saturday’s parliamentary session, the former Communist Party boss of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas, was elected deputy prime minister under Prime Minister Kazimira Prunskiene. Brazauskas had initially turned down an offer to be Landsbergis’ deputy.

Times staff writer Hamilton reported from Moscow and Schrader reported from Vilnius.