Before Adoring Crowd, the Old Boris Is Back

“I will not submit!”

His amplified bass voice reverberating against the Kremlin walls, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin thundered his defiance Sunday to tens of thousands of adoring supporters.

“I will submit only to the will of the people!” he boomed from atop a flatbed truck on the cobblestoned slope below St. Basil’s Cathedral. “I swear: That’s it! The time for compromise is over!”

The old Boris was back, the fierce, charismatic populist with the power to galvanize the Russian people. After sparking rumors that he was drunk or ill with a fumbling speech the day before, his appearance Sunday--in his element, working a crowd--reassured Russians that the 62-year-old president was as hale as ever.

But the rebirth of Yeltsin’s fighting spirit, though heartening for his backers, also meant that Russia moved a perilous step closer to possible conflict as the political fight in the Kremlin once again moved to the streets.

In Moscow, an estimated 50,000 Yeltsin supporters, waving red-white-and-blue Russian flags, gathered near the Kremlin to back the president in his power struggle with the conservative Congress of People’s Deputies meeting inside.

Their opponents, ultranationalists and Communists, assembled on the other side of the Kremlin, toting slogans that included anti-Semitic gibes and accusations that Yeltsin is an alcoholic.

But unlike such competing rallies on recent Sundays, this time the pro-Yeltsin crowd outnumbered the president’s opponents by at least 3 to 1.

“If the Congress decides to impeach Yeltsin, all the country will rise in his support,” said Alla Trubitsina, a 38-year-old designer.

“It’s a matter of the people’s love, affection and trust. I will not leave this place and will do my part to defend my president.”

The heavy turnout made the pro-Yeltsin demonstration his biggest show of popularity since tens of thousands rallied to his defense during the hard-line coup attempt of August, 1991.

“I can feel the heartbeat of 70,000 or 80,000 people,” Yeltsin said happily when he stepped out of the Kremlin at lunchtime to speak to the people.

At 10:30 p.m., when voting results came in at the Congress and it became clear that Yeltsin had survived the attempt to impeach him, he emerged once again from the Kremlin’s Spassky Gate, this time to share his victory with the crowd of several thousand who remained.

“The people won, the reform won, democracy won, young Russia won!” he exulted to the thousands of hard-core backers still lingering near St. Basil’s. “I thank all Russians for your support.”

Even that triumph was not enough for some pro-Yeltsin stalwarts. They urged him to dissolve the Congress, and they declared--for unclear reasons--that they would spend the night by St. Basil’s.

Beneath the floodlighted beauty of the cathedral’s multicolored onion domes and the glowing red stars on the Kremlin tower, they appeared ready to settle in.

The fervent show of support added impetus to Yeltsin’s insistence that a referendum be held April 25 to demonstrate the nation’s confidence in his presidency.

Yeltsin had agreed Saturday night to a compromise that would have canceled the referendum and replaced it with general elections in November, but the Congress voted the deal down.

Egged on by cries from the crowd that he should make no more concessions to his rivals, Yeltsin affirmed that “we will not give up the referendum to them.”

Among his fans, whose mood was festive amid a forest of flags and presidential portraits, confidence was running high that Yeltsin would rack up a majority in the referendum.

“Look at me,” said Natalya Donskaya, 53, an engineer by training who now works in a stamp factory. “I sat away my whole life in an institute, never worked hard and got paid pennies. Now I have to work for real, but I get paid 100 times better.”

On the Communist side of the Kremlin, however, Yeltsin’s opponents were equally confident that the people would reject any president who had brought them hyper-inflation, unemployment and economic chaos.

“Yeltsin Is the Best Friend of Swindlers and Thieves,” read one sign. And another: “Yeltsin, You Have Been Torturing the People for Three Years. Our Patience Is Exhausted.”

“Yeltsin and his democrats have missed their chance. Power is slipping out of their hands,” said Vyacheslav, an engineer who refused to give his last name. “None of my friends or acquaintances support Yeltsin. I don’t know a single person who would sympathize with him.”

Around Russia, smaller demonstrations in dozens of cities mirrored the split in Moscow, with most protesters turning out in favor of Yeltsin.

About 2,000 Yeltsin backers turned out in the central Russian city of Tula, and demonstrators gathered in Perm, Irkutsk, Penza, Samara, Kirov and Ulyanovsk, according to Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency.

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