While President Mikhail Gorbachev scored a victory of sorts in last week's national referendum on the Soviet Union's future, the big winner was his archrival, Boris Yeltsin. At Yeltsin's urging, voters in the Russian Republic approved the idea of a popularly elected President. Yeltsin plans to seek that post, which is likely to intensify his confrontation with the Kremlin. And at the moment he would be the odds-on favorite to win it; leaders of a fast- growing miners' strike have already pledged their support.
Record books will have to put bulky footnotes under the 3-to-1 yes vote Gorbachev won for his...
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