Grandmothers Ready to Battle Kremlin ‘Scum’

Striding toward the Russian Federation government headquarters Tuesday in their orthopedic shoes and heavy sweaters, the two grandmothers declared that they were determined to save Russia from the clutches of “the scum” who have seized power.

“If you gave the two of us, 72-year-olds, machine guns, we’d shoot them all,” said one of the women, who identified herself only as Anna.

“It’s terrible, what’s happening,” said Alexandra, her companion, tears filling her wrinkle-framed eyes. “Those riffraff. What they’ve done to us for 73 years. . . .”

And they moved on down Kutuzovsky Prospekt toward the “White House,” the 19-story marble tower that is the seat of Boris N. Yeltsin’s Russian government and has now become the headquarters for the opposition to the committee that has seized power from President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

For the second day, Yeltsin supporters shouting their defiance to “the junta” surrounded the White House, but now they went on the move as well. As frightening reports mounted throughout the day that tanks and troops were planning to storm the building, groups of Russian lawmakers marched out toward the center of town to try to talk the troops out of attacking.

“Only deputies are going,” Lt. Col. Sergei Yushenkov, a Russian lawmaker in a green army uniform, told dozens of supporters when they tried to follow.

“But they’ll shoot you all,” one man warned from the crowd.

Not far behind the deputies came two rows of at least 200 women, their arms linked, carrying a giant banner reading, “Soldiers! Don’t Shoot at Mothers!”

Many of the women were smoking, their eyes hard as they looked ahead toward where they expected to meet the troops.

“We’re afraid, yes, but we’re going to stand until the end,” Anna Kuznetsova, one of the marchers, said. “This is a madhouse. We have to save the country and continue to live freely, in democracy.”

By the early hours today, after the new 11 p.m. curfew in Moscow had gone into effect, the scene turned violent outside the parliament headquarters, with Soviet armor crashing through barricades around the building and deaths reported among the defenders.

Before the assault, however, the makeshift barricades put up by enthusiastic young defenders were mounting higher, with metal bars sprouting from their midst and new wooden planks and concrete blocks laid on top. Drivers let the air out of the tires of the buses and trucks blocking the roads, and several rows of human chains guarded the entrance to the building.

Manning the barricades--often standing in heroic poses made all the more dramatic by the white bandannas many had tied around their foreheads--stood dozens of young men, jealously guarding the approaches to the White House and trying to keep women out of the area with exaggerated gallantry.

“Women, go away!” one shouted. “If they start in on you, we won’t be able to answer for our actions!”

For all the young defenders’ bravado, Russian officials acknowledged that they would have no chance against regular Soviet troops in a serious assault.

Although Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kunadze refused to disclose details of the Russian government’s military resources, he readily admitted: “The White House has no stores of weapons, so we can’t give any out.

“Metal bars have been cut off and given to boys of 17 and 18,” he said. “That, in actual fact, is all our defenses.”

In any case, he said, “The Russian government has made the decision to refrain from violence.”

With rumors circulating that Vice President Gennady I. Yanayev, who has proclaimed himself acting president, had issued an order for Yeltsin’s arrest, Russian officials refused to disclose the Russian president’s whereabouts, saying only that he was still “fulfilling his duties.”

A policeman in a heavy bulletproof vest guarded the only entrance of the White House still open, and others could be seen bringing watermelon and rolls inside for the night’s vigil.

Their numbers did not appear large. When two dozen Russian police officers emerged from trees near the White House and marched toward the building to join the ranks of guards, hundreds of people from the crowd outside surged toward them with cries of encouragement and congratulations.

“Way to go!” they shouted. “They’ve come over to our side!”

Despite the tension in many faces as rumors of converging troops persisted, the crowd remained eager to cheer any slight victory--even the unconfirmed radio report that Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov had resigned.

And there were spots of humor as well. One sign displayed prominently near the building asked “Yanayev, Why Do Your Hands Shake?”--a pointed reference to the visible trembling of the acting president’s hands. On a fence nearby was scrawled “Down With the Junta!”

Russian defenders also reportedly began organizing a “self-defense force” that drew more than 700 volunteers by lunchtime, and some could be seen preparing firebombs and stones as weapons.

As twilight fell, the smoke of a bonfire scented the air, and residents of the nearby American Embassy, a red-brick enclave that proved the perfect lookout onto the chaotic crowd around the White House, lined the brick walls to watch.

Inside the embassy compound, children played on manicured lawns while their parents watched the Soviet drama unfold outside.