Rx for Russia

SINCE Communist Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev addressed the Central Committee last December, his withering attack on the Soviet Union's shortcomings has been the No. 1 topic of discussion whenever citizens gather in private. In a two-hour, 40-minute talk, Brezhnev delivered scathing criticisms of inefficiency and mismanagement, naming names and citing specific examples of waste. Only the more general parts of the speech were reprinted in a Pravda editorial, but the entire blast is being read as a letter at closed party meetings.

Intellectual Sensation. Brezhnev's angry accusations have inspired thoughtful replies from a number of prominent Soviet citizens. One of the most compelling responses was circulating last week among intellectuals in Moscow. Some thought that it came from Academician Andrei Sakharov, the gifted physicist whose 10,000-word essay outlining a scenario of economic convergence between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created a sensation among intellectuals 18 months ago. Others believed that it was written by someone who knows and shares the physicist's view, though not necessarily by Sakharov himself. Sakharov was removed from work requiring security clearance after the essay had been circulated. If the new letter is Sakharov's it indicates that he still feels sufficiently independent to write an extremely candid appraisal of the current state of Soviet affairs. The text:

"Leonid Ilyich,

"Your letter, addressed to all members of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R., is being read aloud at closed party meetings. It cites certain details, unknown to the rank and file; but in general, a picture is painted which has long been known to party members as well as the whole people.

"We have known for a long time that we have lost not only the battle for the moon but the economic race as a whole; that the productivity of labor is insignificant here; that our country is turning into a raw-material-supply appendix of Europe; and that we hold out only because of our fabulous natural resources and the traditional patience of the peasants. Everyone knows that no one wants to do real work here but just shows off before his chief, that such artificial events as jubilees and anniversaries have become more important for us than real events of economic and social life.

"All this is a result of the fact that for many years we have been living in an imaginary world and are deceiving each other, and we cannot bring ourselves to face the truth at a time when other countries do not live in the clouds but build their economies in the real world and therefore are getting ahead of us still more and more. There is not a single friendly gathering at which this would not be discussed. After all, everyone knows that overlong collective self-deception leads inevitably to catastrophe. In all of Russia there is talk about it. And now--your letter.

"This is a bold and correct step on your part, and history will give you credit for it. But history will not forgive you if salvation measures do not follow the signal. And they are very simple. A cure follows from the diagnosis. The total mutual lying can be cured only by public discussion. What amount of initiative, intellect and enthusiasm will emerge, if finally mouths are no longer gagged. Dozens of articles lie in editorial offices of magazines, dozens of books have been typed, which honestly analyze our life. All this is suppressed. Solzhenitsyn--the pride of Russian literature--was driven out of the Writers' Union. The parliament, which costs so much money, has become a blind voting machine.

"Public discussion and only public discussion can put sick Russia on the path of recovery."

Criticism and self-criticism were two of the things urged by Brezhnev in his speech, and he appears to be getting them --perhaps more than he intended. Mostly, his recommendations applied to the economic sphere, where new approaches are plainly needed to overcome the sluggish performance of recent years. After all, 1970 was the target date by which Soviet planners expected their economy to surpass that of the U.S.

The "Sakharov letter" applauds that spirit, but it also raises an intriguing question: Can the open atmosphere urged by Brezhnev for factories and planning boards be extended to other areas of Soviet life?

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