Determined Baltic Republics Stay on Kremlin Collision Course : Secession: Lithuania weighs food cuts. Estonia changes its name. Latvia stresses ‘transition period.’

The Soviet Union’s three Baltic republics Tuesday moved further along a collision course with Moscow by maintaining their independence drive in the face of Kremlin pressure.

In Lithuania, trailblazer of the thrust to independence in the Baltics, a senior Soviet officer said the army might have to intervene if tension escalated.

Lt. Col. Valery Shorupov, deputy commander of the Soviet army garrison in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, urged President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to use his new executive powers and run the republic from the Kremlin.

“Soldiers do not want to interfere in the life of the republic. But an escalation of events could force the army to be pulled into the whirlpool,” Shorupov told a Vilnius news conference.

The rebel Lithuanian government is considering a further cut in meat and milk supplies to Moscow in response to a Soviet economic blockade aimed at forcing it to drop its March 11 declaration of independence.

In Estonia, the Parliament changed the republic’s name and constitution and restored its prewar coat of arms, flag and national anthem in moves coordinating with the other Baltic republics.

In Latvia, deputies were told that President Anatolijs Gorbunovs had written to Gorbachev explaining its May 4 declaration of independence, which it has launched with a “transition period.”

The developments placed the three republics on a collision course with the Kremlin, which insists they can secede only under a law passed by the Soviet Parliament last month.

Gorbachev has repeatedly denounced Lithuania’s proclamation of immediate independence.

He has also denounced the Estonians’ more measured approach and is reported to have said the same about Latvia, holding out the prospect of punitive action.

All three republics are preparing for official ceremonies today to mark the 45th anniversary of the Nazi surrender--despite official objections in both Vilnius and Tallinn, capital of Estonia.

Estonian deputies voted 73 to 14 with two abstentions to change their republic’s name to Republic of Estonia from the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic.

After deciding to restore the prewar state symbols to official use, the independent Estonian black, blue and white flag was run up outside the Parliament building.

The lawmakers also adopted several articles of Estonia’s prewar constitution proclaiming an independent state and recognizing only laws passed by the local legislature.