Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103180110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LESNOI, U.S.S.R LENGTH: Medium
"I voted `for' - of course," said 67-year-old Sergei Grigorievich as his wife, standing beside him, nodded in agreement. "I fought the war for the union," said the World War II veteran. "Of course, I am for it."
As for the other question apparently on everyone's mind - whether there should be direct elections for a Russian president, a vote that most people here think would be won handily by Boris Yeltsin - this couple and many of their neighbors were against the idea.
For many people outside the country's big cities and independence-minded republics, the idea of clearing the way for such a strong opponent of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to take power seemed intolerable. Yeltsin was elected president of Russia by the republic's legislature and is considered Gorbachev's chief political rival.
"Why should we have two presidents?" Grigorievich said firmly. "Two presidents are too many."
For all of the talk of glasnost in the cities and the rebellious republics, the debate on this question as well as on tangential issues - such as Gorbachev's leadership and the Soviet Union's severe economic problems - seems to have barely reached the Russian countryside.
In interviews with voters here, about 50 miles north of the capital, most seemed to dismiss food shortages and long waiting lines as temporary problems caused by hoarding by consumers or too little discipline by government leaders.
"I am for the union because my son lives in the Ukraine, and he would live in another country" if the union were to break up, said Maria Efimovna, 61, a janitor who lives nearby in Zagorsk, the center of the Russian Orthodox Church.
With her son nodding in agreement, Efimovna said there was not enough discipline in the Soviet Union. "What we need is more order," she said.
Her son, asked whether there was a Soviet leader who made life better for them, answered somberly: "Brezhnev," he said, referring to authoritarian Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who died in 1982 after 18 years in office.
"It was better during the Brezhnev government," agreed Maria Efimovna. "Gorbachev is a very indecisive man, a weak character."
Still, like others, she said she remained hopeful enough about Gorbachev's ability to improve conditions that she supported him by voting in favor of the resolution Sunday. "So far we see no good, but we hope," she said.
Only a few of the young voters interviewed in the countryside said they had opted for rebellion at the ballot box.
Three young voters said they had carefully marred their ballots so that they could not be counted for either side. Some of those opposing Gorbachev suspected possible fraud, suggesting that leftover ballots might be counted as favoring union - which is tantamount to a vote of support for the Soviet leader.
As the Russians gave their opinions somewhat cautiously, a woman in a bright blue overcoat circled the group. Finally, she could control herself no longer.
"What are you people doing?" she boomed. "Spreading propaganda against the union?"
At one point, much like a mother hen hovering over her young, she tried to wave reporters away from a young woman who had stopped pushing her baby carriage to answer questions.
"Go," the woman in blue hissed. "This is not necessary. Not necessary!"
by CNB