Ryzhkov Seeks New Political Life : Soviet Union: The former prime minister is challenging Boris Yeltsin for the Russian presidency.

Just five months after losing his job as Soviet prime minister, Nikolai I. Ryzhkov is fighting for a second political life as the first popularly elected president of Russia.

On Saturday, with a little color back in his cheeks after a Christmas-Day heart attack and a measure of new-found fervor, Ryzhkov outlined the political program he would implement if given the chance to lead the vast Russian Federation, the country’s largest republic.

“My policy will not be the one we had last year when every decision by the central government was immediately met with ‘Down with Ryzhkov!’ ” the 61-year-old presidential hopeful told reporters at his campaign headquarters. “I will not act the same way. I will persuade people and even demand.”

Last year, Ryzhkov bore most of the blame for the rapid deterioration of the country’s economy and was pressed to quit by Boris N. Yeltsin, whose supporters massed by the hundreds of thousands to call for the prime minister’s resignation.

Although Ryzhkov was officially relieved of his job because of poor health, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had already twice rejected his economic reform programs and proposed to abolish the position Ryzhkov had held since 1985.

According to most polls, Ryzhkov is not likely to make the dramatic comeback that would be necessary for him to win the election on June 12 against the formidable front-runner, Yeltsin. But Ryzhkov is likely to be the second largest vote getter and could force the election into a runoff by preventing Yeltsin from winning 50% of the vote necessary for first-round victory. In all, six candidates are vying for the post.

The difference in tone between Yeltsin’s and Ryzhkov’s campaigns is striking. Both formally presented their programs Saturday. But a straight-faced Ryzhkov announced his platform to a couple of dozen journalists, while Yeltsin laid out his program before more than 2,000 supporters who packed into a Moscow movie theater and greeted him with spring flowers and standing ovations.

Yeltsin, who now holds Russia’s highest position as the chairman of the republic’s Parliament, is running a campaign with all the confidence of an incumbent, although the new post would be even more powerful. He was elected to his current post by Parliament a little more than one year ago.

“Practically speaking, the program that we’re putting forward is already being implemented,” Yeltsin told the crowd. “We have been putting it into effect over this year since we declared the sovereignty of Russia.”

Although Yeltsin has been broadly criticized for his failure to arrest his republic’s economic decline, the beginning of his campaign followed two major successes about a month ago. He ended a crippling two-month strike by hundreds of thousands of coal miners and struck an accord with Gorbachev giving the republic more autonomy.

The new presidency, Yeltsin said, would give him the extra executive power he needs to forge ahead with his reforms.

“The most important thing now is to ensure at least some improvement in people’s lives in the short term,” Yeltsin, 60, said. “If you trust in me, there will be an improvement by the end of next year.”

Yeltsin promised to return church property confiscated over the years, to let enterprises keep 75% of their foreign currency profits and to end the Communist Party’s control over industry by banning party organizations from workplaces.

Such pledges feed one of Ryzhkov’s main criticisms of Yeltsin--that he makes promises he can never fulfill.

“Yeltsin is a populist,” Vladimir L. Savakov, Ryzhkov’s campaign manager, said. “He promises one thing and does something else or does nothing at all.”

Ryzhkov and Yeltsin both made their careers at the same time in the industrial city of Sverdlovsk and served together on Gorbachev’s Politburo, but Ryzhkov has made it clear that he has no respect for his rival’s abilities.

“He is likely to do much harm,” Ryzhkov said in an interview with the Communist Party newspaper Pravda earlier this year. “He has no qualities needed by a top leader.”

Ryzhkov strongly rejects Yeltsin’s upbeat prediction that the living standards of people in Russia could be quickly improved through radical economic reforms such as the privatization of the country’s state-owned enterprises.

Ryzhkov promised to double salaries, provide cheap housing and cut by 50% retail prices, which were dramatically increased two months ago.