Soviet Union

By Howard G. Chua-Eoan

The 75-page text bore a cumbersome title: Ideology of Renewal for Revolutionary Perestroika. But Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's speech at last week's Central Committee plenum was a spirited defense of the ambitious economic and social reform policies that he has championed under the banner of perestroika, or restructuring. On topics ranging from party doctrine and Soviet history to cultural freedom and foreign policy, the General Secretary called for continued change while identifying his own innovations with the Communist ideals of Lenin. "We are striving," he declared, "to revive the Leninist look of the new system, to rid it . . . of everything that shackled society and prevented it from realizing the potential of socialism in full measure."

The speech seemed partly aimed at answering conservative grumblings that Gorbachev's reforms were taking the country down a non-Communist road. Though the party leader admitted that perestroika had caused confusion, he proclaimed, "We are not retreating one step from socialism ((and)) everything which has been won and created by the people" since the triumph of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in 1917. Yet realizing Lenin's original vision, said Gorbachev, meant adapting to modern times and changed "international conditions."

Even as he pounded the drum of reform, Gorbachev sounded some notes of caution. Addressing the problem of simmering nationalism among the country's diverse and far-flung ethnic groups, he called for a Central Committee meeting to review policies toward the Soviet Union's 136 million non-Russians. Speaking only two days after Soviet authorities prevented most of the independence rallies in the Baltic republic of Lithuania, the General Secretary sternly declared that "any manifestations of nationalism are incompatible" with the ideal of "Soviet patriotism."

While calling for the continued flowering of art and culture under his policy of glasnost, or openness, Gorbachev warned against excessive literary and journalistic criticisms of Soviet history. He objected to "writings of the moment that obscure rather than elucidate the truth," as opposed to works of "genuine scientific research." His remarks, apparently aimed at several recent articles and plays, showed that there are limits to glasnost.

In foreign policy, Gorbachev praised the Reagan Administration for its commitment to the intermediate-range nuclear-forces treaty, but spoke out sharply against U.S. "ultra-rightists" who sought to undermine the accord. He also lashed out at those Western "imperialists" who oppose the Soviet Union because "they fear a revival of the attractive force of socialist ideas." Such words reflected the deep-seated distrust that often seems to color the Soviet leader's view of the West.

The party plenum was also the occasion of Boris Yeltsin's ouster from his nonvoting seat on the ruling Politburo. A former Gorbachev protege, Yeltsin had been relieved as head of the Moscow party organization last year after delivering a harsh speech criticizing the slow pace of reform. Elevated to Yeltsin's former Politburo rank were two technocrats closely allied with Gorbachev: Georgi Razumovsky, 52, the Central Committee secretary in charge of personnel, and Yuri Maslyukov, 50, the State Planning Committee chairman. They are now the youngest members of the 21-seat Politburo, a distinction held until last week by the 56-year-old Gorbachev.

With reporting by James O. Jackson/Moscow