Soviet Lawmakers Grant Gorbachev Full Central Power : Kremlin: Sharing of authority with premier to end, and Ryzhkov would be ousted. Beleaguered president vows quick action to get food into stores and curb crime.

His popularity waning, his country on the verge of chaos, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev moved belatedly but boldly Saturday to reinforce his power and that of the Soviet state, demanding and receiving legislative consent for the vesting of all executive authority in his person.

Almost with an audible sigh of relief, although over the misgivings of some who feared a new Kremlin dictatorship, the Supreme Soviet gave overwhelming approval in principle, 316 to 19 with 31 abstentions, to granting Gorbachev ultimate control over the country’s government. A final vote is expected Friday.

Gorbachev’s proposal would end the system under which he shares executive authority with his increasingly unpopular prime minister, Nikolai I. Ryzhkov; the job would be eliminated. It would hand Gorbachev the reins of government ministries, which are now controlled by Ryzhkov and which many Soviets accuse of working against reform.

Reacting to two scourges that many here blame on his perestroika reforms--mounting crime and the lack of food in stores--Gorbachev also promised specific recommendations within 14 days to guarantee that no Soviet citizen goes hungry this winter and proposed a special police force, under his control, to fight organized crime.

For many in the legislature, shaken and disappointed by a lackluster speech Gorbachev gave on the country’s problems Friday, the president’s concise and direct proposals 24 hours later were exactly what they had wanted to hear in the first place.

It was Boris N. Yeltsin, the leader of the Russian Federation, the largest Soviet republic, who had stolen the spotlight at the earlier session with his request for an “anti-crisis committee” to lead the country away from the brink.

Obviously moving to blunt the impact of Yeltsin’s idea and demonstrate that he is still in control, Gorbachev is seeking to eliminate the post of Ryzhkov, who is widely viewed as a foe of economic change and has become a liability.

Gorbachev would then assume ultimate responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the Soviet government and the Moscow-based ministries, much as the U.S. President runs the Cabinet.

In March, the Congress of People’s Deputies, the supreme organ of government, elected Gorbachev to the new, more powerful executive presidency he wanted, which empowers him to declare presidential rule in the event of social upheaval. More recently, the Supreme Soviet empowered him to act temporarily like a one-man legislature in issuing decrees to promote economic reform.

But Gorbachev’s new proposal would expand his executive powers to virtually all areas of Soviet life as a permanent part of government.

“We need an urgent and radical reorganization of executive power in the center, subordinating it to the president--directly to the president,” Gorbachev declared from the rostrum, visibly in fighting form and clad in a pin-stripe suit and wine-colored tie. “Obsolete structures and bodies must be abolished and new ones created. . . . New and enterprising people with a modern mentality must be included in the Cabinet.”

Under Gorbachev’s aegis, and with him having the final say, a newly created National Security Council would pass judgment on defense and security issues, advisers explained later.

The current Federation Council, which gives the leaders of the 15 republics an advisory role to Gorbachev, would formally become the highest-ranking body of government, with the power to bar any of the increasingly restive homelands from acting counter to the national interest. It could overrule their laws.

However, despite the lopsided vote by the legislature, it was immediately clear that the plan laid out by Gorbachev would be disregarded by many parts of the country, including Yeltsin’s Russian Federation.

The husky Siberian did not attend Saturday’s Supreme Soviet session, but one protege, Mikhail Bocharov, said there is no chance that Russia would accept Gorbachev’s program.

“Gorbachev’s proposals are unrealistic and I don’t see how they can be implemented,” said Bocharov, chairman of Russia’s Supreme Economic Council.

However, voting in favor of the plan were both Communist conservatives, worried about the disintegration of their state, and radicals, frustrated over the Soviet government’s continued impotence at implementing the new reformist legislation they pass.

“I think this represents a step forward,” Leningrad’s progressive mayor, Anatoly A. Sobchak, said. “But the crucial point is: How will this be implemented?”

Also evidently seeking to circumscribe Yeltsin’s appeal, the government-run media went all out at “spin control” with Central Television showing Gorbachev’s 10-minute speech three times and the official Tass news agency claiming he had again proven himself master of the Soviet political arena.

“Gorbachev’s undoubted tactical achievement is that he left no room for constructive criticism to his main opponent, Boris Yeltsin,” Tass asserted in a commentary. It said Gorbachev can now go to the East-West summit that opens Monday in Paris and “appear as the only leader capable of keeping the union intact.”

Although much remained unclear about Gorbachev’s proposals, they would eliminate or greatly downgrade a longtime Soviet institution, the Council of Ministers, the Cabinet now headed by Ryzhkov. The council was formed in 1946 but was in fact the continuation of the Council of People’s Commissars, or Cabinet, created by V.I. Lenin after the Russian Revolution.

A tired-looking Ryzhkov, 61, admitted to reporters that Gorbachev’s plan means the end of his days as head of the Soviet government, a post he has held since September, 1985. But he declined to speculate about his future.

“I have understood that the position of chairman of the Council of Ministers won’t exist,” said Ryzhkov, a former factory manager from the Urals. “I will work as long as the people need me.”

In the Supreme Soviet, the normally unflappable prime minister accused Yeltsin and his Russian allies of lusting “to become the center of power, replacing all current state structures.” Yeltsin had demanded Ryzhkov’s ouster, accusing him of blocking a plan to bring the Soviet Union to a market-style economy within 500 days.

Gorbachev said an advisory body created on his recommendation in March, the Presidential Council, should now be abolished, and the powers of the Federation Council, which also began operating eight months ago, should be reinforced.

“Everything touching upon the interests of the entire country, no matter where it is being adopted, must first be discussed in and cleared with the Federation Council,” Gorbachev said.

Pressed by reporters to explain how the council would work, Georgy Shakhnazarov, Gorbachev’s chief political adviser, said “the president has the last word, but most decisions, 90% if not all, will be taken on the basis of consensus.”

Baltic representatives immediately said that their republics, bent on restoring independence, would not feel bound by the council’s acts.

Many aspects of Gorbachev’s plan remained so unclear or mysterious that even the president’s allies, sent out into the foyer of the Supreme Soviet to explain things to reporters, acknowledged that they did not fully understand what was obviously a hastily formulated proposal.

Asked, for example, what the National Security Council’s exact role in defense and security policy would be, Shakhnazarov smiled and replied: “I can’t say; it’s the president’s idea.”

Even who will be on it was unclear. Vladimir A. Kryuchkov, chairman of the KGB, said he and the defense and interior ministers will belong, but he seemed unsure about Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze. Other officials said Shevardnadze would be a member.

Asked about some lawmakers’ comments that what Gorbachev is seeking could turn into one-man rule, KGB Chairman Vladimir A. Kryuchkov replied, “We’re not talking about dictatorship, but about putting our country in order. Both democracy and glasnost need protection.”

To the lawmakers, Gorbachev again spoke of the need to conclude a new union treaty to redefine relations between Moscow and the republics, but he said that, in the meantime, national laws must be obeyed. He said he would dispatch personal envoys to “all regions” to make sure this is done.

“Not one of these decisions must remain suspended in air. I, in my capacity as president, shall take care that all of them are adhered to in unswerving fashion,” Gorbachev said.

On an “urgent basis,” Gorbachev vowed, in 10 to 14 days a list of measures will be compiled to guarantee that no Soviet citizen goes hungry this winter. He also proposed a new police unit, the “Special Service,” to root out organized crime, black marketeering, speculation and other offenses under his command.

With its vote, the Supreme Soviet handed Gorbachev’s program to a committee that is supposed to prepare a final version the lawmakers could vote on. Legal experts said some of the changes proposed by Gorbachev would have to be ratified by the Congress of People’s Deputies. The Supreme Soviet voted to convoke it Dec. 17.

But given the meager results, the patience of some lawmakers is clearly at an end.

“The credit of confidence in the president has been exhausted,” Viktor Alksnis of Latvia, a member of the conservative faction, said Saturday.