MOSCOW -- Russian tanks and troops moved into the breakaway mountain republic of Chechnya yesterday from three different jumping-off points, meeting little resistance at first but opening up the prospect of a dangerous political struggle in Russia itself.
Initial casualties were light, but Chechen President Dzhokar Dudayev, a former Soviet general who has about 10,000 well-equipped fighters, vowed to defend his oil-rich, mostly Muslim republic.
By last night, the Russian force of some 40,000 troops was reportedly within 10 miles of the entrenched Chechen capital of Grozny.
The move brought immediate criticism from the Russian parliament and especially from the putative allies of President Boris N. Yeltsin.
Democratic reformers fear that the deployment of troops could become a pretext for the imposition of military emergency rule throughout Russia. At a protest rally yesterday, they said that an armed conflict on Russian soil poses a greater threat to the nation's security than does the continued existence of Mr. Dudayev's rebel regime, 950 miles southwest of Moscow.
Yegor Gaidar, leader of the Democratic Choice of Russia Party, called on Russian soldiers not to shoot. He said there still was time to reach a negotiated settlement.
"War means bigger military spending, a state of emergency across Russia, and, finally, the introduction of a police state," he said.
That criticism led Andrei Kozy- rev, the foreign minister, to announce last night that he is quitting Mr. Gaidar's bloc of parliamentary deputies -- confirming a rift among reformers that may be one of the first concrete results of the Chechen operation.
Mr. Gaidar warned that if Russian troops attack Grozny, the political reaction will grow so intense that in the end it will sweep Mr. Yeltsin from office.
Valentin Sergeyev, a Russian government spokesman, said last night that there are no plans to storm Grozny, implying that Russian forces will blockade the city instead.
At sundown it was reported that Interior Ministry troops had reached the village of Tolstoi-Yurt, about 8 miles from Grozny.
Two people had been reported killed and 10 wounded in skirmishing in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia, the provincial government reported. The fighting occurred when Russian tanks were blocked by ethnic Ingush.
The military "advance," as the government calls it, involves three armored columns, supported by helicopter gunships, moving into the small republic from the north, east and west. It comes three years after Mr. Dudayev, drawing on centuries of hostility to Russia in the mountainous North Caucasus, declared independence as the Soviet Union collapsed, and it follows a month of intense maneuvering by Mr. Dudayev, his Chechen opposition, and the Russian government.
Chechnya, no bigger than Connecticut, is prized because of its oil refining and distribution facilities and strategic location near Russia's border with Turkey and Iran.
Mr. Yeltsin has been faced with a particularly nasty crisis in the breakaway region, where even with Russian help the opposition rebels have been unable to overthrow Mr. Dudayev. Earlier this month, despite official denials, it became evident that fighters captured by Mr. Dudayev's forces were in fact regular Russian servicemen.
Refusing to back down
Thus Mr. Yeltsin faced what to him was the danger of having to back down in humiliation from a fight in Chechnya.
Instead, he opted to push forward.
As late as Saturday, one group of advisers had reportedly offered him a plan for Chechnya that avoided military force, but Mr. Yeltsin discarded it without explanation.
In the text of an address released last night, he said he had ordered the deployment of troops in order "to find a political solution" in Chechnya and "to protect its citizens from armed extremists."
"As president, I will see to it that the constitution and the laws are observed," he said.
But the image of Russian troops moving in to quell a nationalist movement reminded some members of parliament of other, earlier missions -- namely, the Soviet crackdowns on Baku, Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Vilnius, Lithuania, five years ago that were marked by the viciousness of their execution and their ultimate failure to achieve their goals.
"A different regime is today attempting to foist its version of the Federation Treaty upon another people," said Sergei Yushenkov, head of parliament's defense committee. "Of course we are all in favor of keeping Russia intact -- but not at any price. We are in favor of settling the conflict in the Chechen Republic by peaceful means."
There is also the fear that the Chechens, who are about a million strong, won't be easily subdued and could drag Russian forces into a deep and difficult quagmire. The Chechens fought against Russian domination for 40 years in the 19th century and say they are prepared to do so again.
A Chechen government appeal called on Russian servicemen "not to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the ambitions of politicians."
The Dudayev government was taking a tough stand early in the day. The foreign minister, Shamsedin Yusef, said Chechnya would not be sending a delegation to the city of Vladikavkaz, where negotiations were to have begun today.
'Talking with guns'
"We are talking with guns now," he said.
But Mr. Gaidar said he had received word from Mr. Dudayev that he was ready to negotiate without preconditions and that he had appealed to his own troops not to start a fight.
Mr. Yeltsin said he was determined that the Vladikavkaz talks should proceed as scheduled.
"The restoration of peace on the territory of Chechnya is in the interests of all people of the republic and all Russian people," he said. "I am confident that this is the only basis for solving problems which look insoluble today."
In Miami, President Clinton said at a news conference that the United States considered the Chechnya problem "an internal affair" for Russia. The West has ignored Chechnya's claim to be a landlocked independent nation inside Russia.