Not surprisingly, Mrs. Roosevelt soon found herself embroiled in bitter confrontations with the Russians. They meant something quite different by the terms ''freedom'' and ''democracy.'' They wanted a provision after each article saying it was up to the state to determine whether a specific right was being observed. And they pushed for the inclusion of economic and social rights - rights to employment, education, health care - which they said were no less important than political rights. After some discussion, Mrs. Roosevelt persuaded the State Department to accept the inclusion of economic rights. Had not President Roosevelt, after all, framed the postwar goal of ''freedom from want'' - ''everywhere in the world''? Despite this move to meet them part way, the Russians were stonewalling. They had decided that the Universal Declaration would not be to their liking. They made vitriolic harangues on racial discrimination and unemployment in the United States.

When a Russian delegate turned to the theme of the plight of black Americans, Mrs. Roosevelt proposed that the Russians could send a team to observe racial problems in the United States if the United States could do the same in the Soviet Union. ''The Russians seem to have met their match in Mrs. Roosevelt,'' The New York Times observed.

Determined to press the Declaration to completion, Mrs. Roosevelt drove her colleagues mercilessly. There were fourteen, sixteen hour days and some delegates may have secretly whispered the prayer ascribed to President Roosevelt: ''O Lord, make Eleanor tired!'' A delegate from Panama begged Mrs. Roosevelt to remember that United Nations delegates have human rights, too.

By the summer of 1948, the Universal Declaration had finally taken shape. Framed as Mrs. Roosevelt wanted, in simple and eloquent prose, it drew heavily on the American Bill of Rights, the British Magna Carta and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. It consisted of a preamble and 30 articles setting forth fundamental rights and freedoms.

Article 1 set the basic philosophy of the Declaration: ''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.'' Article 2 set out the principle of non-discrimination in the enjoyment of human rights. Articles 3 through 21 laid down political and civil rights, including the right to life, liberty and property; freedom from torture or degrading treatment or punishment; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal; freedom of thought and religion; freedom of expression; the right to peaceful assembly and association.