Gorbachev Firmly in Control After First 100 Days

Mikhail S. Gorbachev completes his first 100 days as Soviet leader today with a firm grasp on power and a sparkling personal style rarely seen in the traditionally stodgy Kremlin.

He has placed three of his disciples in the ruling Politburo, paved the way for a shake-up in Communist Party ranks and apparently undercut his chief rival, Grigory V. Romanov.

Gorbachev is widely expected to be named Soviet president early next month in addition to his present post of general secretary of the party.

Defying centuries of Russian love for strong drink, he has initiated an anti-alcohol campaign that does away with vodka toasts at government banquets and places sweeping restrictions on the sale of liquor.

He has reached over the heads of party officials to talk with ordinary people--in the streets, in factories, in stores and in schools.

After years of watching ailing old men lead the country, many Soviet citizens have felt a new pride as the 54-year-old Gorbachev has put on a display of vigor that has produced a wave of rising expectations.

“He has absolutely thrilled domestic audiences,” an observer at a Western embassy remarked. “He’s very conscious of public relations.”

In some ways, Western diplomats say, he recalls the “New Frontier” atmosphere that pervaded the United States when the youthful John F. Kennedy succeeded Dwight D. Eisenhower in the White House.

New Generation

Like Kennedy, Gorbachev has promised to get his country moving again. Like Kennedy, he represents a new generation of leadership impatient with many of the old ways. And like Kennedy, he has produced more rhetoric and symbolism than change in his first few months in office.

“Gorbachev’s impact is greater than the substance of his achievements,” one Western diplomat said. “Aside from the measures to curb drinking, he has not yet spelled out how he’s going to carry out the ambitious changes he wants to make in the economy.”

But some members of the Kremlin’s old guard, including four government ministers, have already felt Gorbachev’s sting. In a rare move for a Soviet leader, he aimed caustic criticism at them in a recent speech on the economy--and he named his targets.

As Gorbachev sees it, the Soviet industrial machine is run down, inefficient, wasteful and poorly managed, unable to compete in foreign markets or produce quality products for consumers at home.

Tough Indictment

It is a tough indictment, and few Western observers believe he can accomplish the change he seeks just by demanding harder work and speedier modernization of factories.

In foreign policy, Gorbachev has held firmly to the party line, putting off President Reagan’s bid for an early summit conference and demanding an end to Reagan’s “Star Wars” plan for strategic defense before considering any reduction of nuclear missiles.

But he has impressed Western leaders by dropping the gruff manner associated with Soviet officials and appearing to be reasonable without making any concessions.

But Gorbachev has also shown that he can be tough in the dog-eat-dog world of Kremlin politics.

Western diplomats believe that there may have been a “stop-Gorbachev” campaign, spearheaded by Romanov, then the party head in Leningrad, and Politburo member Viktor V. Grishin, after President Konstantin U. Chernenko died last March 10. Still, Gorbachev’s election as party secretary was disclosed just four hours after the announcement of Chernenko’s death.

There were widespread but unconfirmed reports that Grishin had been put forward by Romanov as an alternative to Gorbachev, then widely regarded as the heir apparent.

In the showdown, Gorbachev won. Twenty days later, three Gorbachev allies were elevated to the Politburo in a dramatic show of strength, the biggest expansion of the ruling body in 12 years.

Since then, Romanov has vanished from sight. He has not been seen in public since May 10, even at events where all the other Politburo members were in attendance. “It doesn’t look good for him,” a Western diplomat said.

Grishin, 70, leader of the party in Moscow, was closely associated with Chernenko. He, too, is reported to be under a cloud although he has not disappeared. “I think he’s on Gorbachev’s hit list,” a Western Kremlinologist said.

Gorbachev, who never mentions Chernenko, criticized him by indirection by castigating the party leadership in Krasnoyarsk, Chernenko’s home district in Siberia.

He also criticized former President Leonid I. Brezhnev, in a recent speech, by referring to economic setbacks during the years Brezhnev held power. “Since the early 1970s,” he said, “certain difficulties began to be felt in economic development.”

In contrast, Gorbachev, in a major Kremlin speech, praised Josef Stalin’s World War II role, touching off a tremendous ovation from an audience of party officials and war veterans.

If Gorbachev’s health remains good, he may have two decades or more to put his policies in effect.

“The economy is the key,” one Western diplomat said. “Unless the economy revives, the Soviet Union will not be able to match American spending on new nuclear weapons technology.”

But there are skeptics, including Soviet officials and foreign analysts, who doubt that the highly centralized and slow-moving Soviet economy can be moved as quickly as Gorbachev wishes.

As former U.S. Ambassador Malcolm C. Toon said shortly after Gorbachev took office, “The style of leadership will change, but the substance will not.”