Yeltsin Retreats, Drops Bid to Rule by Decree : Russia: Despite president’s efforts for compromise, lawmakers push ahead with plans to seek his ouster. Aides fear split in country and army.

Boris N. Yeltsin dropped his demand to rule by decree Wednesday and implied that it had been a mistake, but furious lawmakers pushed ahead with plans to convene the Parliament and try to oust the Russian president anyway.

After Yeltsin’s stab at peace talks with his two key foes, the heads of the Parliament and the Constitutional Court, had proved futile, lawmakers called a session of the Congress of People’s Deputies for Friday to bring Russia’s escalating power struggle to a showdown.

“The presidency is losing its legitimacy,” Parliament Speaker Ruslan I. Khasbulatov said. “Holding a Congress now is in the interest of all of society.”

Amid continuing uncertainty over whether Yeltsin’s opponents in the conservative Congress can gather the two-thirds majority needed to depose him, the possible scenarios painted by his allies grew increasingly apocalyptic.

If the 1,033-member Congress votes to oust Yeltsin but he rejects the move as illegal, both the country and the army will split into armed camps for and against Yeltsin, said Mikhail A. Fedotov, Yeltsin’s information minister. And if that happens, “each side will have a few thousand atomic bombs,” he added. “You can imagine what the results would be.”

Wednesday evening, some of Yeltsin’s top strategists conferred urgently at a Moscow think tank, openly expressing their fears that within two days Yeltsin might be impeached, removed from office and arrested and that his constitutional successor, Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi, could ban new elections.

“If there is a 70% chance of this happening, what do we do?” Gennady E. Burbulis, Yeltsin’s chief tactician, asked three dozen assembled colleagues.

The aides then chewed over ideas for another televised address by Yeltsin, for somehow using the army to maintain order and for holding a referendum as quickly as possible in hopes that a popular expression of support could bolster their boss’ political legitimacy. Some insisted that Khasbulatov is bluffing and cannot muster the needed two-thirds to remove Yeltsin.

The Russian president had begun the day with a clear move toward compromise, finally issuing a much-softened decree that formalized the bombshell declaration that he made last Saturday night. In a pre-taped televised speech, he had said then that he planned to introduce a “special regime” and rule by decree until a referendum on the presidency and on a new constitution could be held April 25.

But the decree published Wednesday backed away markedly from several of the points in his speech. The retreat apparently was in response to a ruling Tuesday by Russia’s highest judicial body, the Constitutional Court, that some of his proposed policies violated the constitution.

The published decree does not mention emergency rule; it also omits Yeltsin’s previous demand that if he wins a popular vote of confidence, early elections must be called to replace the Congress, which is now dominated by his main political enemies--Communists and anti-reform hard-liners.

In a separate message to lawmakers, issued later in the day, Yeltsin virtually admitted that he had stumbled onto slippery legal ground in his rush to push through a new constitution.

“Russian statehood is just beginning to be formed,” he wrote. “It would be good to have a flawless constitution, absolutely verified decisions and error-free organs of power. But where can these be found, today and even tomorrow?

“That is why,” he continued, “we have to recognize the right to (make) mistakes and create a mechanism for correcting them, rather than starting a process (that leads to) the self-destruction of the constitutional framework.”

But Yeltsin’s proffered compromise did nothing to dissuade Khasbulatov and his largely obedient deputies from pushing ahead with the Congress. In a 135-34 vote, the Supreme Soviet, or standing legislature, easily passed the proposal to convene the larger Congress, of which it is part, into session Friday.

Khasbulatov returned as defiant as ever from what were meant to be talks on compromise with Yeltsin. The sharp-tongued Parliament Speaker reported to deputies that he had gone to the meeting with a whole list of old demands, including complaints about the media and calls for Yeltsin to give up the handpicked men he has placed as his enforcers in the provinces.

Yeltsin’s spokesman, Vyacheslav V. Kostikov, denounced Khasbulatov’s claims as “ultimatum-like demands, presented in a crude form.”

Lawmakers are trying “to use any means to remove the lawfully elected president and open the way to power for the forces of revenge and totalitarian restoration,” he said.

Khasbulatov did say that he and Yeltsin had also discussed creating a “government of national harmony,” but the idea did not seem to have gone very far.

He called once again for immediate elections, saying: “That would probably be a boon for the population, which is sick of all federal government.”

Recent polls show that, in fact, Russians remain fairly loyal to Yeltsin. The daily newspaper Izvestia found in a poll of 1,100 Muscovites that 59% would support Yeltsin in a vote of confidence; 16% would not support him, and 20% would not vote at all.

Yeltsin appeared to have softened his decree in large part because he saw a growing schism between his supporters and opponents and feared its consequences on Russian society.

“He has seen the reaction, especially from the regions,” said Andrei V. Fyodorov, an aide to Vice President Rutskoi. “The country began to split. This is too risky.”

But the Russian president appeared willing to fight to the end to hold a referendum soon on a new constitution and measure people’s trust in him. And his bellicose persistence, a trait he is known for, had lawmakers worried.

“The fact that the sides reached no compromise today means terrible results for the country,” said Deputy Iona Andronov. “It was the president’s fault that the compromise was not reached. He prefers to fight to the end. It is typical Yeltsin. His way is to kill or get killed--politically, of course.”

Others accused Khasbulatov of unwillingness to compromise.

“He wants to see the president on his knees,” Deputy Vladimir Lysenko said.

Miners in western Siberia, Yeltsin’s loyal and hotheaded allies, protested the decision to convene the Congress. Russian Cossacks also declared allegiance to Yeltsin and continued to claim control of a region along the Don River.

Among Yeltsin’s parliamentary foes, there were concerns about mustering the needed votes to remove the president. Opposition deputies, looking to a controversial new amendment, began to lobby for legal opinions that might make it possible to oust Yeltsin with just 51% of the vote. But parliamentary lawyers said it is unlikely that such a maneuver will work.

Even if his enemies do not garner enough support to remove him, Yeltsin faces another frightening prospect. His opponents could exploit the vindictive sentiment among lawmakers to radically slash his presidential powers still further and hold a vote of no-confidence in his Cabinet.

“The president could be turned into a kind of symbolic figure,” political analyst Andranik Migranian said.

Khasbulatov is also running a serious risk. His strident calls for impeachment, deputies said, could lead to his own downfall if the ouster attempt in Congress fails.

Deputy Lev Ponomarev compared Khasbulatov to a lemming, saying: “Some animals have an urge to die. You know, how those rats run into an abyss. I think that’s how Khasbulatov is acting now.”

PLEA FOR U.S. AID: Russia’s foreign minister met with President Clinton. A14