Ligachev, Once No. 2 Man in Party, Accused as Plotter : Soviet Union: The archconservative may have sought to supplant Gorbachev, prober says.

Former Politburo archconservative Yegor K. Ligachev, once the No. 2 man in the Communist Party, was accused Tuesday of involvement in the plot to topple Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and of possibly seeking to supplant him as party leader.

At a special hearing in the Russian Federation legislature called to gauge Communist backing for the abortive August coup attempt, Alexei P. Surkov, chairman of a special investigatory committee, said enough evidence has been obtained in Tomsk, the Siberian city where Ligachev, 70, once was party boss, to implicate him.

“As is also evident from interrogations and documents, should the putsch have succeeded Ligachev might have taken the post of party general secretary at the very next plenum of the Central Committee,” Surkov said.

He did not reveal who was questioned nor the content of the documents.

Ligachev, who was dropped from the party’s leading bodies in the summer of 1990 at Gorbachev’s behest, hotly denied Surkov’s charges as a “monstrous, mind-boggling lie” and said he will sue the legislator for airing them.

The first day of the hearings in the Russian Supreme Soviet confirmed that, as already known, many top-ranking Communists, including members of the Secretariat, conspired in or abetted the conservative plot to seize power. Many of the 14 people arrested to date in the plot had held high party office.

The hearing also bared more about millions of dollars that the party was said to have kept in a secret slush fund to aid European Communist parties, designated in internal party documents as “friendly firms.”

Such revelations will further discredit the Communist Party at a time when some members--from Russian Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi to Marxist historian Roy A. Medvedev--are trying to resurrect its organizations or ideology.

Gorbachev and Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin have banned party activities because of the involvement of Communist leaders in the attempted power grab or their unwillingness to oppose it.

One party document made public was addressed to Vladimir A. Ivashko, deputy general secretary of the Communist Party. It suggested that governmental and bank credits received from Britain, France, Japan and Greece be recycled to repay what were officially termed debts to the “friendly firms.”

That would have clandestinely diverted Western government support for Gorbachev’s leadership to benefit Communist movements in other countries. It was not clear whether the suggestion was ever put into effect.

Another memo from former Communist Party Foreign Affairs Secretary Valentin M. Falin instructed the country’s bank for foreign commerce, Vneshekonombank, to pay off debts to “friendly firms” before others.

According to information given by Russian Justice Minister Nikolai Fedorov, the sums involved were huge, and “serious crimes” were committed in sending the money abroad. A single recipient, the French firm Interagro, widely known to have links to the French Communist Party, was supposed to be paid $138 million.

A Russian government official, Alexander Yevlakhov, said the Communist Party’s Fund for the Aid of International Workers Organizations, created on Politburo orders, had an annual budget of $20 million. Funds were disbursed to foreign organizations by KGB agents, he said.

Anyone who expected the Russian hearings to immediately provide a smoking gun that showed most Communists were participants in the August plot was fated to be disappointed.

“Let me tell you this in all frankness: We have no legal basis for a meaningful case against the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union),” admitted historian Yuri N. Afanasyev, one of the first radical politicians to lead an attack on the party. “If we rely on existing legislation, this is impossible in principle.”

Surkov said certain key party documents had been transferred to Gorbachev’s presidential archive by Valery Boldin, former chief of the party’s Department on General Affairs. Therefore, Surkov said, Russian authorities need to demand that Gorbachev allow them access to the papers so an “objective evaluation” of the party’s deeds can be made.

The rise of angry Soviet neoconservatives like the Soyuz faction in Parliament eclipsed Ligachev, but the accusation that he was involved in the coup will again bring him to center stage. He has not been charged with a crime.

“I have survived many mud-slinging campaigns against me, but I admit candidly that this is without precedent,” the small, white-haired, career Communist official said in an interview. He denied the accusations against him and said he intends “to file a lawsuit against Surkov right away. It’s high time to stop these irresponsible statements, this growing witch hunt and creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity.”

Times reporter Viktor K. Grebenshikov contributed to this story.