Soviet sub skipper toughs it out

Little neutral Sweden continued its war of nerves with the might of Moscow as a beached Soviet submarine was about to spend its sixth night high and dry on a rock near Karlskrona, Sweden's top-secret naval base, last night.

The Soviet captain allowed the Swedish naval commander to visit the sub, but he refused to leave the vessel to be questioned by the Swedish Navy as to his mission into a restricted military area deep inside Swedish waters, a condition imposed by the Swedes before they would refloat the submarine.

A top-level meeting of senior diplomats in the Swedish Foreign Ministry yesterday ended with no sign of a breakthrough. ''The initiative now lies with the Soviet Union,'' a spokesman said.

Sweden accepted an official apology from the Soviet Union over the affair late Friday night but refused to back down on its demand that the captain and crew be interrogated by the Swedish Navy.

The captain has refused to leave the sub until he has received orders to do so by radio from his command in Kaliningrad.