SEMANTICS : In New Russia, ‘Dude’ Hasn’t Yet Caught On : The government--not to mention journalists and the public--seeks a new term for the out-of-fashion ‘comrade.’

As soon as she leaves the television studio, Svetlana I. Sorokina, Russia’s most popular woman newscaster and a prime-time heartthrob, may find herself at a loss for words.

“In everyday situations, like on public transit or in a store, I sometimes find myself painstakingly groping for the right word to address a person with, and not coming up with it,” she said.

The chestnut-haired TV journalist is not alone. The collapse of proletarian ideology has left many gaps in Russian society, but none more evident in day-to-day life than the virtual disappearance of the celebrated word tovarishch, or comrade, as the proper form of address.

“The term tovarishch now really does set your teeth on edge,” said Sorokina, who anchors the “Vesti” news program on Russian TV. “Not that the word is itself to blame. It is suffering the same fate many innocent people have to bear for having been involuntarily associated with the (Communist) Party.”

Months ago, Sorokina and other newscasters, apparently on their own initiative, stopped greeting their “comrades” in the viewing public when they opened their broadcasts.

“On the air, I just say, ‘Good evening,’ and that does it,” Sorokina said. But like society as a whole, the journalists are hunting for a substitute.

Alexei Y. Sonin, commentator on “Moscow Teletype,” admits to being tempted by gospodin, a remnant of pre-revolutionary Russian politesse that can best be conveyed in English as “my good sir.”

But, Sonin adds, “somehow I can’t bring myself to start using gospoda (the plural form) on the air.” He thinks his Soviet-educated public wouldn’t be receptive to the word, with its undertones of servility or mock politeness.

Recently, when two Russian government officials appeared before Moscow-based reporters, they called each other “gospodin.” But the word (as well as its feminine form, gospozha), still shocks an ear used to socialist egalitarianism.

The upshot: Russia’s government still hasn’t yet figured out what to call its officials or the citizenry.

While he was Soviet president, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, for example, could be referred to either as “Comrade President” or “Mikhail Sergeyevich” by his countrymen. So far, the sole polite form of address common for Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin is “Boris Nikolayevich.”

“Some brave people are trying to use gospodin or sudar (another pre-revolutionary form, meaning “my lord”), but this trend hasn’t been adopted by an absolute majority,” said Inna Y. Pereverzeva of the Russian Parliament’s press center.

No wonder; Russians of all walks of life have been calling each other “comrade” for more than half a century. It was in the 1920s that pre-Soviet forms of address were replaced by what had been the internal Communist Party title adopted as a display of working-class solidarity, said Igor M. Milashevsky, a professor at Moscow State University.

Even in the darkest Cold War days, Westerners could safely call Russians gospodin and gospozha without worrying about the ideological overtones, and that continues. Likewise, Russians used those words to address foreigners.

Use of tovarishch now sounds charmingly old-fashioned or intentionally reactionary. While the local counterparts of Miss (or Comrade) Manners search for a replacement, some Russians are resorting to the simplest forms of address possible-- grazhdanin (citizen), muzhik (peasant) or just plain ei ty (Hey, you).

And Russian working women--even sales clerks in their 60s--all seem to have to put up with being called devushka --girl.

Sergei Loiko, a reporter in The Times’ Moscow bureau, contributed to this article.

Russia is looking for a replacement for the outmoded tovarishch (comrade) as a form of address. Some possibilities:

Gospodin --My good sir.

Sudar --My lord.

Grazhdanin --Citizen.

Muzhik --Peasant.

Ei ty --Hey, you.