Baltic Republics

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev ruled Monday that the declarations of independence by Estonia and Latvia are illegal, opening the way for sanctions against the two Baltic republics if they seek to implement their decisions to secede from the Soviet Union.

Citizens of the Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia, taking another step toward secession from the Soviet Union, voted by margins of 3 to 1 for the re-establishment of their republics' independence in referendums Sunday. According to incomplete results, more than 77% of Latvian voters responded "yes" to the question: "Do you support the democratic and independent statehood of the Republic of Latvia?"

The fine print on official U.S. maps denies this is part of the Soviet Union, and when President Bush meets Mikhail S. Gorbachev next week, many in the Baltic republics--Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia--want him not to forget it. "The West has always regarded the U.S.S.R. as its greatest threat," Eugen Pyat, a member of the Estonian People's Front, said. "So why can't it destroy the U.S.S.R.

The presidents of the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia met Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Tuesday and said they are taking home compromise proposals to end the political crisis caused by their decisions to secede from the Soviet Union.

Determined to lift the dead hand of Soviet central planning from their economies, the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are preparing to declare their "independence" from Moscow. Broadening President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's political and economic reforms, they plan to assert ownership of their natural resources, to take over most of the factories and enterprises now operated from Moscow and to free their economies from rigid government control. The moves in the Baltic republics, planned for next year, are likely to constitute a major step toward "market socialism"--a mixed economy of competitive state, cooperative and private businesses in which the economic forces of supply and demand and measures involving such things as taxes and interest rates replace state planning and central management.

The Soviet Defense Ministry on Monday ordered army paratroopers, reportedly by the thousands, to track down and capture draft dodgers and deserters in restive areas of the country as President Mikhail S. Gorbachev again showed his firm determination to enforce Soviet laws nationwide. The Defense Ministry said the decision to employ squads of soldiers to dragoon youths into the military ranks had become necessary to ensure the country's ability to defend itself.

The Baltic Sea had no Homer to chronicle its ancient wars and tempests. In modern times, it is often dismissed as the backwater of Northern Europe. But historic dramas on the Continent have always washed up on its shores, and with fateful consequences. Today, the political and economic convulsions shaking the Soviet Union have provided an opportunity for Lithuania, one of the three Baltic states absorbed by the Soviets in 1940, to declare its independence.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, attempting to break the bitter deadlock over independence for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, appointed delegations Friday to open negotiations with the Baltic republics on their future political and economic relationship with Moscow.

The drum roll of gunfire in the Baltics has heralded the potential dictatorship that former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze had warned of. "Committees of National Salvation," overtly or covertly linked to hard-line Communist Party leaders and claiming the allegiance of army generals and elite Interior Ministry forces, are clamoring for the dissolution of the parliaments in the Baltic states.

In a tangible sign that the Kremlin accepts that Lithuania is on the road to independence, officials from Moscow and the Baltic republic on Wednesday signed an agreement making a Lithuanian-issued visa the only requirement for entry into the republic. The agreement, signed for the central government by a deputy chairman of the Soviet KGB, Gen.