Anxious Russians Try to Stock Up

All across Russia on Tuesday, cash registers were ringing out the old year--and the old prices.

When stores reopen Thursday after the New Year’s holiday, subsidized state prices on most goods and services will have gone the same route as the Soviet state itself--into history.

Last-minute holiday shopping Tuesday combined with anxiety over the freeing of prices to produce long lines in Moscow.

Shoppers lined up outside of stores, in the light snow and heavy mud, throughout the city of 9 million. As New Year’s Eve celebrations were beginning, the mood was more fearful than festive.

Under a decree by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, price limits will remain on some basics, such as bread, milk, baby food, sugar, meat, vodka and cooking oil. Everything else in Russia will shoot up as much as the market will bear.

Two other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States that was created in the collapse of the Soviet Union--Ukraine and Belarus--are instituting similar reforms.