Soviets Act on Furor Over Pornography : Kremlin: The national legislature sets up a panel to distinguish harmless erotica from materials that should be regulated.

After many a smirk and a giggle, Soviet lawmakers on Friday approved a liberal measure that, instead of cracking down on sexual glasnost , would set up a new government panel to draw the fine line between harmless erotica and nasty pornography.

But although the resolution passed easily in the Supreme Soviet, the national legislature, it appeared unlikely to stem the swelling public clamor against the stag films, girlie calendars and sex manuals flooding the Soviet Union at unprecedented levels.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev himself has stepped into the fray between puritans and perestroika- era smut-mongers. In December, he appointed a Committee for Public Morals to fight back against pornography, saying he had recently been shocked to see “a certain professor citing Chinese art to illustrate interesting sexual positions” on television.

Culture Minister Nikolai N. Gubenko, who chaired the morals committee, told the Supreme Soviet when discussion of the measure began on Monday that hasty calls for Draconian new laws would solve nothing.

The laws against producing and distributing pornography already exist, Gubenko said. The problem is that they are not being enforced because Soviet society’s values have been so shaken that police are not certain how to act.

“We must not, together with that which is shocking, insulting and indecent, kill the richness of creative thinking and the perception of art so vital for the lifeblood of a nation,” Gubenko said.

“Not so long ago,” he added, “our literature and art suffered from castration. Your decision must not be based on primitive anti-sexuality, dressed up in phrases about honor, one’s debt to society and a desire to uphold literary standards.”

Famed as an actor and director at the progressive Taganka Theater, Gubenko represented one end of the moral spectrum in a debate marked by close-ups on the chamber’s closed-circuit television of deputies nodding knowingly, tittering and covering their mouths with their hands to hide shy smiles.

Writer Valentin Rasputin, an outspoken Russian nationalist, spoke for the other end of the spectrum.

He warned of the “spiritual Chernobyl” that threatens the country as it struggles in the agony of a moral crisis, its old ideals gone and new ones yet to develop.

One deputy went even further, proposing prison sentences and even the death penalty for “lovers of pornography.”

Such debate in the Supreme Soviet mirrored the general split among the public. A poll conducted last month by two independent Soviet news agencies found that 34% of respondents thought that distributors of erotic films or literature should not be punished; 38% said they deserved to be fined or imprisoned.

Soviet history also shows this dichotomy. Alexandra Kollontai, an associate of Soviet founder V. I. Lenin, propounded the “glass-of-water” theory: that sex is as basic and simple a need as drinking a glass of water and should be dealt with accordingly.

Lenin vociferously disagreed. And as dictator Josef Stalin’s hold on the country tightened, abortions and homosexuality were outlawed and sex increasingly became a matter of public policy.

In today’s Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s removal of taboos has coincided with the release of capitalist energies to create a new mega-industry that, by Gubenko’s estimate, rakes in profits of up to 15 billion rubles a year--$8.6 billion, according to the highly inflated official commercial exchange rate.

Veteran travelers to the Soviet Union can remember when customs guards confiscated the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated at the border. Now, sex manuals and nudie playing cards are sold at corner kiosks, and a national network of 25,000 video salons specialize in foreign films heavy on bedroom scenes and violence.

The Supreme Soviet resolution proposes a national register of films to clarify which are explicit and only for limited viewing and a crackdown on pornographic materials at the country’s borders.