Briefing Paper : They're Divvying Up the Soviet Humpty--Dumpty

Ter-Petrosyan is well-traveled and highly educated, a doctor of philosophy whose erudition and levelheadedness have earned him great respect in the West. The 46-year-old Syrian-born president was imprisoned in 1988 as one of the members of the committee demanding the annexation of the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.

Uniquely, he is guiding his republic toward independence within the strictures set by Soviet law, even scheduling a Sept. 21 referendum on the issue. Rivals accuse him of moving too slowly, but Ter-Petrosyan's quiet firmness is not in doubt. "It's impossible to force us to our knees," he told a crowd last spring. "No one can prevent us from continuing along the road to independence." His cultivation of Western contacts, aided by the far-flung Armenian diaspora, should stand him in good stead as his republic pursues that goal.

AZERBAIJAN

Ayaz Mutalibov

Party Membership: Communist since 1963, resigned party leadership posts following the anti-Gorbachev coup.

Quote: "I am astonished when people say we should sit at the negotiating table with Armenia. . . . What should I talk about with Ter-Petrosyan? Beg him to stop firing on us?"

Mutalibov, 53, began his career at a land reclamation institute, so it's fitting that he has seized on territorial disputes as a way to boost his popularity. His stance on Nagorno-Karabakh and other ethnic Armenian enclaves has been unbendingly nationalistic: "Nagorno-Karabakh is an autonomous territory in Azerbaijan and we, not they, provide for its constitutional rights."

In savage tones, he has accused Mikhail S. Gorbachev of destroying much under \o7 perestroika \f7 but building little. Mutalibov was visiting Iran when the anti-Gorbachev putsch occurred, and he welcomed the event in comments to reporters that he later denied. His resignation last week from his party posts should not affect his standing as supreme leader of Azerbaijan, which proclaimed independence last week.

BYELORUSSIA

Vyacheslav Kebich

Party Membership: Resigned his Communist Party posts last week.

Quote: "Byelorussia does not get a single dollar for its fertilizers."

With the resignation under fire of former President Nikolai Dementei for having done nothing to oppose the anti-Gorbachev putsch, this onetime engineer turned Byelorussian prime minister became the key leader in the republic. Since beginning to work for the Communist Party in 1985, Kebich, 55, has devoted his primary attention to the economy rather than independence, bemoaning Moscow's grip over production, distribution and pricing.

Byelorussian Popular Front leader Zinon Pozdniak has called Kebich "the kind of leader who knows and understands more than he can accomplish." Before the coup, his republic, long docile and ruled by Communist conservatives, had made no real moves toward independence, and anti-Communist activists contend that its vote to break away from the union was only a ploy to guarantee that the old guard retains power.

ESTONIA

Arnold Ruutel

Party Membership: Communist Party member since 1964; quit to support secession drive.

Quote: "We'd like the U.S. (financial) presence to increase."

While leading a long battle for the restoration of Estonia's independence, the silver-haired, distinguished Ruutel, 63, has cultivated Western support and sought better relations with neighboring Soviet republics. Early this year Estonia signed an economic treaty with Russia, with Ruutel calling cooperation with Yeltsin the only way to counter the threat of Kremlin dictatorship.

A visit to a U.S. law firm in 1990 led to accusations by his political rival, Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar, of involvement with the CIA--a charge Ruutel vigorously denies. He has refused to sign Gorbachev's proposed new Union Treaty. But he acknowledges that for an independent Estonia, the ethnic Russian population, which is in the majority in some northeastern regions, will present grave problems.

GEORGIA

Zviad Gamsakhurdia

Party Membership: Round Table-Free Georgia; former political prisoner.

Quote: "All my life I was in the opposition and fought against the government. Now I am the government."

Swept into power last October in Georgia's first multi-party elections, Gamsakhurdia, 52, gained popularity by voicing his nationalist, anti-Soviet views. He has agitated for independence since age 17, when, according to an acquaintance, he would "spend the day making plans to free Georgia." In the 1970s, he was imprisoned on charges of disseminating anti-Soviet propaganda.