Meek revolt transforms Sverdlovsk: The self-proclamation of the Urals Republic could start a chain reaction across Russia, writes Andrew Higgins from Yekaterinburg

IN THE excitement of the moment - the proclamation of a new republic in the city where Tsar Nicholas II was murdered and Boris Yeltsin made his name - the Sverdlovsk Regional Council declared a public holiday.

Then someone noticed the time: 6.10pm. 'It was too late to give people the day off,' recalls Anatoly Grebenkin, economics professor, council chairman and a founding father of the self-styled Urals Republic. They had to settle for more low-key celebrations. They gave themselves a banquet instead.

From the start, the Urals Republic has been an odd, almost private affair, unnoticed by most of its nearly 5 million subjects but followed with feverish interest by politicians from Moscow to Vladivostok. Nearly every national figure has something to say about it. President Yeltsin calls it 'inappropriate'; Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi sees a 'conspiracy'; St Petersburg's Mayor Anatoly Sobchak mocks it as 'rubbish'.

Yet, in the two weeks since Sverdlovsk voted 149-20 to elevate itself from simple oblast to republic and thus claim the right to pass laws and cut taxes to Moscow, two other regions have followed suit. Two more are preparing to do the same.

Mr Grebenkin is hardly a hot- headed separatist. 'We have no borders, no customs, no visas, no army, no currency, no language other than Russian. We are not leaving Russia and have no plans to do so.' All the Urals Republic has is a black, green and white flag, based on a standard used by Medieval merchants and by White Russians during the civil war. Behind his desk in the council building, Mr Grebenkin keeps a Russian flag. The colours of his new republic are found only on metal lapel pins handed out as souvenirs of Yekaterinburg's meek revolt.

But could it be the start of a chain reaction that will send Russia the way of the Soviet Union? The fault-lines are numerous. The Soviet Union split into 15 parts. Russia has 89. But the Soviet empire, traumatised by demonstrations in the Baltics, pogroms in Baku and other outbursts of public passion, fell apart to a clamour of popular protest. The fraying of Russia is more private, played out behind closed doors and dominated by discussion of tax codes and the arcane details of constitutional law. Stirring slogans are few. Deals are possible.

And the master deal-maker is Boris Yeltsin. In 1990 he told Russia's restive provinces: 'Take as much power as you can swallow.' His aim was to outflank Mikhail Gorbachev and establish himself as the figure regional bosses would look to to defend their interests. He is trying the same gamble, to side-step and ultimately abolish the Congress of People's Deputies.

Provincial leaders dominated a Constitutional Assembly set up by Mr Yeltsin in Moscow to fix a new post- Communist charter. With a draft approved on Monday, they have now been asked to take the text home and vote on it. It moves part way to satisfying one of the main demands of regions like Sverdlovsk: that Moscow put them on the same footing as 20 ethnically-based republics enjoying tax breaks and other privileges.

There is widespread suspicion that Mr Yeltsin may have engineered the Urals Republic to try to break the logjam over the constitution. 'It was a form of political shock therapy,' admits Mr Grebenkin. But he denies any plot. In fact he denies, a bit too strongly - any contact with the Kremlin on the issue. This is improbable, since Mr Yeltsin ran Sverdlovsk from 1968 to 1985 for the Communist Party, and keeps a close eye on it still.

Alexander Kobernichenko, chief of staff to the Yekaterinburg city administration, is convinced Mr Yeltsin played a role. He thinks becoming a republic is silly: 'It is not real. It is just a declaration.' But he welcomes the opportunity to send less money to Moscow: 'The reason for all this is economic. Nothing else matters. We are not a banana republic,' he sniffs.

No patch of Russian territory other than Chechnya wants full independence. But Sverdlovsk and other regions want equality. The problem is: how to convert a heterogenous empire into something like the United States of Europe and Asia. Communism is only partly to blame: the Tsar's empire too was a crazy jumble.

'This is not the idea of crazy men but of pragmatists,' says Alexander Ryzhkov, the closest thing to a Urals Republic patriot. 'We are not creating a new state like they did in America,' he insists. But this is precisely what they are doing, not just for the Urals but for the whole of Russia.