In the Russian heartland, Tanya Tsatkov worries more about her plum preserves than the union falling around her. But she sees Mother Russia awakening and is thrilled.

For once, all the fuss in Moscow has captivated this little village on the Volga River, 60 miles northwest of the capital. But no one took to its streets, cobblestone tracks that date from the czars.Zinaida Kotenkova, who runs a spare state general store in the moldering remains of an elegant frame house, is prepared to plug away a while longer until Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian republic, can make things better.

"Perhaps in a year we will not only be able to hear good news but also to see real changes in life," she said of the prospects for a post-coup Soviet Union.

Mikhail Yeliseyev, a cable factory worker studying the store shelves, with wide empty spaces among the bread loaves and canned basics, nodded in agreement. He is also a Yeltsin fan.

"We see no change, but we see the beginnings of change," said Yeliseyev. "That is enough."

With its dilapidated houses set around a little church topped by five turquoise blue onion domes, Svordlovo looks frozen in time. Still, cheery yellow picket fences and flowers suggest it is ready to spring to life.

"Who knows when?" reflected Yeliseyev. "Maybe in my son's lifetime, certainly in my granddaughter's." His son is 31. His granddaughter is 4.

Tsatkov lives in nearby Vahonino, where her husband is building director for a collective farm. Their large yard is ablaze with irises, zinnias and rich red salvia among fat cabbages and fruit trees.

As fall approaches, they put up their winter supplies and head to the forests, like everyone else in the Russian heartland, to pick wild mushrooms.

The Tsatkovs know that upheaval in the Soviet Union will mean something important to them. They are proud Russians and hopeful for the future. But things are still in the realm of maybe.

For Alexei Tsatkov, 12, and his older sister, Natasha, it is all mostly words on the radio. Both have heard too many confusing promises of a new life to come, and neither's life seems directly involved.

"Yes, I think it is important," said Alexei, looking as if he didn't. Asked what would change, he said, "Maybe prices." After a moment, he added: "I'll know when I go to school Monday."

He turned away and began happily fingering his remote control, turning up the volume on Soviet-style MTV. As talk of politics continued, Natasha quietly sang along with the song on the television, "Circle in the Sand."

But Valery Kolmogozov, a surgeon who came to lunch, was excited at the prospect of throwing off the stifling overlay of a Communist authoritarian state. He was confident that a new union would emerge.

"Republics can declare anything they want," he said, addressing the rush toward separation, "but real independence in the economic and human sense is impossible. There are millions of small ties that bind."

Instead, he said, the Soviet Union will devise a loose confederation along the lines of the European Economic Community's goal for 1993.

"All of this means that we can open to the world, learn from others and make exchanges on the basis of reality, so that we don't have to waste time reinventing the bicycle," he said.

Kolmogozov gave medicine as an example. Soviet doctors have a sound scientific background, he said, but lack everything from high technology to basic equipment. With free trade and travel, standards should soar.

At the same time, he said, gifted surgeons would not be fired by jealous superiors, or have to leave their hospital to spend their days finding enough lumber and nails to build their homes.

He acknowledged that the job ahead amounts to pushing stones uphill, not only to find political accommodation but also to revamp a paralyzing centrally planned system into a market economy.

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Still, he said he has faith in Russians and their neighbors.

"We face nothing worse than what we've known already," he said. "If we survived so far, we can survive anything."

Tsatkov seconded his thought with a glance around her garden.

"With good work, strong hands, you cannot fail in this life."

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