Soviet Union Set to End Dec. 31 : Gorbachev Accepts Commonwealth as Its Heir : Upheaval: ‘I cannot go against the current,’ the president says. The hammer and sickle over the Kremlin is to be lowered New Year’s Eve after 74 years.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, finally yielding in his battle to preserve the crumbling Soviet Union, declared Tuesday that he will accept the new Commonwealth of Independent States as its constitutional successor and said he is now working for an orderly transition.

Gorbachev later agreed with Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin on the dissolution of the central government’s remaining ministries over the next two weeks so that the new commonwealth, which will probably include 10 of the remaining 12 Soviet republics, will come into formal existence on Jan. 1.

“The presidents agreed that the process of transferring union structures to a new status must be completed by the end of this year,” the Soviet news agency Tass reported after the two-hour Kremlin meeting. “By that time, some will be transferred to Russian jurisdiction, and others will be abolished.”

On New Year’s Eve, the hammer-and-sickle flag of revolutionary red that has flown for 74 years over the Kremlin, the medieval brick fortress on the Moscow River, will be lowered, marking the formal end to the Soviet era, said Pavel Voshchanov, Yeltsin’s press secretary. In its place will fly the Russian tricolor of white, blue and red as the Kremlin becomes the seat, once again, of the Russian government.

Gorbachev’s decision to accept the commonwealth, although expected, sealed the fate of the Soviet Union, for only his willpower had kept it alive after Yeltsin’s refusal to accept any but the weakest central government for a new union.

“If the supreme soviets declare for the Commonwealth of Independent States, I shall respect their decision,” Gorbachev said, referring to the commonwealth agreement that republic legislatures are now being asked to ratify.

Although he still advocated a “confederative state” to bind the Soviet Union’s former republics together politically and economically, Gorbachev told some visiting statesmen: “As a politician, I cannot go against the current. I cannot oppose the attitudes of the supreme soviets.”

Andrei S. Grachev, his press secretary, underscored the point. “He is not going to fight it politically or in any other way,” Grachev said as Gorbachev met with Yeltsin. “He’s going to accept the choice, and he will decide accordingly the possibility of his participating in the future structures.”

But Gorbachev’s future role was left unresolved. Grachev said the president will not accept a ceremonial position, even to head the new commonwealth; Yeltsin said he could see no role for Gorbachev. Speculation continued, however, that the two men would reach a compromise to retain Gorbachev’s influence abroad for the new state.

Gorbachev had initially opposed the commonwealth as an “illegal” and “unconstitutional” move by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the three Slavic republics that will constitute the commonwealth’s core. He had called for a national referendum on the issue and declared his readiness to fight it politically.

But Gorbachev, who had hoped that some republics would refuse to join the commonwealth, won so little support over the past week that continuing the struggle would have been pointless. With daily calls for his resignation, sheer fatigue had also taken an increasing toll.

“He is going in this way as he feels that it is in the national interest,” Grachev said. “He believes it necessary to avoid confrontation and assure an orderly transition from one kind of society to another. He sees this as his personal, political and constitutional duty.

“The time has come for a transition. . . . That is now the focus of the president’s efforts,” he added. “President Gorbachev feels he has a duty, a final duty perhaps, to lead the nation through this period. . . .”

Grachev said that Gorbachev will make a series of proposals to republic leaders meeting on Saturday in Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, on ensuring an orderly transition, particularly on ways to prevent the country’s total collapse in political and economic chaos.

Gorbachev’s priorities would, firstly, be avoiding further political confrontation and consolidating support for the Soviet Union’s “successor state.” He would also seek to ensure that the transition was “constitutional, orderly and democratic so that glasnost and public access to the process is assured,” Grachev said. Gorbachev urged that the national Supreme Soviet, the country’s legislature, hold a final meeting to approve the constitutional transformation.

Gorbachev, as the Soviet president, would also seek to ensure that the changes here did not threaten the rest of the world and that “rigid control would be maintained over the nuclear potential,” Grachev said, noting: “When these conditions are met, the president will deem his activities to be fulfilled.”

Although Soviet political observers have speculated about what role Gorbachev might play in the new commonwealth, perhaps as its president, both he and Yeltsin on Tuesday minimized that possibility.

Gorbachev “definitely has ruled out a ceremonial role,” Grachev said. “He is an active political figure, and he is fulfilling the role even now of an active political figure.”

He left open the possibility that Gorbachev would accept a position as head of the commonwealth if, as he put it, “this were real.”

But Yeltsin told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he can see no role for Gorbachev in the new commonwealth. “We will treat him with the dignity and respect due him, but in view of our decision to complete the transformation of the (Soviet Union) within December, he, too, must make a decision by that date,” Yeltsin was quoted as saying.

Gorbachev’s power has declined steadily since Yeltsin led the popular opposition to a conservative coup in August. When the Soviet president failed last month to persuade Ukraine to join the “Union of Sovereign States” that he had proposed as a successor to the Soviet Union, Yeltsin pulled Russia out and the plan collapsed.

The commonwealth was then formed by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and it has since been joined by the five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (formerly Kirghizia), Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Armenia is also likely to join. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova are still considering what action to take.

The push toward dissolving all Soviet institutions in coming weeks brought loud protests Tuesday from the national Supreme Soviet, once a central focus for Gorbachev’s democratic reforms.

The furor was prompted by an announcement by the Russian Federation’s legislative leadership on Monday that it planned to take over the Supreme Soviet’s handsome yellow building in the Kremlin. With the Soviet Union virtually defunct and the new commonwealth--which will have a minimal power center--rising to take its place, the Russian leadership argued that it should take the Supreme Soviet “under its protection.”

But Soviet lawmakers insisted that they should be allowed to continue to function until the commonwealth takes a solid form--and even reserved the right to convene a national Congress of People’s Deputies, the 2,250-member super-parliament that was the Soviet Union’s highest governmental body until it effectively voted itself out of existence in September.

For federal deputies, loss of the Supreme Soviet’s extensive facilities means they will be kicked out of hundreds of choice Moscow flats allotted to the legislature and lose access to special buffets, medical service and other privileges. The newspaper Rabochaya Tribuna noted on Tuesday that many deputies are scrambling to buy cars at special low prices while they still have their purchasing privileges.

Lawmakers could not deny, however, that with all the deputies from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus ordered home by their commonwealth-member governments, the Supreme Soviet can never assemble a quorum and is therefore doomed to end its days without being able to pass a resolution in protest.

Even the federal legislature’s gathering on Tuesday was not technically a session, merely a meeting. Sergei Shakhrai, Yeltsin’s top legal adviser, dismissed the legislature’s attempts to fade away more gracefully as “an attempt to defend the former socialist government. The Supreme Soviet of the (Soviet) Union has, in effect, already ceased to exist,” he said.

Dismantling a Nation

DEVELOPMENTS:

* Fate of Soviet Union is sealed when President Mikhail S. Gorbachev says he will accept new commonwealth.

* He and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin agree to dismantle central government’s remaining ministries by year-end.

NEXT STEPS:

* Gorbachev will make series of proposals to republic leaders meeting in Kazakhstan on Saturday. He will seek to prevent political-economic collapse and ensure orderly transition.

* Secretary of State James A. Baker III continues trip, will visit Belarus and Ukraine today.

UNRESOLVED:

* Gorbachev’s role. He has said he will not accept a ceremonial position. Yeltsin said he sees no role at all for Gorbachev.

* Nuclear arms. Kazakhstan’s president said his republic will not give up nuclear weapons on its soil as long as such weapons remain in Russia.