Soviet Union Straight Talk

< One of the more intriguing features of Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost (openness) is the willingness of the Kremlin leader to submit himself to the occasional foreign press interview. Last week Gorbachev held a lengthy question-and-answer session with L'Unita, the daily newspaper of the Italian Communist Party, in which he not only talked about international affairs but offered a rare glimpse into his personal interests.

Gorbachev hinted that Moscow might accede to a role for the long-deposed monarch in Afghanistan, where 115,000 Soviet troops have been fighting a war of attrition against mujahedin rebels for the past seven years. Dismissing charges that he would withdraw Soviet troops only if a Moscow-dominated government remained in power, Gorbachev invited the Afghans to seek new leadership "in their own country, among refugees and emigrants abroad, or maybe in . . . Italy." That was an apparent reference to Mohammed Zahir Shah, 72, who served as Afghanistan's monarch from 1933 until he was overthrown in 1973, and now lives near Rome. Some rebel groups have said that Zahir would be an acceptable leader.

On arms control, Gorbachev displayed impatience with the current debate in NATO over a proposal by the superpowers to withdraw intermediate-range nuclear forces from Europe. Just a few weeks ago, Gorbachev said, Moscow and Washington were "within a few steps" of agreement. Now, he noted, some U.S. allies are proposing to tie an INF deal to simultaneous reductions in shorter- range nuclear arms and even conventional weapons. This "endless chain" of linkages, Gorbachev complained, threatens to become "stonewalling" by the West.

His Kremlin schedule leaves him without any free time, Gorbachev said, but his interests are so wide-ranging as to amount to what some might call a "weakness." The list includes physics, mathematics and literature. "To this day, I remember by heart poetry I learned at school," he bragged. Gorbachev left no doubt that he prefers the company of generalists rather than specialists. Said he: "People with a broad outline are more to my liking." He also had a few words to say about opposition by Soviet bureaucrats to his reforms. Despite the efforts of officialdom's "encrusted layers," Gorbachev insisted, "the reorganization is proceeding in depth."