Soviet Union And the Breadwinner Is . . . . . . Mikhail Gorbachev, who reclaims the initiative by acknowledging that half a loaf is better than none

By Bruce W. Nelan

Amid the constant shortages and discomforts of Soviet life, one of its good things has always been a crusty loaf of nutty Russian bread. Comforting to stomach and soul, bread is a mainstay of the masses' daily existence. For that reason, Moscow for almost 30 years has held the price of the average loaf at a heavily subsidized 23 kopecks -- about 40 cents.

When the government suggested tripling the price of bread from July 1 as a start on dismantling the vast subsidy system, nationwide fury was the completely predictable result. Last week legislators in the Supreme Soviet voted 319 to 33 to delay any increase for at least two months. Only the day before, the parliament had approved an outline for a more rapid "transition to a regulated market economy" than originally envisioned by the government.

More defeats for Gorbachev and his reforms? Not necessarily. The Supreme Soviet may have done him a favor. He had given only tepid support to the program presented by Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov in late May; in fact, many Western experts believe Gorbachev had little to do with fine-tuning it. Almost immediately, the plan's half measures were attacked by conservatives and liberals alike. When the advance warning of price increases set off panic ( buying across the country, the Kremlin lost enthusiasm for the proposals.

Supreme Soviet Chairman Anatoli Lukyanov, Gorbachev's deputy, took last week's votes philosophically. Economic reform, he said, "is a new revolution. Of course it needs perfecting." Just before adjourning for the summer, parliament instructed the government to come back with a new package in the fall. The next plan, the Supreme Soviet urged, should be far bolder in cutting government spending, deregulating economic activity and decontrolling prices.

Meanwhile the legislators affirmed Gorbachev's decree powers as President and called on him to use them to break up monopolies, sell state property and establish a banking system. This, says Ed Hewett, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, amounts almost to a vote of confidence and gives Gorbachev the option to "move quickly toward a market economy" -- if he wants to.

The Soviet President also reclaimed the initiative in his struggle with the forces of nationalism and separatism. He had been visibly dismayed when his populist nemesis, Boris Yeltsin, won election as chairman of the Russian Federation's Supreme Soviet and engineered a declaration of the republic's desire for "sovereignty." Gorbachev countered by ordering up a commission to draft a new treaty that would establish a loose federation among the 15 Soviet republics, providing each of them with economic "sovereignty." In a show of goodwill, he partly eased the natural-gas embargo against breakaway Lithuania. After meeting with the leaders of all the republics for five hours last week, Gorbachev seemed to have dampened his antagonist's fervor. Said Yeltsin: "We shook hands, and we met each other halfway . . . We agreed that Russia cannot survive without the entire country and the country cannot survive without Russia."

So many vital issues are competing for Gorbachev's attention that he has decided he needs technical assistance from an unlikely source: the White House. A six-member Soviet delegation toured the premises last week, and John Sununu, the markedly conservative chief of staff, will go to Moscow to offer pointers on the best way to organize a presidential branch of government. The Soviets, Sununu observes, are now encountering not only the benefits of reform but "all the things that make democratic political systems so . . . ((pained smile)) . . . interesting."

With reporting by Ann Blackman/Moscow