The State Duma roundly rejected President Boris Yeltsin's popular nominee for Central Bank chief Wednesday, in what legislators described as revenge for Yeltsin's dismissal of the bank's previous chairman, Viktor Gerashchenko.


Only 107 deputies voted in favor of Tatyana Paramonova, whose candidacy had earlier received preliminary approval from most parliament factions as well as the Duma's budget and finance committee. In the secret ballot, 127 votes were cast against her.


Yeltsin appointed Paramonova last month after firing Geraschenko for his role in the Black Tuesday ruble crash. As a deputy to the former bank chairman, Paramonova had been viewed as a compromise candidate whom all factions would welcome.


But Communist and nationalist deputies took issue with Gerashchenko's dismissal, because the constitution states that the Central Bank chief cannot be hired or fired without the Duma's approval.


"A respected person was not appointed only because the State Duma had been humiliated and the constitution had been spurned," Communist deputy Anatoly Lukyanov said after the vote. "If the State Duma respects itself, it should discuss Gerashchenko's dismissal first and then the appointment of a new chief."


Some pro-Yeltsin deputies, including deputy speaker Mikhail Mityukov, whom Yeltsin recently nominated to the Constitutional Court due to his reputation as a lawyer, also said Gerashchenko's dismissal had been illegal.


"On principle, it was wrong," Mityukov said of the firing.


According to the constitution, Paramonova now remains acting chairwoman of the bank and Yeltsin can nominate her again as many times as he likes. But some legislators, who know Paramonova well, said she might not agree to run again."She is a very proud person and she may not put her candidacy forward next time around," said Alexander Pochinok, deputy head of the budget and finance committee. "She was deeply offended as she left, and I can understand her."


Paramonova left the hall by the back door, without talking to the press. But it seemed the outcome of the vote had come as a shock to her, because she had been seen in the Duma corridors before the ballot laughing and chatting with deputies.


She was heard telling a legislator that Gerashchenko's firing had been "legally very tricky." She added that she could not judge whether the dismissal was formally correct.


Paramonova had an easy question-and-answer session with the deputies and nothing pointed toward her impending rejection.


In her speech, Paramonova supported the government's proposed budget for 1995, saying it was time the Central Bank stopped financing the budget deficit with inflationary credits. The deputies asked her several questions on the state bank's role in October's ruble crash, but she dodged them, answering at greater length innocuous questions about her career.


First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, presenting Paramonova to the legislature, said she was highly recommended by her past achievements, like speeding up payments in Russia's largely paper-based banking system and keeping credits to industry in check.


That recommendation, backed by the Duma's budget and finance committee head Mikhail Zadornov, was echoed by many legislators, some of whom wished Paramonova success in her job as if she had already been approved.


Communist deputy Vladimir Semago told her minutes before the vote that he would support her despite Gerashchenko's illegal firing.


"It was a blatant violation of the law, but it wasn't your fault," Semago said.


After the vote some deputies said they felt Paramonova had been unfairly victimized.


"Her professional qualifications were forgotten for political revenge," said Zadornov of the budget committee. "It's a shame she had to bear the brunt of this crisis."