Gorbachev Picks Vice President : Soviet Union: ‘I am a Communist to the depths of my heart,’ says the nominee, Politburo member Yanayev. Radicals fear he may oppose bolder economic reforms.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev nominated a Communist Party apparatchik as his vice president Wednesday, arousing fears among radical lawmakers that his proposed second in command would prove an opponent of bolder economic reforms.

Gennady I. Yanayev, former chairman of the Soviet Council of Trade Unions and now in charge of foreign affairs in the party Politburo, declared proudly to the national Parliament, “I am a Communist to the depths of my heart.”

But he is a Gorbachev-style Communist, he emphasized--one who “was infected with the ideas of 1985,” when Gorbachev began his perestroika reforms, and “has served them, does serve them and will continue to serve them.”

In addition to receiving the nomination of Yanayev, the Congress of People’s Deputies, which is the Soviet Parliament, formally approved a package of constitutional amendments Wednesday that are meant to give Gorbachev, as president, more direct control over the government and more effective power throughout the country.

The vice presidency was created as part of a series of Gorbachev-initiated reforms, many of which were passed piecemeal by the Congress Tuesday. On Wednesday, after voting on the amendments that had not been decided the previous day, the lawmakers then gave formal approval to the legislative package as a whole.

One of the amendments in the package provides for a new Council of the Federation, consisting of the heads of the 15 Soviet republics. The council will oversee agreements between the central government and the republics.

Another provides for a special National Security Council, consisting of key ministries such as defense, foreign affairs and the KGB, that would act as an “inner cabinet” on crucial issues.

Still another puts Gorbachev in direct control of the government apparatus, placing him clearly above the prime minister. The division of authority between the two offices had been unclear until now.

Although Gorbachev managed to garner the two-thirds majority he needed for most of the amendments, he failed Tuesday in his efforts for a Supreme State Inspectorate, a corps of presidential representatives stationed around the country to enforce his decrees.

The nomination of Yanayev to the newly created post of vice president, which carries vague duties mainly decided by the president, came just hours after Gorbachev announced that Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov had been hospitalized Tuesday night with a serious heart attack.

Officials said Wednesday that Ryzhkov was not dying, but the announcement nonetheless indicated that the last member of the leadership group that began perestroika --political and economic restructuring--with Gorbachev in 1985 had left the political scene. A week ago, Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze resigned with a warning that the country was heading toward “dictatorship.”

Gorbachev’s nomination of Yanayev, and possibly of a new prime minister today, was part of the Soviet president’s efforts to gather a new team of comrades around him as he attempts to bring the country out of its economic and political crisis.

Radicals in the Congress of People’s Deputies bemoaned Gorbachev’s choice of Yanayev as further proof that the president has backed away from real reform and is trying to swing the country back in time toward traditional socialism and possibly even dictatorship, as Shevardnadze had said.

“Today we have buried our democratic structure for good in favor of dictatorial presidential rule,” economist Alexei M. Yemelianov told reporters in the Congress lobby.

Other deputies complained from the floor of the Congress that Yanayev lacked political perseverance because he had “abandoned” the trade union council after less than a year as its leader. They also contended that his harsh opposition to any measures that could cause unemployment brought future economic reform into question.

“The stores won’t be full until there’s a labor market,” deputy Salambek Khadzhiev said. Turning to Gorbachev, he added, “Your choice makes me wonder: Will you really be able to do anything to improve things in the country?”

But other deputies praised Yanayev. Veteran diplomat Mikhail Kapitsa called him “a brilliant person” who, by virtue of his degrees in agriculture, law and history and long experience in international politics, could handle both domestic and foreign policy well.

And Yanayev himself, a gray-haired, bass-voiced man with dark bags under his eyes that make him look older than his 53 years, appeared to win over deputies in a brief speech and question-and-answer period. He got an especially big laugh when, asked about the state of his health, he replied: “My wife tells me that I’m healthy. . . . Believe me, I’m a normal man.”

Yanayev, born in a village in central Russia, spent most of his working life in a series of political organizations, from the Communist Youth League to the Union of Soviet Friendship Societies.

In his brief stint as head of the trade unions council, he made dire predictions of mass unemployment and pushed for unions to break their traditional role as obedient servants of government.

He was elected to the Communist Party Politburo last July, and it was not clear whether he planned to resign that post.

The 2,250-member Congress voted on confirming Yanayev’s nomination by secret ballot Wednesday night, with results expected this morning.

Because his was the only name on the ballot, and the Congress has rarely blocked Gorbachev’s nominations in the past, he was expected to be confirmed.

Under the constitutional amendments approved Wednesday, Yanayev would succeed Gorbachev if he died, resigned or became incapacitated, but only until a new president could be elected, according to Georgy Shakhnazarov, a presidential adviser.

Gorbachev skirted a deputy’s question about whether he could imagine Yanayev in his seat, saying only that, “I see him now in the post of vice president.”

Yanayev acknowledged the criticism against him, including a Russian Federation minister’s recent description of him as a “piano in the bushes”--always ready to provide a loyal rendition of Gorbachev’s melody line when the need arose.

But he denied that he would serve as the president’s man for the dirty work of forcing the Soviet Union’s 15 constituent republics, all of which have declared their sovereignty, back into line.

“If anyone wants to accuse Gorbachev of taking me on to bring in some Draconian measures, that’s just nonsense,” Yanayev said. “Violence is acceptable neither to him nor to me. We want no dictatorship, only respect for the law.”

Regarding Gorbachev’s failure to gain approval for a Supreme State Inspectorate, Shakhnazarov, who has advised Gorbachev on the new governmental structure, told reporters Wednesday that there will still be a system for determining how the president’s rulings were being carried out, but it would not be as ambitious as the inspectorate.

Gorbachev has gained more and more power over recent months but has had growing difficulty getting his orders obeyed by rebellious republics and localities. The inspectorate had been intended to combat that problem.

The Soviet president has said his first priority is the signing of a new federation treaty among the republics, but that will take time, and he has scrambled instead in recent days to gain the republics’ agreement to a limited economic treaty for 1991 to ensure minimal supplies of raw materials, energy and consumer goods in the coming year.

He announced on Wednesday that he has already gained the republics’ agreement on maintaining food supplies.