Russia's parliamentary elections, held last weekend, were a victory for the government. Pro-Kremlin parties appear -- and the qualifier is important -- to have won a commanding share of seats in the 450-member Duma. The immediate benefactors of the vote are President Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister, Mr. Vladimir Putin. The celebrations should be cautious, however: Unknowns predominate, and the elation felt in government circles could quickly evaporate if the war in Chechnya turns sour.

Preliminary results from Russia's third post-Soviet parliamentary elections show the two main government-backed parties claiming 32.5 percent, almost one-third, of the vote. Although the Communists still have the largest block of seats in the Duma, they are only slightly ahead of Unity (24.2 percent to 23.4 percent), and the number of their representatives are projected to fall from 157 to 111.

The key electoral development is the centrists' surge in strength. According to projections, they will take more than 180 seats in the Duma. The center bloc consists of Unity, the party closest to Mr. Putin; Fatherland-All Russia, which is led by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and is in third place with about 12 percent; the Union of Right Forces, headed by former Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, which has about 9 percent and is the second party supported by the government; and Yabloko, which is led by Mr. Grigory Yavlinsky, an economist, with just over 6 percent.