KGB Chief Cautiously Optimistic on Summit

Viktor K. Chebrikov, director of the KGB, the Soviet security police, said Wednesday that the Soviet Union and the United States can achieve a measure of success at the Geneva summit conference if they are willing to meet each other half way.

But Chebrikov, a member of the ruling Politburo, charged that the Reagan Administration has recently shown “toughness and intransigence.”

Chebrikov spoke on the eve of the 68th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution to an elite gathering in the Kremlin’s Palace of Congresses. Anniversary festivities will continue today with a Red Square parade to display the Soviet Union’s arsenal.

The KGB director’s expression of qualified optimism came a day after Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that deep differences continue to divide the superpowers, especially on the question of arms control.

Shultz met Tuesday with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and said later that Gorbachev appeared to be misinformed about President Reagan’s plan for a space-based missile defense system.

The differences cited by Shultz seemed to raise new doubts about the possibility of any major agreement at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit Nov. 19-20 in Geneva.

But Chebrikov said that leaders of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet government are doing their best to assure “tangible results” at Geneva. He accused the United States of scorning Soviet proposals for arms reduction and of trying to achieve military superiority through Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the space-based missile defense research program.

“We believe,” he said, “that if political courage is shown, and the sides move to meet each other halfway, there is still much that can be rectified. In any case, the Soviet side in Geneva will work for a just and constructive solution to the burning problems of the present.”

He seemed to be preparing the ground for possible failure in Geneva when he said:

“But no matter how the situation shapes up, we shall further insistently work to improve mutual understanding and broaden cooperation in all areas--with states of Western Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, the Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Ocean basins, with friendly India, with Japan and our other neighbors.”

The United States was noticeably absent from Chebrikov’s list of potential partners.

Chebrikov pictured the Soviet Union as advancing a series of proposals designed to revive detente in Europe and throughout the world.

“And what is the response of the other side?” he asked. “It is continued nuclear blasts, comprehensive testing of an anti-satellite system and a reluctance to negotiate the prevention of militarization of outer space. There is a deliberate show of toughness, intransigence and armed force.”

The selection of Chebrikov to make the 68th anniversary speech was viewed by Western diplomats as a sign of Gorbachev’s respect for the KGB.