Yeltsin Moves to Rule by Decree : Russia: The besieged president defies lawmakers and orders an April 25 referendum. Legislature calls for emergency session today as leadership struggle hits crisis point.

President Boris N. Yeltsin announced Saturday night that he is assuming temporary power to rule Russia by decree and ordered an April 25 referendum asking voters to endorse his leadership, a new constitution drafted under his direction and a law to elect a new Parliament.

The bold initiative brought Russia’s long-running leadership crisis to its most critical point since the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 months ago. It was immediately attacked as unconstitutional by the nation’s vice president, highest judge and chief prosecutor, raising doubts about Yeltsin’s legal right and political strength to carry it off peacefully.

Yeltsin, the first democratically elected president in Russia’s history, acted a week after the Soviet-era Congress of People’s Deputies frustrated his every appeal for a power-sharing compromise to allow his troubled free-market reforms to go forward.

In a prerecorded television speech to the nation, a frowning, puffy-faced Yeltsin accused the Congress of blocking the reforms, undermining executive authority and seeking to reimpose Communist dictatorship.

“The country can no longer live in a constant crisis of power,” he declared. “With such a waste of efforts we will never be able to overcome backwardness. Nor shall we be able to provide peace and tranquillity for our citizens.

“Under the circumstances,” he added, “the president is forced to assume the responsibility for the destiny of the country.”

Yeltsin signed what he called a “decree on the special order of governing the state” and said it would remain in effect “until the crisis of power has been overcome.”

Under that order, he said, the 1,033-member Congress and the 220-member Supreme Soviet legislature will continue to function. But they will be powerless to overturn presidential orders or remove government officials from their posts.

The presidium of the Supreme Soviet met late Saturday, accused Yeltsin of “trying to establish a dictatorship” and called an emergency session of the legislature for today. Its chairman, Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, rushed home from a visit to Kazakhstan and some deputies called for Yeltsin’s impeachment.

Moscow’s streets were calm but its competing leaderships appeared headed for an intense battle of executive decrees and legislative dictates that some politicians feared cannot be settled without force.

Presidential advisers said Yeltsin had considered shutting down the legislative branch or doing nothing and allowing the crisis to ruin Russia’s economy and create disorder. They said he rejected both options out of fear of involving the army.

Yeltsin said he ordered the Defense Ministry “to prevent the use of the army toward political ends.” He added: “What I suggest is a civilized way out of the crisis, involving neither tanks nor barricades, rallies or strikes.”

Russia, emerging from seven decades of Communist rule, has been plagued by a Titanic but so far peaceful leadership struggle for most of the past year.

On one side is Yeltsin, 62, who draws his legitimacy from his popular election in June, 1991, and from his brave defiance two months later of a coup attempt by Communist hard-liners trying to save the Soviet Union. He seeks a quick transition to free-market capitalism with aid from the West.

On the other side is the Congress, elected in 1990 when the Communist Party chose most of the candidates. Led by Khasbulatov, who stood by Yeltsin’s side during the coup and then turned against him, it claims supreme authority in Russia on the basis of a Soviet-era constitution written in 1977. A conservative majority of deputies resist the dismantling of Russia’s centrally planned economy and are suspicious of the West.

With Yeltsin’s popularity at its peak, lawmakers granted the president decree-making powers to pursue his reforms in late 1991.

Then, with his march toward free prices and private ownership stalled amid rising inflation and official corruption, Congress voted, in an uproarious four-day session ending last weekend, to take those powers away. It also canceled a scheduled April 11 referendum that Yeltsin had sought to declare Russia a “presidential republic.”

“The people were arrogantly denied the right to determine their fate themselves,” Yeltsin declared Saturday. “The possibilities to seek compromise with the conservative majority of the Congress have been exhausted.”

Yeltsin insisted on going ahead with the referendum, on April 25, and staked his presidency on the outcome. Voters would be asked whether he and Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi should continue in office.

Yeltsin, whose five-year term expires in 1996, did not say when he would step down if Russians vote no.

If they vote yes, he said, a new constitution he is drafting would take force and a new legislative branch would be elected to replace the current Congress of People’s Deputies and Supreme Soviet before their terms run out in 1995.

After the speech, Rutskoi made a post-midnight appearance at the White House legislative headquarters, where Yeltsin had stood atop a tank during the 1991 coup attempt, and disassociated himself from the president.

Rutskoi, an army general often critical of the president, said he had refused to co-sign Yeltsin’s decrees on the grounds that they violated 18 articles of the constitution.

Joining him at a White House press conference to stand against Yeltsin were Constitutional Court Chairman Valery D. Zorkin, Prosecutor General Valentin G. Stepankov and two deputy speakers of parliament, Nikolai Ryabov and Yuri Voronin.

Zorkin, the ultimate arbiter of constitutional disputes, brokered a compromise between Yeltsin and Khasbulatov last December that set up the April 11 referendum. After that accord fell apart this month at the Congress, Zorkin threw his weight against Yeltsin, saying Russia’s leaders must learn to live within the current constitution.

The chief judge said he learned of Yeltsin’s initiative before the speech was aired and tried to call Yeltsin to beg him to cancel it. “The direct phone which I have and which is marked ‘Yeltsin’ didn’t answer,” Zorkin said.

Then Zorkin called an emergency session of his 13-member court, which has established its independence by ruling against both Yeltsin and the Congress in various constitutional disputes over the past 18 months.

The court sent Yeltsin a letter urging him to back down and reconcile the nation. “You still have this chance,” the letter said. “Use it.”

“The president has assumed the role of an absolute ruler,” Zorkin said at the press conference. “This is an attempt at coup d’etat. . . . It is regrettable and tragic.”

Yeltsin’s supporters admitted that his action violates the letter of the constitution, which does not allow the president to give himself decree-making powers or hold referendums without the Parliament’s consent. But they argued that the constitution has been amended so many times in contradictory ways that it has become discredited and ineffective as a legal guide.

Russian politicians predicted a legal battle with unforeseen consequences.

“The Supreme Soviet will appeal to the Constitutional Court for permission to act and impeach the president,” said Anatoly Y. Shabad, a leading reformist deputy. “It appears that the Constitutional Court has made its choice already, judging by Zorkin’s unequivocal remarks. Then they will attempt to hold an emergency Congress to impeach the president. . . . We can’t rule out a situation in which there may be bloodshed and casualties.”

Rutskoi appealed to the Congress not to act hastily, and to Russians to stay calm. Carefully choosing his words, he said the “current developments are deeply regrettable” but “not tragic and hopeless. A way out may still be found.”

Two men with key roles in the government kept silent Saturday night. One was Gen. Pavel S. Grachev, the defense minister. He has said in the past that the military wants to stay out of political conflicts. He has also said it will defend the constitution.

The other man not heard from was Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, the former Soviet bureaucrat the Congress elected last December after forcing Yeltsin to dump his leading reformer, Yegor T. Gaidar, from the post.

In his speech Saturday, Yeltsin instructed Chernomyrdin to speed up the reforms with new decrees, including one to formalize the right of Russians to own land, and to launch a selloff of state-owned real estate similar to the massive industrial privatization program under way.

The president also vowed to force inefficient state-owned companies into bankruptcy, create public works jobs for laid-off workers and halt the Parliament-controlled Central Bank’s inflationary credit policies. He threatened to fire any functionary failing to carry out those programs.

“If we don’t give an impulse to economic reform, the country will slide into anarchy,” Yeltsin said.

He also signed a decree “protecting the freedom of the mass media” and pledged that his government will respect human rights, limited autonomy for Russia’s far-flung regions and the nation’s international obligations.

Sergei M. Loiko of the Times Moscow Bureau staff contributed to this report.

What Yeltsin Wants to Do

Here are some of the main points of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s declaration of “special rule”:

‘SPECIAL RULE’: Yeltsin declared “special rule,” to last at least until a referendum is held. He declared void previous congressional moves to cancel decrees by the president and the government.

REFERENDUM: Yeltsin wants a referendum on April 25, in which Russians would vote on their confidence in the president and vice president. It would also focus on a draft constitution and a draft law on election of a new Congress of People’s Deputies.

PARLIAMENT: Yeltsin said the Congress and the smaller Supreme Soviet legislature will not be disbanded and the authority of the legislators will be retained until new elections. But he said they cannot violate presidential decrees.

ECONOMY AND GOVERNMENT: Yeltsin said he plans to make privatization irreversible; support small business by offering credits and tax benefits; guarantee employment for workers of bankrupt state enterprises; stabilize the ruble, and increase care for the needy.