Boris Yeltsin and scores of other liberal legislators lost bids Saturday to become members of a select Supreme Soviet seen as the most democratic version of that parliamentary body in 71 years of Communist rule.
Historian Yuri Afanasyev immediately stood and censured the conservative voting by the 2,250 members of the new Congress of People's Deputies, who chose the Supreme Soviet members from among their own ranks."The Congress has selected a (Josef) Stalin-, Leonid Brezhnev-like Supreme Soviet," Afanaseyev said, referring to two hard-line predecessors of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. "As regards qualification and expertise, it is of a very low level."
The members of congress voted through the night to select 542 members of a new Supreme Soviet - a body divided into two houses to meet and debate issues eight months of year, much like a Western parliament. The congress will meet less frequently but will have a role in reviewing Supreme Soviet decisions.
The voting session by the new congress, which convened for the first time Thursday and named Gorbachev to a more powerful presidency, was broadcast live on television and radio.
Soviets observing what has been called a televised classroom of democracy witnessed the defeat of former Moscow Communist Party boss Yeltsin and scores of liberals who back Gorbachev's policy of reforms. "The vote leaves a bad taste, and it won't look good in the West," said a Western diplomat.
"It is an insult to Muscovites," one middle-aged Moscow office worker said.
Yeltsin, 58, was ousted from his positions as a candidate member of the ruling Politburo and Moscow party boss in October 1987 for criticizing the slow pace of reform and denouncing Politburo conservative Yegor Ligachev.
But Yeltsin, condemning party privileges, made a spectacular political comeback against the official press and Communist Party machine, when voters overwhelmingly elected him to the congress as Moscow's main representative during national elections March 26. Yeltsin was the biggest vote getter.
As Mikhail Gorbachev listened quietly, Afanaseyev branded the deputies in the Kremlin's Palace of Congresses "an aggressive, obedient majority."
"Gorbachev either listened too closely to this majority or he himself organized its work," Afanaseyev said, as scores of deputies rose to give him a standing ovation.
A store worker watching Afanaseyev's speech on television said, "Russians have finally found their voice."
Defeated along with Yeltsin were scores of young, eloquent Moscow deputies like Sergei Stankevich, Kraiko and Ilya Zas-lavsky, disabled since birth and one of the most popular deputies.