Testy Gorbachev Insists Party Did OK Reforms : Soviet Union: The president is stung by accusations that he abandoned socialism.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, stung by conservative criticism of his leadership, Thursday denounced as slander allegations that he failed to obtain Communist Party approval of sweeping reforms intended to establish a market economy in the Soviet Union.

“To consider that this idea and program dropped from the sky, or that somebody is undertaking an overnight coup d’etat to change our course, that is slander,” Gorbachev told delegates to a party conference. “Don’t be suspicious that something is being done secretly to turn the rails and move the country in the direction of capitalism.”

His critics are trying “to impose things on us that are a contradiction of the truth,” said Gorbachev, angry and grim after more than two days of unremitting attacks.

“These attempts are rotten and improper and made by people who seek a completely different goal from ours--that is to find new forms of life and make the lives of people better.”

Gorbachev was replying to a well-known political economist, Alexei Sergeyev, who had asked delegates to delete the formation of a “regulated market economy” from a statement of party goals on grounds that the party had never discussed or approved the program.

But Gorbachev’s remarks were clearly aimed at Yegor K. Ligachev, the conservative standard-bearer within the party’s Politburo. Ligachev had accused him Wednesday of abandoning the principle of collective leadership and of not discussing the economic reforms and other major issues, including developments in Eastern Europe and German reunification, with the rest of the 12-man Politburo and the policy-making Central Committee.

Although he never cited Gorbachev by name, Ligachev’s charges compounded the outpouring of criticism from conservatives, who accused the president of abandoning the ideals of socialism, of introducing capitalism into the Soviet economy, of destroying the party, of weakening the country internationally and of letting the country slide into chaos.

The effect of Ligachev’s accusation was to confirm all the other criticism and then imply that Gorbachev was doubly to blame for having forsaken his party principles for power and ruling alone.

Gorbachev replied that he was familiar with the contention that the decisions on economic reform are “irregular,” since the program introduced by the government had not been formally discussed and approved by the Central Committee.

But he said the concepts behind the reforms had been discussed at a succession of party meetings and public forums and that the Central Committee had repeatedly endorsed the fundamental ideas contained in them, if not the full program.

His critics had either failed to read those decisions or did not want to accept them and the course the party had chosen, and they were trying to lead the party back, Gorbachev continued, jabbing the desk with his finger for emphasis.

The audience of 2,700 delegates to the founding congress of the Russian Communist Party applauded Gorbachev only briefly, but they voted overwhelmingly to reject Sergeyev’s amendment.

The next test of his authority will come today when the conference elects a first secretary for the new Russian party. Seven men have been nominated, and several of them criticized Gorbachev, the present leadership and recent policy decisions.

Gorbachev still faces a fight, however, if he continues to combine the two posts of president and Soviet party general secretary.

Boris N. Yeltsin, the president of the Russian republic and increasingly a Gorbachev rival, Thursday added his voice to those calling on him to give up his party post.

“I have advised him that it is better for him to sit in one chair rather than two,” Yeltsin told journalists. “Let the party be headed by another person.”

Yeltsin said that, from his discussions with Gorbachev recently, he believes that the president is seriously considering giving up the post of general secretary when the party leadership is reorganized next month at a party congress.

“Let the party be headed by another person,” Yeltsin said. “There are enough talents in the country with 280 million people to find a replacement for him.”

Yeltsin noted that he is not seeking and would not accept the leadership of the new Russian party because of the heavy workload he already carries as the president of the republic, the Soviet Union’s largest.

“I have 20 hours a day of work,” Yeltsin said, “and I think that Gorbachev in his capacity as president has no less.”

On Wednesday, Ligachev had suggested that Gorbachev should give up his post as party general secretary. “One cannot head the party, this leading force, without dedicating all one’s time to it,” Ligachev said.

But the conservatives’ complaint goes beyond the issue of whether Gorbachev has sufficient energy and time to run both the state and the party. As Ligachev and others made clear, they see far too much of the power the party formerly exercised now being shifted to the government and concentrated in Gorbachev’s hands.

Despite his argument that he had a firm mandate for the shift to a market economy, Gorbachev left unanswered Ligachev’s criticism that the specific program put forward by Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov was not discussed in the Politburo or Central Committee, although it is aimed at a fundamental transformation of the country and aroused great concern because of the hardships involved.

“It is true that at Central Committee meetings there have been some statements, some comments and some discussion, including remarks by Mikhail Gorbachev, but the social consequences of the economic program were not understood nor were the ideological aspects given due attention,” Leningrad party leader Boris Gidaspov commented.

“Questions of principle that relate to the profound interests of society should be dealt with at party conferences before the president makes a decision.”

But Gidaspov, whose influence extends far beyond Leningrad, said he hopes that Gorbachev will remain as general secretary but urged him to recruit a team of younger people to spread the workload.

That Gorbachev can make decisions on economic reform and other major issues may mean, in fact, that he will give up at least day-to-day management of the party as its general secretary and exercise power as president and perhaps party chairman.

Gorbachev, replying to his critics, indicated on Wednesday that his period as party chief might end soon. Under the Soviet constitution, he would remain president for the rest of his five-year term and could run for reelection.