Old Town Approves His Policies, Overtures to U.S. : Soviet Heartland Likes Gorbachev

Just as Peoria, Ill., reflects the values of Middle America, Pskov typifies the Russian heartland.

Pskov is an ancient city, a quiet farming and industrial center with a population of 200,000 in the northwest corner of the Soviet Union.

It is not likely that the staff of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev ever asks, “Will he play in Pskov?” But if it did, the replies would be reassuring. For interviews on the local version of Main Street indicate that Gorbachev’s overtures to the United States, his anti-alcohol campaign and his drive for greater economic vigor all strike a responsive chord in Pskov.

“Generally speaking, he’s a great guy,” said Viktor D. Lazaref, 65, a retired worker.

“We are gradually developing, and what Gorbachev is doing suits us quite fine,” said Marina Alexandrova, a young mother who was out for a stroll with her 9-month-old son, Andrei.

Unexpected Approval

Even President Reagan, who for years has been presented as a bogeyman by the party-line news media, was given unexpected approval by Soviet citizens who listened to his New Year’s Day message on television here.

“My personal feeling when I heard him was that the situation would change for the better,” said Rimma Yegorova, a telephone factory worker.

Only a few of the people who were interviewed took a dim view of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting at Geneva last November.

“The negotiations showed the negative attitude of the American Administration toward the Soviet Union,” said Mikhail Konstantinov, a 27-year-old navy midshipman.

Several people volunteered that living standards were noticeably rising after years of little visible improvement.

Consumer Goods Scarce

Of course, there are problems in Pskov. Four decades after the city was devastated in World War II, there is still a housing shortage. Consumer goods of all sorts are either scarce or of low quality.

Buses are jammed during the evening rush hour, and relatively few private cars are seen in the streets. Entertainment facilities are scant, with only five movie houses, a drama theater and a puppet stage for the 850,000 people of greater Pskov.

Alcoholism, long a scourge of Soviet society, has been alleviated but hardly eliminated in Pskov since Gorbachev imposed new restrictions last June on the sale and consumption of liquor.

There are some benefits, too, to living in a smaller city.

“We’re taking it easy here,” an Intourist guide assured recent visitors. “We’re not hurrying and shoving like they do in Moscow.”

Travel Country Roads

Drivers here stop to allow pedestrians to cross the streets, something rarely seen in Moscow. Horse-drawn sleighs still race along country roads, and several of Pskov’s onion-bulb churches are among the nation’s cherished architectural gems.

Although Moscow is 12 hours away by train, new economic directives from the capital have an immediate effect on Pskov’s 14 factories. Anatoly V. Lukin, director of a plant making electric welding equipment, said he welcomed Gorbachev’s drive for greater efficiency.

“From a manager’s viewpoint, the economy is on the threshold of a signficant movement for the better,” Lukin said in an interview. “Factory directors find it more difficult because they have somewhat bigger rights to manage and considerably bigger responsibilities.

“Under the old system of evaluating success only by the volume of production, you could produce more and that would be all right. Now we must examine the cost of producing more.”

A Communist Party official at the factory added: “It’s now clear to everybody that the better we work, the better we live. . . . Order has been enhanced.”

Lukin, 54, has been director of the welding equipment plant since it opened 15 years ago. He was candid about the alcoholism problem.

Absenteeism Declining

“It was a really bad ulcer,” he said, “but the tougher measures (introduced in June) have practically excluded drunkenness on the job. In practical terms, alcohol once accounted for 1,500 lost man-days a year, but now it’s down to 900 days a year and no one is covering up any more.”

On factory bulletin boards, posters invited workers to give up drinking and join a “sobriety society.”

The pay of workers at the plant averages 210 rubles a month (about $273) but skilled craftsmen earn up to 350 rubles (about $455), Lukin said. Under the new economic experiment, he said, bonuses will double or triple if production targets are exceeded.

“American workers are paid more, but our socialist system provides more benefits,” a shop foreman said.

The factory builds or otherwise provides housing for many of its workers. It also has dining rooms, dry cleaning stores and child care centers.

No Lines at Clinics

Speaking of the factory’s medical and dental clinic, Lukin said, “The most important thing is that we have no lines.”

While Lukin’s factory is involved with the latest scientific machinery, another plant near Pskov looks to the past for inspiration. It makes ceramics with centuries-old designs found on pottery recovered by archeologists from diggings in this ancient city.

The factory’s 300 employees include some who are descended from earlier generations of potters who made Pskov a famous name in this field. Their output, including vases and kitchenware, is sold in 70 cities at reasonable prices.

“Production efficiency is not the main thing,” Uriel Zinoikin, the factory director, said. “We don’t want to lose the spirit of creativity.”

Not a Tourist Attraction

Pskov is not exactly a tourist attraction. Despite its impressive 15th-Century kremlin, or fortress, and its picturesque churches, only 4,000 foreigners came to the city last year. But several residents said it is far from a backwater.

“Life is better and easier than it was,” said 91-year-old Ivan S. Garodinsky, a church warden. “I can remember when there were no paved streets . . . no sidewalks, no cars, and very poor public transportation.”

There are not very many church members, he said, but “people are much richer and more generous with their donations.”

A young mother, Marina Nikolaiva, said: “Things are getting better. There is more housing and better incomes, and new legislation provides bigger assistance for mothers--50 rubles a month for a whole year.”

An old woman who works on a collective farm, a kerchief pulled tight around her head, declined at first to answer questions. But she eventually said:

“Life finally has become good. . . . Each family in my village has two or three cows. People everywhere have enough to eat . . . and my feet are still moving.”