MOSCOW -AP- Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, lifelong Communists
who presided over the party's removal from power, told American television
viewers today the Communist system had failed their country.   

  The Soviet and Russian presidents sat beside each other in matching
gold and ivory chairs in the Kremlin's glittering St. George's Hall.
They answered questions live on ABC television from viewers around the
United States, and the show was also broadcast in the Soviet Union. 
 

  The men addressed the fate of their nation's nuclear arsenal, talked
about their religious beliefs and stormy personal relationship, and promised
dissidents they could return safely.   

  One of their more dramatic responses came to a question by Los Angeles
actor Ben Stein, who asked whether the two leaders believed any country
should live under communism.   

  Yeltsin answered first: ''This experiment which was conducted on our
soil was a tragedy for our people and it was too bad that it happened
on our territory. It would have been better if the experiment had happened
in some small country, to make it clear that it was a utopian idea, although
a beautiful idea.''   

  Gorbachev said history has shown that ''that model has failed which
was brought about in our country. And I believe that this is a lesson
not only for our people but for all peoples.   

  But he added that in other countries, ''the devotion to the socialist
ideal has led to very interesting results.''    

  Yesterday, Gorbachev and Yeltsin worked together to gain approval of
an interim government for the Soviet Union and a program to create a
new confederation of sovereign states.   

  The new system would end more than 70 years of Kremlin rule under the
Communist Party and reorganize the Soviet government to give many powers
to Soviet republics.   

  The political upheaval followed an Aug. 18-21 coup attempt by a Communist
hard-liners who tried to oust Gorbachev as Soviet president and end his
reforms. The coup collapsed, its leaders were arrested and the party
was pulled from power.   

  Gorbachev and Yeltsin rose to prominence through the Communist Party,
but Yeltsin had resigned from it long before the coup attempt and Gorbachev
stepped down as party leader afterwards.   

  A questioner from Atlanta who identified himself as Oleg Myshkin, a
defector who said he had had problems with the KGB, was assured by Yeltsin,
''There is no more danger ... please come back.''   

  Yeltsin said he had met with exiles recently and welcomed them home.
''I said 'well certainly, please come back. Now there's no more danger.'''
  

  Peter Jennings, the ABC host, asked the two men how they got along.
  

  ''Once upon a time that was a difficult question. A good deal of water
has passed through the bridge,'' Gorbachev said.   

  Yelstin said: ''Yes, our relationship has not been an easy one. There've
been dramatic times and there've been normal and businesslike times.
  

  ''There have been times when Gorbachev thought I was a political corpse
... But somehow we've adjusted, and particularly after recent events
after the coup, President Gorbachev has changed very seriously.''   

  From Miami, a Cuban exile asked whether the leaders foresaw the withdrawal
of military hardware from his former land.   

  Yeltsin said, ''I think that the process has begun and it must be continued.
Gradually the troops must be moved out.''   

  Gorbachev, however, struck a different note, saying that the two countries
have ''mutually beneficial (relations) in an economic sense. ... I believe
we don't intend to alter our relations in a different direction.''  


  A Ukrainian Catholic Church priest asked about the leaders' personal
religious beliefs.   

  Gorbachev said it was up to the individual to choose his beliefs, saying,
''I do feel it necessary to add that I am personally an atheist.''  


  Yeltsin said, ''the services, the ritual aspect - I don't really observe
those, although I've been in church quite often, because during the service
there's a kind of internal feeling of moral cleansing as it were.'' 
 

  A questioner from Detroit, educator Carl Gregory, asked who controls
Soviet nuclear weapons now and what protections are in place against
their accidental use.   

  ''No one should have any anxiety in this regard ... There is a very
rigid mechanism that excludes the possibility of any surprises,'' Gorbachev
said.   

  From the heavily Russian Brighton Beach section of New York City, a
man asked about political prisoners.   

  Gorbachev said that only a few days ago, he and Yeltsin were informed
of people imprisoned for ''mixed criminal and political factors.''  


  He said they hoped to learn more about it. ''We stand firmly that people
should not be persecuted for dissidents or for their political views.''
  

  Yeltsin said 21 people were found to have been detained illegally,
and ''include those people put in prison for their convictions.'' Gorbachev
added the release of six would be sought.   

  The two leaders spoke in Russian and ABC provided an English translation.