A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

dic to attack the U.N. `` safe area '' of Gorazde , precipitating another crisis

 . One of the great successes of the U.N. operation in Bosnia , hammered out in 

tandem with U.S. diplomatic efforts , was the March peace settlement between Cro

at and Muslim factions that fought a vicious war for more than a year in central

 Bosnia in parallel with the main conflict pitting the Muslim-led government aga

inst Serb secessionists . Lt. Col. John McColl , commander of British forces in 

the region , Rose and the U.S. diplomats and military officers who brokered the 

accord saw it as the beginning of a process that would spread into the 72 percen

t of Bosnia held by the Serbs . Charles E. Redman , U.S. special envoy to the Bo

snian peace talks , says that now that Muslims and Croats have stopped fighting 

they should sign a peace agreement that would give them 51 percent of the countr

y and the Serbs 49 percent . But Aligic commands a corps of Bosnian fighters at 

least half of whom lost their homes in Serb expulsion campaigns known as `` ethn

ic cleansing . '' His eyes , therefore , tend to see the Muslim-Croat deal not a

s a harbinger of peace but as the facilitator of more war . `` The federation me

ans open roads . Open roads mean guns . And that means my men can go home , '' h

e said . While Rose was telling Aligic that continuing the war was `` pointless 

, '' Muslim infantry and Croat tanks were attacking Bosnian Serb positions near 

Tesanj , northeast of Travnik , in a joint probe marking the first time in more 

than a year that the Croat militia had fought alongside Muslim forces in central

 Bosnia . Muslim and Croat forces also cooperated against Serb fighters around t

he strategic Serb-held town of Brcko in northeastern Bosnia earlier this week wi

th Croat tanks lobbing a few rounds from their positions in Orasje to the north 

and Muslim gunners shelling the city from the south . Rose called the fighting `

` minor skirmishes . '' Bosnian commanders view the renewed cooperation as steps

 toward bigger ones . One of the goals of the Tesanj attack appears to be to cut

 a road running south from the Serb-held town of Teslic that supplies Serb gunne

rs on Mount Vlasic , a strategic peak overlooking Travnik . Aligic 's men recent

ly have attacked Serb positions there . Successful Muslim-Croat cooperation arou

nd Tesanj could bode well for more Muslim-Croat teamwork around Travnik , Aligic

 said . U.N. officers and many European diplomats have never taken the mostly Mu

slim army seriously . Just last week , Douglas Hogg , Britain 's deputy foreign 

minister , called on the Muslim government to acknowledge it had lost the war . 

In their meeting on Tuesday , Rose told Aligic he would need at least four years

 to retake the land he had lost . The Muslim commander 's response was simple : 

`` The general 's mathematics could use a little work . ''

 VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Twenty years after being stripped of his citizenship , hus

tled onto an Aeroflot airliner and sent into unwanted exile , Alexander Solzheni

tsyn returned triumphantly home Friday , eager to reacquaint himself with a coun

try he acknowledged had been `` altered beyond recognition . '' The Nobel Prize 

winner , who spent the last 18 years living quietly in southern Vermont , told a

 crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered in this port city 's main square that 

Russia had shed communism only to encounter more hardship . `` I never doubted t

hat communism was doomed to collapse , but I always feared what the price would 

be , '' he said . `` I know I am coming to a Russia torn apart , discouraged , s

tunned. .. . I would like to search with you for ways to get out of the 75 years

 of our quagmire . '' The square in which Solzhenitsyn delivered his address is 

still named `` The Fighters for Soviet Power . '' Despite a long trip , Solzheni

tsyn appeared delighted to be back in Russia , smiling and waving to the crowd a

s it applauded and cheered him . He was then whisked off in a minibus to the Vla

divostok Hotel , which was certain to provide the 75-year-old writer with a quic

k dose of new Russian reality : The hotel has not had hot water for days , its e

levators are on the blink , and among the guests are a number of the tough-looki

ng Russian `` biznessmeni '' who flourish here today . The hotel administration 

did , however , clear out the miniskirted women who , according to male visitors

 , frequently knocked on doors in the middle of the night , offering their servi

ces . Solzhenitsyn flew to Vladivostok from Anchorage , Alaska , with his wife ,

 Natalya , 54 , his youngest son , Stephan , 20 , and a horde of reporters docum

enting his historic trip home . During a brief refueling stop in Magadan , the h

eart of the brutal Soviet prison-camp network that he documented in his multi-vo

lume account , `` The Gulag Archipelago , '' he briefly disembarked , reached do

wn to touch the ground and told reporters , `` I bow my head .. . where hundreds

 of thousands if not millions of our executed fellow countrymen are buried . '' 

The writer intends to travel slowly across Russia to see firsthand a country he 

has only read and heard about for the past 20 years . Solzhenitsyn and his wife 

are having a house built in a leafy district on the outskirts of Moscow , but th

eir plans to move in have apparently been delayed by construction problems . The

 Solzhenitsyns have kept their home in Cavendish , Vt. , for their sons , who ar

e U.S. citizens and grew up in the United States . Solzhenitsyn told the Russian

 news agency Tass that he had chosen this formerly closed port , home to the onc

e mighty Soviet Pacific Fleet , instead of Moscow because he wanted to hear ordi

nary Russians and not those living in a city `` that has been living a privilege

d life '' at the expense of the rest of the country . There has been extensive c

overage of Solzhenitsyn 's return in Russian newspapers , and the local airport 

erupted in pandemonium Friday when more than 100 local and foreign journalists a

nd camera crews broke through a security line and besieged the writer as he desc

ended from his plane . Solzhenitsyn attempted to calm people , saying , `` Every

one stop . Take as many pictures of me as you want . '' Solzhenitsyn 's return i

s important to Russia not only because he is , as poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko calle

d him , `` our only living classic . '' His dissident years and unbending opposi

tion to the Soviet regime made him a hero to democracy activists . At the same t

ime , nationalists have hoped to claim him as a standard-bearer thanks to his ch

ampioning of the values of Russia 's roots and religion and his calls for a unit

ed Slavic nation . In his remarks Friday , and over the past few weeks , Solzhen

itsyn has said he intends to play only a moral or social role in the new Russia 

, not a political one . Still , his comments have clearly had a political edge .

 He has criticized the economic reforms of President Boris Yeltsin and his admin

istration for wreaking havoc with people 's lives , denounced the International 

Monetary Fund , dismissed Ukrainian nationalist sentiments and called ultranatio

nalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky a `` clown . '' He told Tass Friday that his 

life as a writer is basically complete and it was time to `` get down to hard wo

rk on rebuilding and reviving Russia . '' Whether Solzhenitsyn will have any imp

act is unclear . Russia has changed dramatically in the last three years , and t

here may be little room for writer-prophets who offer moral guidance to the mass

es . Many Russians , particularly the young , have not read Solzhenitsyn 's book

s and seem uninterested in his suggestions that Western ways have polluted Russi

a . At the same time , many here are clearly searching for someone untainted by 

the last few years of chaos and broken promises , a moral force in a country tha

t is struggling with the loss of all past certainties . Dissident Nobel Prize-wi

nning physicist Andrei Sakharov fulfilled that role for many , but since his dea

th in 1989 there has been no one . Solzhenitsyn , with his Tolstoyan beard and m

oral rectitude , has the same aura . He remains a larger-than-life figure for ma

ny because of his willingness to risk all to write the truth about the horrors o

f Soviet totalitarianism . For his work , the West gave him the 1970 Nobel Prize

 for literature and called him the worthy successor to Tolstoy , Fyodor Dostoyev

sky and Anton Chekhov . His rulers called him a traitor . He was hounded and har

assed , turned into an official non-person , with his books forbidden and unpubl

ished . In 1974 they forced him into exile , hoping that , removed from his home

land , his angry , overpowering voice would grow still . It did not . Solzhenits

yn has described his time in Vermont as his most productive and peaceful ever . 

And indeed , when the old treason charges against him were officially judged `` 

groundless '' in 1991 , following the failed hard-line Communist coup , he chose

 not to return immediately . He wanted first to finish what he says will be his 

last work , `` The Red Wheel , '' a massive account of Russian and Soviet histor

y . Friday night he was finally home .

 WASHINGTON The hours are just as grueling , the salary 's likely to be lower , 

and the position comes with a heap of public disdain . Nonetheless , this year n

early three dozen physicians are trying to trade their stethoscope and white coa

t for the job a seat in Congress . The bumper crop of physician-candidates dovet

ails , of course , with the Clinton administration 's effort to push a national 

health care reform plan through Congress . If the practice of medicine is going 

to be revolutionized , some physicians want to have a say in it . `` If health c

are were not on the front burner , I don't think I would be running , '' said su

rgeon George Craig , a Republican activist challenging Rep. Jerry Lewis , R-Cali

f. , in the primary . Dentist Ron Franks , a Republican from Maryland 's Eastern

 Shore challenging Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes , D-Md. , said he is concerned that hea

lth care policy is being determined without the direct input of health care prof

essionals . `` I believe that all health care providers .. . realize the danger 

and I plan to invite them to participate in my campaign , '' he said . Currently

 only two members of Congress are physicians both in the House and one , Rep. J.

 Roy Rowland , D-Ga. , is retiring . More than 35 doctors are candidates this ye

ar . A study by Congressional Quarterly shows medicine barely edging out profess

ional sports and acting as prior occupations of members of Congress . The runawa

y leader in the breakdown : lawyers . `` I think it 's incredible that we have 2

39 attorneys and two physicians and we 're about to write major changes in healt

h care , '' said Wyoming House candidate and ophthalmologist John Herschler , a 

Democrat . Sheila McGuire , a dentist and epidemiologist running in Iowa said as

 far as she is concerned `` lawyers are well represented in Congress . '' The pr

oblem , she said , is the under representation of doctors and a lack of familiar

ity within Congress of the workings of the health care system . McGuire and Hers

chler are living the attorney-physician tension in more ways than one ; each is 

running against a lawyer . Herschler 's opponent is a personal injury lawyer who

 handles malpractice cases , a point Herschler enjoys drawing attention to on th

e stump . But that opponent , Bob Schuster , counters that being a doctor is not

 an automatic edge in this year 's election , and might even be a negative . `` 

If that were a credential to solving the health care problem , we wouldn't have 

a health care problem . '' McGuire 's opponent , Mike Peterson is painfully awar

e , however , that doctors carry at least one helpful campaign credential : `` a

 lot of personal wealth , plus they 've got a lot of friends with personal wealt

h . '' Of course , so do many attorneys . But , Peterson said that his work as a

 small town attorney and part-time state legislator does not begin to even the p

laying field . Doctors are not the only medical candidates this year , There is 

a smaller but equally determined pool : nurses . Cheryl Davis Knapp , a nurse ru

nning in Florida 's 12th Congressional District , holds that the Founding Father

s intended members of Congress to be `` everyday working people , '' and that do

ctors are not that . `` Certainly , I don't think most people are in the positio

n of most doctors . But I think most people are in the positions of . . . nurses

 , in terms of finances . '' According to the American Nurses Association , the 

only nurse ever elected to Congress is freshman Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson , D-T

exas . The gulf between doctors and nurses extends beyond fiscal matters . `` Mo

st physicians see the system only from one side and that 's their side. .. . The

y 've only seen it from their narrow perspective , '' said nurse practitioner Ri

ta Tamerius , who is running for a California Houseseat . Tamerius advocates gre

ater utilization of nurses for primary care , which she says physicians oppose .

 The nurses and doctors running for Congress realize that health care expertise 

does not guarantee victory . `` People hold their own physician in high esteem b

ut are suspicious of the medical community as a whole , '' said Rowland , one of

 the House 's two doctors . `` I think if a physician is known in the area that 

he or she 's running in , that will be helpful . '' Congress 's other physician 

, Rep. Jim McDermott , D-Wash. , a leader in the health care reform debate , rem

inds physician-candidates of what they will miss if elected . `` You don't get t

he immediate gratification. .. . Nobody says thank you the way patients do . ''

 WASHINGTON Two years ago , Rep. Karen L. Thurman , D-Fla. , a civic-minded form

er school teacher with strong political appeal to women , was part of a Democrat

ic victory march led by female candidates who appealed to Republican-leaning vot

ers alienated by their party 's anti-abortion stands and its tilt to the right .

 This year , Florida Republicans will try to overcome the loss of those voters ,

 especially college-educated working women , with a candidate whose appeal is ge

ared directly toward a once rock-solid Democratic electorate of poor and working

-class whites , especially white men . It would be tough , in fact , to pick a R

epublican more different from Thurman than the candidate likely to win the GOP n

omination in Florida 's 5th Congressional District : Big Daddy Don Garlits , kin

g of the quarter-mile drag strip . `` My family was Democratic going back to the

 days before the big Depression . We loved the Democratic Party , '' said Garlit

s , 62 , who has taken a car from a standing start to 287 mph in 440 yards . `` 

But somewhere in the early '60s , they got the idea you didn't have to work. .. 

. They got on these ideas like there should be no corporal punishment in the sch

ools , a lot of funny ideas . If you are very young and have a baby , they give 

you money for it ; and if you have another , they give you more money . '' Citin

g the Bible and Judeo-Christian principles , Garlits said , `` The man should be

 the head of the family . I believe that because he 's got the strong hand . '' 

But , he added , `` Head of the family is one thing , we are not talking about o

ut in the business world . '' Garlits says he is prepared if Thurman attacks him

 as `` anti-woman . '' `` I 'm going to bring in Shirley Muldowney , '' a three-

time drag strip world champion , Garlits said . `` I 'm the guy who first signed

 her papers ( to enter competition ) and I intimidated the other two guys to sig

n , so I have always been for women 's rights , before it was politically correc

t . '' The Thurman-Garlits contest is an extreme example of the slow transformat

ion of the Democratic and Republican parties , as the increasing influence of va

lues , education and gender are working in overlapping ways to weaken the image 

of a working-class Democratic Party battling a management and Wall Street-domina

ted GOP . Candidates such as Thurman women who can win support from Republican a

nd independent voters concerned with such issues as health care and abortion rig

hts have become crucial to a Democratic Party seeking to be competitive in an in

creasingly suburban and college-educated electorate voters who have been most co

mfortable with the GOP . One of the most important growth areas within the Democ

ratic Party is among young , single working women with college educations . Conv

ersely , Garlits , whose parents were poor farmers , is part of a modest but sig

nificant movement in the GOP , a movement that has produced `` bubba Republicans

 '' in the South , and statewide candidates in the North with roots in Catholic 

, working-class and immigrant families the classic Democratic profile . The Repu

blican gubernatorial and Senate nominees picked last month by primary voters in 

Pennsylvania are , respectively , Reps. Thomas J. Ridge , an Irish-Slovak with w

orking-class roots in Erie , and Rick Santorum , the son of an Italian immigrant

 who represents a Pittsburg district . Reps. Rod Grams of Minnesota and Ronald K

. Machtley of Rhode Island have good chances to win the GOP nominations for sena

tor and governor , respectively , and both earned their political spurs by winni

ng in Democratic-leaning blue-collar and working-class districts . Rep. Vic Fazi

o , D-Calif. , chairman , Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , said he 

views the loss of some traditional Democratic voters as `` a naturally occurring

 phenomena . `` We are the party that is nominating people who are compatible ''

 with the suburban , well-educated voter , Fazio said , adding that Democratic v

ictories in suburban areas may be the counterpart to the Republican victories of

 the 1980s among blue-collar `` Reagan Democrats . '' One of the most important 

developments driving the transformation of the parties by gender and education i

s the emergence of what might be best described as liberal and conservative valu

e coalitions of voters . The partisan inclinations and demographic make-up of th

ese Republican and Democratic voters runs directly counter to the classic divisi

ons of the New Deal era . Voters in the 1992 election holding decidedly `` liber

al '' views on abortion and gay rights were very well-educated , young and femal

e 52 percent with college degrees , only 23 percent over age 50 and 68 percent w

omen according to a study by Alan I . Abramowitz of Emory University . The firml

y `` conservative '' voters on these issues were less well-educated and older 24

 percent with college degrees , 48 percent age 50 or older and 57 percent were m

en . Among some groups , such as young , single college-educated voters , the pa

rtisan gulf between the sexes has reached such high levels `` that we ( pollster

s ) joke among ourselves about how these people are going to have trouble findin

g compatible spouses , '' said Democrat Celinda Lake . `` Clinton has definitely

 polarized the gender gap , '' said Republican pollster Linda DiVall . Younger w

omen , she said , are more Democratic in part because they `` tend to be employe

d in government social service , education , and look to a more activist governm

ent . '' Greenberg said that female Democratic candidates are important not only

 in their ability to win in more upscale , suburban districts but also because `

` they are seen as new , as outsiders .. . not part of the old-boy system . They

 reinforce the image of the Democratic Party as new and reformist , and they als

o emphasize some of the secular side of the Democratic Party , '' strengthing th

e perception of the party as supporting abortion rights . Female candidates in c

ompetitive congressional districts were able to go `` beyond what normal Democra

ts can do , '' because women are seen in many cases as representing `` change fo

r the current system , '' said freshman Rep. Maria Cantwell , D-Wash . In 1992 ,

 female candidates were involved in disproportionately high numbers in the close

st contests in the nation , and this year they are disproportionately facing tou

gh re-election fights against well-financed opponents . In addition to Thurman ,

 the women the Democratic Party depended upon in many middle-to-upscale , genera

lly suburban districts , include Reps. Elizabeth Furse ( Ore. ) , Jane Harman ( 

Calif. ) , Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky ( Pa. ) , Carolyn B . Maloney ( N.Y. ) ,

 Leslie L. Byrne ( Va. ) , Lynn Schenk ( Calif. ) and Cantwell . While women are

 only 11 percent of the House membership , they make up virtually half of the wi

nners in the closest races won by House Democrats in 1992 .

 JERUSALEM Ariel Sharon , Israel 's hawkish former defense minister , launched a

 campaign Friday to oust Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1996 elections , de

claring his intention to form a broad right-wing coalition and lead `` a rescue 

mission to save the Land of Israel and the Jewish people . '' But Sharon 's anno

uncement was more a challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu , chairman of the opposition

 Likud Party , who has been feuding with Sharon . Netanyahu angrily demanded Sha

ron 's expulsion from the party . `` Arik Sharon is a permanent subversive , '' 

he said . `` The time has come for such a man to leave Likud . '' Sharon laughed

 off Netanyahu 's demand , replying , `` I hope Mr. Netanyahu will at least perm

it me to stay in the country . '' Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , defeate

d by Rabin two years ago , tartly rebuked Sharon , saying he `` should find more

 useful things to do in the national interest than undermine it . '' Ze ' ev `` 

Benny '' Begin , son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a longtime Sh

aron foe , said that the burly former general is as likely to win the premiershi

p as he is the world tennis championship . And some members of Rabin 's Labor Pa