Election on Unity Sought by Gorbachev : Soviet Union: The president is asked to resign. A no-confidence vote on the leader is rejected by the congress.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today called for a national referendum to decide whether to hold the 15 Soviet republics together on the basis of his proposed Union Treaty.

“We must not let the union disintegrate. This would have a devastating effect on millions of people,” he said in a state of the union message to the congress of People’s Deputies.

Just after the 2,250-member congress convened today, a deputy who said she was ashamed that her country is accepting foreign food aid took to the podium and issued an emotional call for Gorbachev’s resignation.

The call for a no-confidence vote was rejected, but the political divisions that threaten the survival of the Soviet state were abundantly evident.

Nevertheless, Gorbachev said that by working together the Soviet people can overcome the crisis within 18 months.

“We have learned a lesson. . . . We should not be panic-stricken,” he said.

Before the congress opened in the Kremlin today, Gorbachev’s aides indicated that the Soviet leader wanted the body to endorse his Union Treaty.

Delegates from the republics of Lithuania and Armenia were boycotting the meeting, and lawmakers from Estonia and Latvia said they will not take part in discussions of the treaty.

“We must take strong measures to halt separatist nationalist actions,” Gorbachev said in proposing the referendum. He said the results of the referendum in every republic “will be a final verdict.” But it was not clear when the referendum would be held or how it would be administered.

The congress, the country’s highest lawmaking body, has the right to approve the proposed constitutional changes, but only the republics have the power to approve the proposed Union Treaty.

Gorbachev apparently sought to remove the decision-making power from separatist republics in favor of a direct vote.

Gorbachev urged the congress to approve proposed constitutional amendments to strengthen the presidency, adding the post of vice president and replacing the 89-member Council of Ministers with a cabinet of about 15.

Gorbachev aides say it is unlikely that Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, who heads the Council of Ministers and who is widely blamed for the failure of the nation’s economic reform, will remain premier in the government reshuffle.

In the call for a no-confidence vote, Sazhi Umalatova, a Communist Party member from the Chechen-Ongush Autonomous Republic in the Russian republic, accused the president of bringing “devastation, hunger, cold, blood, tears” to the people.

Fellow lawmakers sat in stunned silence and a national audience watched on live television as Umalatova accused Gorbachev of destroying the country.