Yeltsin Seeks Support for Russian Plebiscite to Boost His Rule

President Boris N. Yeltsin plans to urge his supporters to organize a nationwide plebiscite in hopes that it will help him win a power struggle with the Russian Parliament, a senior Cabinet official said Friday.

First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir F. Shumeiko told reporters that Yeltsin has retreated from the idea of a binding, government-sponsored referendum after the Congress of People’s Deputies voted last week to cancel one scheduled for April 11 that would have asked whether the president or the Congress should rule supreme.

Yeltsin suffered a humiliating setback in the Congress, which voted itself the power to veto presidential decrees. In the ensuing week of political suspense, Yeltsin has been canvassing aides, advisers and allies. One adviser, Lev Sukhanov, said Yeltsin will announce his response in a televised address to the nation tonight.

Although the plebiscite would be non-binding, Yeltsin evidently hopes that it would demonstrate public support for him and give him renewed political authority to press for free-market reforms that are stymied by the Congress.

Shumeiko, who headed a commission to organize the planned referendum, said that body has been disbanded. He said Yeltsin supporters have begun collecting the 1 million signatures required to hold a plebiscite and raising the donations to finance it.

The referendum Yeltsin wanted the Congress to approve would have asked voters to declare Russia a “presidential republic,” abolish the unwieldy Soviet-era Congress in favor of a new bicameral legislature, call elections for an assembly to rewrite the constitution and enshrine the right of every citizen to own land.

Since the Congress rebuffed him, Yeltsin has kept Russia’s political Establishment and Western governments on edge, hinting through his advisers that a tough, decisive reaction was imminent. On Wednesday, the chief presidential spokesman, Vyacheslav V. Kostikov, caused a stir here by declaring that members of Yeltsin’s advisory council had demanded the imposition of “presidential rule.”

Whether that statement was an indication of Yeltsin’s intention to shut down or ignore the Parliament and to rule by decree, or simply a bluff to frighten lawmakers into compromise, is not clear.

In any case, it alarmed Valery D. Zorkin, chairman of Russia’s Constitutional Court. Visiting Washington, he read Kostikov’s statement on the Russian Embassy Itar-Tass news wire and tried, with no luck, to phone anyone in Moscow who could explain what was going on, someone who was with him said.

After a frantic search for his personal pilot, who had taken the day off, Zorkin flew back to Moscow, canceling a planned lecture at Harvard University.

In Moscow on Friday, Zorkin told reporters: “The Russian constitution is threatened by radicals on the left and right” and Yeltsin has a “unique chance” to conciliate and unite them. “I have a dream that Boris Yeltsin becomes a Russian (Charles) de Gaulle or a Russian (Franklin D.) Roosevelt but not a Russian (Augusto) Pinochet.”

Times staff writer Doyle McManus, in Washington, contributed to this report.