A Heady Blend: B. and B. in Bonn

It is impossible to spoil porridge by adding too much butter.

It is best to forge iron while it is still hot.

WITH these two old Russian sayings, a Moscow editor summed up Soviet feelings about the purpose and timing of Leonid Brezhnev's historic five-day visit this week to Bonn, the first ever by a Soviet leader to West Germany. In the Russian view, the improving relations between Moscow and Bonn can only be further improved by Brezhnev's talks with Chancellor Willy Brandt. More important, perhaps, the Soviets feel that the time is ripe to extract increased practical benefits from the growing climate of detente.

Though not as handy with aphorisms as the Russians, the West Germans see the meeting in essentially the same light. The historical significance of a Soviet leader's setting foot on West German soil is not lost on Bonn, of course. The visit will symbolize the rapprochement, if not yet the reconciliation, between two of the bitterest enemies of World War II. It will also represent another diplomatic trophy for Brandt in his pursuit of Ostpolitik.

The two sides see somewhat different things in the future of the relationship. The benefits that Brezhnev seeks are primarily economic. Already West Germany is the Soviet Union's biggest Western trade partner. Two-way trade last year jumped 27%, to $1.15 billion, double what it was in 1965. The Soviets, beleaguered by problems in both agriculture and industry, are most interested in acquiring technology and long-term credits. In the past twelve months, the West Germans have delivered or contracted to deliver equipment for Russia's coal, chemical, natural gas, steel, truck, electronics and toolmaking industries. Since 1970. West German banks have provided about $800 million in credit so that the Soviet Union could barter natural gas from Siberia for steel pipes from Mannesmann and Thyssen. Brezhnev wants to make more such deals.

West Germany is not reluctant to do business with the Soviet Union--or with virtually anyone else, for that matter. Brandt, however, has more on his mind than expanding trade relations. He would like the Russians to agree that West Germany can automatically negotiate agreements on behalf of West Berlin, which Bonn insists is part of the Federal Republic and which the Soviets maintain is a separate political entity. Brandt also wants West Germany to represent West Berlin at the United Nations. On relations with East Germany, the Chancellor hopes that Brezhnev can spur some action on the agreements that were supposed to follow the treaty that was signed last December, "normalizing" relations between the two Germanys. The proposed pacts would cover such areas as youth exchanges, sports competition and civil air routes.

Brandt, in fact, will urge Brezhnev to facilitate a freer flow of people, ideas and information throughout Europe. The West German leader regards a Soviet concession on this issue, which would unquestionably influence the attitudes of other East bloc nations, as essential to the success of the European Security Conference in Helsinki. The Russians view the conference as a sort of World War II wrapup, affirming the "inviolability" of all borders that were redrawn to Soviet advantage at war's end. They have shown little interest in Brandt's broader aims, fearing that Communist ideology may be "contaminated" by exposure to Western thought. Brandt intends to put it as directly as possible to Brezhnev that detente cannot be built on cold war attitudes.

Although Brezhnev has requested that public ceremonies be kept to a minimum, the Soviet leader will receive an expansive (and expensive) welcome in Bonn. At a cost of $90.000, the West German government has reopened and refurbished the stately old Petersberg Hotel, where the Soviet leader and his retinue will be staying. Brezhnev will likely sleep in the same bed that Queen Elizabeth used in 1965. Seemingly more intent on work than recreation, Brezhnev declined West German offers of sightseeing side trips, including one to Trier, the birthplace of Karl Marx.

Brandt and Brezhnev have met twice before: in Moscow in 1970 and in the Crimea in 1971. Indications are that both men respect each other. "When I first met Brezhnev," Brandt once recalled, "he carried his briefing book in front of him. When we discussed the Middle East, he turned to that section and read a statement. When we discussed Berlin, he did the same. When I went back a few months later, there was no briefing book. Brezhnev knew what he wanted to say on all subjects and said it. He's a fast learner."

The two leaders share some traits; both are big-boned, powerfully featured and capable of talking far into the night. "It is easier for Brandt to talk to Brezhnev than to Nixon," says one experienced Western diplomat. "There is a quality of openness in Brezhnev that Brandt enjoys and shares. Nixon is a more difficult, inward person."

On the last point, Brezhnev will soon have another chance to judge for himself. Within a few weeks after his visit to Bonn, the Soviet leader is scheduled to make his first journey to Washington. Some diplomats have questioned the certainty of the trip, arguing that it may depend on congressional passage of legislation granting the Soviet Union most-favored-nation trading status with the U.S.. an issue clouded by congressional hostility to Russia's treatment of Soviet Jews. Last week, however, Presidential Adviser Henry Kissinger returned from a four-day visit to Moscow and reported that more than 20 hours of preparatory talks with Brezhnev had been "extremely satisfactory." On Saturday, the White House announced that Brezhnev would visit the U.S. from June 18 to June 26.

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