Yeltsin Resigns; Party Is Stunned : Soviet Union: Maverick says he can’t serve on Politburo and as Russian Federation leader at same time. Radical reformers to bolt, form an independent party.

MOSCOW —  Boris N. Yeltsin, the populist president of Russia, quit the Soviet Communist Party on Thursday, saying that he could not remain a member, obliged to uphold its policies, and also serve as the head of the Russian Federation, the largest of the Soviet Union’s constituent republics.

Yeltsin’s resignation stunned the Communist Party Congress, which is due to end today, and dramatized the extent to which power has flowed from the once-omnipotent party to that country’s newly strengthened government.

Radical reformers belonging to the Democratic Platform then announced that they are breaking away to form an independent parParty Future Looks BleakThe Soviet Communist Party’s fortunes are likely to keep sliding. An analysis. ty, a further splintering of the Communist Party whose disciplined unity enabled it to carry out the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and rule for nearly 73 years.

Together, Yeltsin’s resignation and the Democratic Platform’s withdrawal from the party reflect the immense strides that the Soviet Union has made toward development of democracy and political pluralism under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, for no longer is power the monopoly of the Communists.

But the moves also reflected, dramatically and even poignantly, the crumbling of the party that transformed one of Europe’s most backward nations into the world’s second-largest economy, that built the ever-weak Russia into a global superpower and that must guide a still socialist nation through fundamental and painful reforms.

Yeltsin, who was a party member for 29 of his 59 years and who had risen through the ranks to sit in the party’s Politburo, delivered perhaps the more telling blow. His resignation exposed the depth of the division between the party and Soviet society and provided public proof of the party’s increasing irrelevance.

“I am announcing my resignation from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,” he said gravely from the congress rostrum. “In view of my . . . great responsibility towards the people of Russia and in connection with moves towards a multi-party state, I cannot fulfill only the instructions of the Communist Party.

“As the highest elected figure in the republic, I must bow to the will of the people. Therefore, in connection with my obligations, made during my election campaign, I declare my withdrawal from the party.”

Yeltsin, always the political maverick, had earlier said he might “suspend” his party membership while serving as president of Russia so that he would not be required to adhere to the policies decided by the party hierarchy. But his decision to quit, and his ability then to retain his presidency, was virtually unprecedented, even in these turbulent times.

Hows many of the party’s 18 million members will follow Yeltsin is uncertain, but his resignation is likely to have a major psychological impact on politics. If an official as high as the president of Russia feels that he need not belong to the party and, in fact, should be free from its political discipline, why, other party members will ask, should they remain members?

Yeltsin, a plain-spoken Siberian giant with a vast popular following throughout Russia, rose to speak as the congress began considering the composition of a new policy-making Central Committee that would have included him among its nearly 400 members.

Called to the rostrum by Gorbachev, Yeltsin said he had originally intended to make his announcement after the congress to avoid disrupting it but that his nomination to the Central Committee made it necessary, he felt, to speak now.

Yeltsin had laid out his views last Friday on the party and the direction he believes it should take, warning that if it does not democratize faster it will be overtaken by political developments in the same way that the governments of Eastern Europe have been.

Communist parties in those countries “separated themselves from the people, did not understand their role--and were left on the side of the road,” he said last week.

After he announced his decision Thursday, Yeltsin left the rostrum without further explanation or discussion and, pausing only to pick up his briefcase, strode straight up the aisle and out of the hall at the Kremlin’s Palace of Congresses.

Most of the nearly 4,700 delegates to the congress, who have been notable for their conservatism, sat in stunned silence as they realized that Yeltsin, a man who in the past they had considered expelling from the party for lack of political discipline, had just freed himself from their control.

A number then began applauding, more in derision than support, and as Yeltsin left some shouted “Shame!”

But Yeltsin did not look back at the hubbub behind him.

Gorbachev, the frequent target of Yeltsin’s criticism, observed, with a wry smile, “Well, that’s his decision. That ends the whole process logically.”

In a meaningless but reflexive gesture, Gorbachev then called on delegates to ask the congress’ credentials committee to consider canceling Yeltsin’s mandate as a delegate because he was quitting the party, and they duly voted to do so.

The Democratic Platform’s decision to break away and form an independent party was expected--there had been strong sentiment within the group for doing it earlier--but the actual declaration of “a division of the party” sent further shock waves through the congress.

“I and my colleagues from the Democratic Platform came to this congress with a hope that it would become a factor of resolute change towards the democratic renovation of our party,” said Vyacheslav M. Shostakovsky, rector of the Moscow Higher Party School and a founder of the Democratic Platform.

“Regrettably, our hopes did not materialize. This congress has not met, first of all, the hopes of the people for the division of party and state posts.”

The declaration was signed by Anatoly Sobchak, the new mayor of Leningrad; Yuri Boldyrev, a prominent Leningrad radical; Vladimir Lopatin, an army officer who has campaigned for military reform, and Vladimir Lysenko, Stepan Sulakshin and Viktor Yaroshenko, other founders of the Democratic Platform.

“None of our proposals was accepted by the congress,” Lysenko complained later. “This remains the party it has always been. . . . That is why the division of the party became inevitable, and the Democratic Platform will start forming a parliamentary type of party based on the ideas that we have proclaimed.”

The group claims about 100 members among the delegates, roughly 2%, and opinion polls show that about 5% to 15% of rank-and-file party members support it, although organizers claim that in elections their candidates regularly win 40% of the votes cast.

The split will be the first formal division in the party since 1903, when the Mensheviks broke with the Bolsheviks on a series of crucial issues, at a congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, a forerunner of today’s Communist Party.

Sharp differences developed Thursday around changes in the party’s statutes that will govern the amount of debate and dissent allowed in the future. Until now, the party’s principle of “democratic centralism” effectively cut off discussion of any issue once the leadership made a decision. Changes in the rules would permit considerable debate but still require adherence to party decisions.

“For the party not to turn into a discussion club, not to lose the capability for energetic political actions,” Gorbachev said, arguing for the proposed change, “the broadest democracy in the party should be combined with centralism and discipline.”

But Communist Party leaders from several of the Soviet Union’s constituent republics demanded the freedom to develop their own programs and rules. This was rejected once, later accepted, then rejected again and finally referred to a special commission, which was unable to find an immediate compromise.

The party has proposed the election of a 398-member Central Committee as the main policy-making body until the next congress. Most of the members will be nominated locally, making it a representative body for the first time, but roughly a fifth will be proposed by the central leadership.

After the Central Committee election, a new Politburo will be named, with the narrower responsibility of overseeing party affairs. About two-thirds of its members, at least 15, will come from the country’s constituent republics.

BACKGROUND

The radical Democratic Platform faction of the Soviet Communist Party claims about 100 of the nearly 4,700 delegates at the congress. But its leaders contend that it has the loyalty of a vast section of the party’s rank and file. The faction’s decision to break away will bring the first formal division in the party since 1903, when the Mensheviks broke with the Bolsheviks on a series of crucial issues, including questions of philosophy, strategy and tactics.

PARTY FUTURE BLEAK: The Soviet Communist Party’s fortunes are likely to keep sliding. An analysis. A18