Press for Radical Reforms, Gorbachev Adviser Urges

MOSCOW — President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was urged by a leading political economist Monday to use his increased authority to set the Soviet Union on an uncompromising course of radical reform, no longer trying to placate his ideological and bureaucratic opponents through half-measures.

Gorbachev, who established a clear majority within the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo last month, was told that he should now press for “profound, decisive and quick changes,” recognizing that the upheaval they bring will be the price of ultimate success.

Gavriil Popov, a member of the informal think tank of liberal academics who advise Gorbachev, contends in an authoritative article in the weekly Soviet news magazine New Times that Gorbachev has more than enough popular support to overwhelm those who want to slow the pace of reform or limit its scope.

“The entirety of political authority is now concentrated in one pair of hands,” Popov wrote, “and all preconditions for decisive and energetic actions have been created.”

Popov’s article is extraordinary both in its direct appeal for action and in its candid analysis of the struggle that has been going on within the Soviet leadership over radical versus step-by-step reform. He believes Gorbachev won when he realigned the Kremlin hierarchy, pushing conservatives aside to bring in his backers.

“A gigantic, purifying storm is wiping out the entire administrative system,” Popov said. “The difficulties and costs are tremendous, but the effect comes quickly.”

A professor at Moscow State University, Popov has become one of the most influential political thinkers in the country. His three-page article in New Times makes clear the choices that he and others who favor radical change believe the Soviet leadership must now make if Gorbachev’s reforms, known as perestroika, or restructuring, are to succeed.

“The most radical solutions in the economy are immediately implemented without any transition forms or compromises with the past,” Popov said, listing the elements of the option for faster, broader change. “For a brief period, everyone will find it difficult, but at least the line of attack is obvious: It is against the bureaucratic apparatus.”

Popov, breaking with the Communist Party’s traditional leadership style, strongly urged Gorbachev to take a populist approach, rallying the nation behind him if he encounters further opposition from conservatives.

“The question of what way will be chosen to get rid of the (present) administrative system, and at whose expense, is the central one,” Popov said in his analysis. He argued that all the political maneuvering in the Soviet Union today should be viewed as a struggle between those who want radical reform and those who favor a gradual, step-by-step approach.

Position Strengthened

The special party conference in late June and the two subsequent plenary meetings of the party’s policy-making Central Committee greatly strengthened the reformers’ position within the Soviet leadership, Popov contended. And it is now up to the leadership to make the decisive moves that will determine the future of the country.

“I cannot imagine that without the wave of radical activism swelling from below there would have been the outcome of voting at the party conference or the (September) Central Committee plenum,” he said, underlining the increasing importance of popular politics in the country after nearly 70 years of a party-knows-best outlook.

Setting out what he believes should be Gorbachev’s priorities now, Popov proposed a strategic reorientation of the whole Soviet economy, shifting it to production of consumer goods and away from expansion of industry even though this might result in slower growth.

Condemning half-measures as harmful to the reform effort, Popov called for “a true revolution” in Soviet agriculture--returning the land to individual farmers through long-term leases--and then the application of the same principles of entrepreneurship to the country’s retail trade, services and “a significant portion of construction and industry.”

In politics, Popov urges Gorbachev to ensure that his promised multiple-candidate elections result in true political competition, both for government and party posts, to ensure that power is shifted from the bureaucracy to the people.

“The danger of replacing genuine competition with all sorts of bureaucratic counterfeits is very real,” he warns.

Sensitive Ethnic Issue

On another sensitive issue, that of ethnic relations, which involves renewed nationalism by Soviet minorities across much of the country’s perimeter, Popov called for equal boldness by the Soviet leadership--including a willingness even to put minority interests first.

“We need new decisions on a new foundation of ethnic arrangements under which the rights of the peoples would be uniform,” he said, no longer favoring Russians and other Slavs and not forcing the minorities into political structures that do not suit them.

In these and other key issues, the question of the country’s leadership is crucial, Popov said, acknowledging the importance of the realignment Gorbachev carried out 10 days ago when four longtime members of the Politburo were retired and three younger officials were promoted.

“The leadership had quickly recognized the dangerous situation in the party and country and finally went for a whole set of personnel changes,” Popov said of the recent Central Committee meeting.

The key issue in that realignment, which also moved Gorbachev into the country’s presidency, was the speed and scope of reform. Those wanting to move more boldly--Popov’s position--were confronted by those favoring cautious change.

‘Tempo of Change’

“The tempo of change will be directly correlated with how fast the apparatus learns new ways to lead,” Popov said. “And only those forms of change will be chosen, inevitably so, that will guarantee potential trouble. . . .

“The whole country is watching the top leadership and its composition quite avidly and intensely,” he wrote, noting the broad desire for a mass movement to effect fundamental change in the Soviet system but recognizing the necessity of a “revolution from above.”

“For that reason,” Popov continued, threatening conservatives with exposure to an angry public wanting faster changes, “it persistently demands full information about the positions of each of the leaders during all plenary meetings of the Central Committee and Politburo sessions.”