Top Bureaucrats Worry Over Jobs as Purge Spreads : Reform: Workers wonder how far down the layoffs will go. Yeltsin supporters replace former officials in almost every Soviet government department.

The purge of top officials in the wake of last week’s failed coup spread Tuesday to almost every department of the Soviet government as top officials in organizations ranging from the Interior Ministry to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry packed up their bags.

In a move to dismantle the old Soviet power structure and consolidate power among officials loyal to Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin, eight more members of the Soviet Cabinet were replaced, at least temporarily, with reformist Russian officials. These officials will form a provisional committee to manage the economy until a new Soviet Cabinet is formed.

As the news of more and more layoffs reached the Soviet departments and ministries, bureaucrats worried about whether they would be the next to lose their jobs.

At the U.S.S.R. Vneshekonombank, the bank that handles most international transactions, workers were busy talking about their new boss and wondering how far down the ranks the purge would go.

“Of course, this is on everybody’s mind,” said Yevgeny A. Zukharov, a high-ranking official at the bank. “Any normal person would be worried about his future, but we keep on working as usual.”

Zukharov said he and his colleagues were not as worried as some other government employees, because they feel confident that they are employable: Their experience can be used in the new commercial banks that have been springing up over the last couple of years.

“I’m not worried about job security for myself,” Zukharov said. “If I’m fired tomorrow, I’ll be immediately picked up by any commercial bank.”

Yeltsin has said that he will find new jobs for fired employees, although it is not clear who, if anyone, would want to employ such people, for instance, as the idled editors of the shut-down Communist Party newspaper Pravda. In the meantime, those who lose their jobs are entitled to unemployment benefits.

The leader of Vneshekonombank was one of the eight members of the Cabinet of Ministers replaced by the Russian Federation officials on the new economic committee. The committee will be headed by Russian Federation Prime Minister Ivan S. Silayev.

“Considering the extreme importance of a number of ministries and departments of the Soviet Union and the situation that arises in them in connection with the actual collaboration of the former leadership with putschists, Silayev . . . on agreement with the Soviet president, entrusted the task of managing them” to officials of the Russian government, Yeltsin said in a statement.

Members of the Cabinet were discredited when it came to light that only Minister of Ecology Nikolai N. Vorontsov denounced the coup at a special meeting called by the plotters.

The ensuing humiliation was especially acute at the Interior Ministry, where staff members were still recovering Tuesday from the news that their former chief, Boris K. Pugo, had been a ringleader of the attempted putsch and that, facing arrest, he had shot himself to death.

“Shame doesn’t begin to describe how we feel,” said Vladimir A. Gulyayev, director of prisons at the ministry. “It’s much worse than that. It’s very difficult to be an employee at the Interior Ministry now. Public opinion about our ministry will be damaged for a very long time in the future.”

Big staff cuts are expected, Gulyayev said, but so far only the minister and his top deputies have been replaced.

“An investigation, which is now under way, will show how deep the corruption went,” Gulyayev said. “I hope there weren’t too many people involved, but it’s difficult to say.”

In the midst of all the layoffs, two men who played large roles in putting down the coup were promoted Tuesday. Gen. Konstantin I. Kobets, the Russian Federation’s new defense minister, was given an extra star and raised to four-star rank, and Russian Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi was given one star and the rank of major general.

The shake-up spread beyond the government to the state media organs. Radical democrat Yegor Yakovlev, the editor of the radical newspaper Moscow News, was named head of the state television and radio company, Gostelradio, an appointment likely to bring changes all the way down to the level of program producer.

At Ostankino, Moscow’s main broadcasting tower, conservatives expressed worries that their fate would be the same as their leader’s. Leonid P. Kravchenko was fired because state television broadcast the conspirators’ decrees and announcements during the coup attempt. Already, one of the two national radio frequencies has been turned over to Russian Radio.

Representatives of Gostelradio and the Ostankino broadcasting tower met Monday to discuss the future of Soviet broadcasting.

“It was a meeting full of recriminations, accusations and finger-pointing by people desperately trying to save their jobs,” an American businessman who attended the meeting recounted.

“They’re afraid of being rendered idle and being ignored to death. All of a sudden no one needs or wants them anymore,” said the businessman, Clayton Simons, Moscow representative of an American company that supplies radio programming to Gostelradio.

At one point, Nellie Alikperova, deputy head of Gostelradio’s music department, reportedly said with apprehension: “Privatization is going to start and we’re all going to be out of work.”

The chief of the press center of the Foreign Ministry’s information department, Yevgeny B. Isayenko, was also replaced. The news agency Tass said Isayenko had immediately put the center at the disposal of the plotters last week.

At Izvestia, which used to be the Soviet government newspaper until it became independent after the coup was overturned, the former chief editor, archconservative Nikolai Yefimov, had vacated his office, journalists at the paper said. His liberal former deputy, Igor N. Golembiovsky, is already running the show from Yefimov’s old armchair, they said.

“For a simple journalist, being free is very important,” said Sergei Mostovshchkov, a reporter. “Finally, we can write anything we want to write. But the editorial board already has a lot of new problems to worry about. All of a sudden they need to think about making a profit so they can pay their journalists and keep the paper in print. This was never a problem when we were a government newspaper.”

Mikhail Berger, Izvestia’s economic observer, said he is worried that the staff cuts, especially in departments that are connected with the economy, might go too far.

“There is a real danger of chaos,” Berger said. “We need to be careful about firing all the people who understand how to run our centralized economy. We don’t have a market yet and the new people don’t know enough to keep things going through the transition.

“The young democrats will suffer at the polls if they make too many quick staff changes and then are not able to feed the people.”

One example of an unnecessary staff change, Berger said, occurred at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where the chief of the organization, Vladislav I. Malkevich, was replaced.

Malkevich was widely regarded as a competent businessman, and his top deputy, Vladimir M. Korsikov, said the chamber’s staff was still in shock. They had seen him as a progressive, talented professional, he said.

“The people here find it hard to understand what is happening and why,” Korsikov said. “We realize there could be more staff cuts, but I don’t think they will be massive. Our country needs professionals like us, regardless of the current leadership.”

Korsikov said Malkevich had taken the news of his firing with dignity.

“He gathered up his things and went to his dacha in his office car,” Korsikov said. “But then he sent the car back. The new boss will need it.”

When the Party Ends

What are the most visible and practical effects of ending the Communist Party in the Soviet Union?

* Careers: The situation was already changing, but now people will not need to join the Communist Party to advance their careers.

* Workplace: People trying to change their jobs will not need to get a stamp of approval from the party unit at their last workplace.

* Pravda: Millions will no longer be obliged to subscribe to the official Communist Party newspaper. It was shut, at least for now, last Friday by Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin

* Privilege: Fewer traffic jams will be caused by cars being stopped for the black Volgas and Zils of party big shots. Health resorts, country houses and hospitals will be given over to the people.

* Party talk: No more Communist slogans anywhere. No more Communist propaganda in schools.