Communists Lead Crowded Field in Russian Elections : Parliament: Ultranationalists are running second in unofficial returns, but no party is likely to dominate Duma. The fractured vote reflects the nation’s disunity.

Russians battled blizzards, lightning bolts and bursting ballot boxes Sunday to vote in a parliamentary election that appeared to breathe new life into the Communist Party that for seven decades made Russia synonymous with dictatorship and repression.

Early unofficial returns from about two-thirds of the vast federation showed the Communists leading a crowded field of 43 parties and movements with nearly 22% of the vote.

Ultranationalist disciples of Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party were running second with slightly less than 12%, followed by the government-backed Our Home Is Russia movement with 9%.

The pro-reform Yabloko bloc, headed by charismatic economist Grigory A. Yavlinsky, had almost 8% of the vote, and the moderate Women of Russia group also appeared likely to clear the 5% margin needed to win any share of seats in the Duma.

The sole surprise in the voting was the apparent failure of the once-touted Congress of Russian Communities, led by a popular law-and-order general, to draw enough support to surpass the 5% threshold.

The scattered vote reflected the disunity and indecision gripping many Russians as they struggle through a chaotic social transition, and it was expected to become even more fractured and polarized as counting was completed in more developed western regions.

Reforms have been more successful in improving lifestyles in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was in the more populous territory west of the Ural Mountains that the lavish advertising campaign of Our Home Is Russia was focused.

Whatever the final tally, the fragmented vote is likely to ensure that no single political force ends up with enough clout to dominate the 450-seat Duma.

Nevertheless, Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov claimed that the first results confirmed that “the party is restoring its power.”

In an interview with state-run Russian Television, the portly career Communist said the vote discredited the government, but he stopped short of demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin.

The Communists might have struck a chord among the poor and elderly by ranting against market reforms that have impoverished those on fixed incomes. But to make significant changes in the country’s direction, they would have to forge alliances with ideological opponents to cobble a simple majority.

As President Boris N. Yeltsin cast his ballot at the suburban spa where he has been recuperating from heart trouble, he vowed that there will never be a return of Communist rule in Russia.

“No, and once more no!” the president thundered when asked if the vote could usher in a new age of state domination.

Politicians were not the only ones unleashing fury.

An electrical storm clashed with a blizzard in Moscow in midafternoon, creating a dramatic backdrop to the political theater.

Unfriendly elements did little to deter voters, however, and turnout was unexpectedly high, surpassing the 25% needed for validation early in the day. More than 60% of Russia’s 104 million eligible voters cast ballots, the Central Election Commission reported.

Russia’s second multi-party vote for the lower house of parliament--which analysts called convincing evidence of maturing democracy in Russia--was marred by mudslinging and accusations among some radical candidates that those in power would manipulate the results.

Zhirinovsky, who won a stunning 23% of the last parliamentary vote, claimed that his Liberal Democratic Party was expected to get 40% this time but that fraud would halve that share.

International election monitors, however, reported few irregularities and no obvious instances of fraud.

The most frequent complaints involved Moscow polling places, which were “not well prepared technically,” said Sergei Markov of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. When some voters caught a glimpse of huge crowds packed into stuffy rooms, they went back home out of fear of exposure to a raging flu epidemic in the capital, he said.

Moscow monitors also reported that in some locales, sealed ballot boxes were too small to accommodate the unexpectedly large number of votes cast, especially since the huge ballot papers had to be folded at least twice to fit into the slots.

Counting was expected to be slow, especially for the individual mandates, and full preliminary results were expected late today.

The Duma may be virtually powerless under the constitution authored by Yeltsin, but winning a seat provides an important stage for those planning a run for the all-powerful presidency in June.

Perhaps sensing a strong showing for opposition parties, Yeltsin told Russian reporters selected to watch him cast his ballot that the outcome could prompt some changes in government but that he is determined to retain Chernomyrdin as prime minister.

Yeltsin also vowed to stay on track with reforms that have ushered in a new era of personal freedom and a market economy in place of the moribund Communist system that collapsed with the Soviet Union in 1991.

But Russian uncertainty about the best course for the future was evident even within families, as many married couples left the polls conceding that they had voted for opposing candidates.

Some voters, frustrated with unrealized hopes after earlier choices, said they had come full circle to vote for the Communists.

“All my life I voted for the Communists because there was no other option,” said Ivan P. Zaviraltsev, a retired bus driver. But after disappointments with democratic choices, Zaviraltsev said he had concluded that “socialism was a more fair system.”

But for some Russians, today’s transitional hardships are still not enough to persuade them to seek a return to yesterday’s terrors.

“Communists had my father shot and my mother sent to prison for 15 years,” recalled 72-year-old Aza G. Dyakonova as she emerged from a central Moscow polling station. “One Communist regime is quite enough for my life.”