Yeltsin Retreats From Move to Bolster His Power : Politics: Many warned that a low turnout for referendum would weaken Russia’s central authority.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin backed away Tuesday from an electoral test of strength with conservative lawmakers by dropping his insistence on an April referendum that he had hoped would bolster his executive powers.

Instead, he called for “a year of moratorium on all political fistfighting” to let Russia stabilize its plummeting economy, followed by elections of lawmakers in 1994 and a new president in 1995--each a year ahead of schedule.

The president’s retreat from the constitutional referendum, his highest political priority this year, appeared to dim his hopes for moving Russia beyond its obsolete Soviet-era institutions and the former Communists who control them.

Yeltsin acted after a wide range of public figures warned that the April 11 vote might backfire. They said that either a defeat or a low voter turnout would weaken all central authority over the vast, multiethnic Russian Federation, rather than help Yeltsin subdue lawmakers who resist his free-market economic reforms.

Facing strong opposition by legislative leaders to the referendum, Yeltsin tried to outmaneuver them by seeking support Tuesday from presidents of the federation’s 16 republics. But he failed.

Yeltsin’s spokesman, Vyacheslav Kostikov, said the republic leaders “feared that the referendum will polarize Russia and divert the people from economic tasks” and called for its postponement.

Hours later, Yeltsin turned up at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet’s Constitutional Commission with an olive branch. Complaining that lawmakers’ efforts to kill the referendum or distort its purpose were tearing “the thin fabric of stability in this country,” he agreed to an alternative. He accepted an offer from Valery D. Zorkin, chairman of Russia’s Constitutional Court, to meet with him and the speaker of Parliament, Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, to work out a fundamental division of their powers.

“The referendum is not a goal in itself,” a somber-looking Yeltsin said. “If an effective and reliable solution for the problems is found, it would be unreasonable to turn it down.

“I am personally ready to stretch my hand and make a step forward to eliminate the conflict,” he added. “It is not pleasant for the Russian people to watch all this fighting for power in Moscow. It is insulting.”

Once allies, Yeltsin and Khasbulatov have feuded over who rules Russia since it gained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in late 1991. Russia inherited a 1978 Soviet constitution that fails to delineate their authority.

The Supreme Soviet, the legislature, and the larger Congress of People’s Deputies, the Parliament, elected in 1990 under Soviet rule, have repeatedly undermined Yeltsin’s moves toward market reforms.

A frustrated Yeltsin first called last December for a referendum, saying voters should force either the president or lawmakers to resign and face reelection.

Khasbulatov threatened to outlaw such a vote, and rumors of disorders and troop movements buzzed through the Kremlin.

Zorkin, the country’s top judicial authority, emerged as a mediator and got both men to agree that the referendum should be about basic principles for a new constitution.

That accord has slowly unraveled in recent weeks in a dispute over what questions should be put to voters. A legislative commission controlled by Yeltsin’s supporters proposed a ballot listing principles that include a strong presidency and private property guarantees.

Khasbulatov, an erratic former professor, first moved to thwart the referendum by tacking on a call for 1994 elections for the president and representatives. Then he told Sweden’s visiting prime minister that Russia’s presidency should be eliminated entirely because Yeltsin “cannot cope with his tasks.” Later he announced opposition to any vote. Finally, he said that, since the referendum was the president’s idea, Yeltsin would have to resign if fewer than half the voters turned out.

Other politicians also warned that Yeltsin was courting political disaster, even as he created a commission last week to set up 100,000 polling stations and print 106 million ballots in 12 languages. They cautioned that hyper-inflation, corruption, crime and cynicism over politics have produced apathy among voters rather than a yearning for a stronger president.

Adding to such fears, some of Russia’s far-flung republics and regions have refused to pay taxes and challenged Kremlin management of their mineral wealth. There was talk in some regions of attaching local demands for autonomy from Moscow to the referendum. The newspaper Izvestia reported Saturday that the Altai and Chelyabinsk regions had declared the right to overrule Yeltsin decrees.

These acts reminded Russians of how economic conflicts generated political and ethnic tensions that broke up the Soviet Union.

“There are a number of concealed controversies in society, and if any catalyst appears, like the Russian referendum, these controversies come to the fore and may become destabilizing factors,” Yeltsin adviser Sergei Stankevich told the newspaper Rossiyskie Vesti. “The very campaign around the referendum would deal a powerful blow to statehood.”

Zorkin took the same view in an interview with The Times last week, saying, “The danger lies not in dragging out the adoption of a new constitution but in the passions stirred up around it.”

The chief judge’s mediation offer, formally announced Tuesday, gave Yeltsin a graceful way to back down from his conflict with Khasbulatov. The president went a step further and suggested that the three men discuss Russia’s future on live television. But he did not fully renounce the referendum Tuesday and might still try to revive it if the mediation fails.

Nor was it clear whether Yeltsin’s proposal for early elections will be accepted as part of an accord. The lawmakers’ five-year terms expire in May, 1995. The president said last year that he would not seek reelection when his five-year term expires in June, 1996. He did not repeat that pledge Tuesday.

Some lawmakers expressed relief at Yeltsin’s offer, but the most radical reformers were disappointed. “Early elections will simply reproduce the existing political system with an ineffective Parliament and a weak executive power,” said Kirill Ignatyev of the Democratic Choice coalition.