Some High Officials Resist Reforms, Gorbachev Says

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev acknowledged Thursday that high-level Communist Party officials are slowing down his programs designed to revitalize Soviet life.

But he insisted there is no organized political opposition to him or his attempts to bring greater efficiency and more candor into the economy and government.

Speaking to 5,000 delegates to the 20th congress of the Komsomol, or Young Communist League, Gorbachev said the nation already has traveled a long way on the road to renewal.

“The past period was not easy, but it was fruitful,” he said of the two years since he assumed office in March, 1985.

“The ideas of renewal and revolutionary change have caught up with the millions and won over to their side the overwhelming majority of our people,” Gorbachev asserted.

But he said there have been difficulties as well, adding:

“The machinery of braking existed not by itself. There are concrete personalities involved in that machinery at the level of the Central Committee (of the party) and government, in the ministries, republics and regions. They are in work collectives and even in the Komsomol.

“There are people accustomed to the old way of life who do not want to revise it or are changing it very slowly,” he added. “Of course, it is not easy to overcome such an attitude.”

Since he came to power after the death of Konstantin U. Chernenko, Gorbachev has presided over a purge of aging and corrupt officials at all levels in Soviet life.

In the past, Gorbachev has said that those who do not support his call for perestroika, or reorganization, should “get out of the way.” At a meeting last January of the Central Committee, however, Gorbachev apparently ran into opposition from some powerful members of this important body when he proposed secret ballot elections of some senior party officers instead of the present practice of voting by acclamation in open meetings.

In Thursday’s speech to the youth group, which claims 40 million members in this country of 280 million people, Gorbachev took a milder line in referring to those who resist reorganization.

“Openness, criticism and democracy are the motive forces of renewal, while their absence will lead us back to stagnation,” he said.

Officials Criticized

In that spirit, he assailed the attitude of some Komsomol officials for being out of touch with their members, who range in age from 14 to 27 years.

He said it reminded him of a street where young people walk on one side and some Komsomol leaders march on the other side and in the opposite direction.

He said that his policy of glasnost, or openness, is “not a temporary utilitarian requirement” but a vital element of his plan to restructure Soviet society.

“Criticism and openness should stand guard over the political and moral health of Soviet society,” he said. Without these, his drive to modernize the society will stagnate, he said.

Almost all members of the Politburo, the Party’s ruling circle, sat behind Gorbachev during his 90-minute televised speech, applauding his remarks.

Gorbachev reserved his warmest praise for young Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan who, in support of the Afghan army, have been fighting against guerrilla forces supported by the United States and other nations.

‘Baptism of Fire’

“I cannot keep down emotion as I talk about thousands of Soviet lads who have gone through the baptism of fire in Afghanistan,” he said. “The country and people take pride in your valor, courage and bravery.”

He made no reference to the recent visit of Secretary of State George P. Shultz, but his comments on Afghanistan may have been in response to a Soviet television interview with Shultz on Wednesday in which the secretary of state said: “The Afghan people are fighting. They don’t want you there.”

Western diplomats have estimated that there are 115,000 or more Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Combat deaths have been estimated at 10,000 since the Soviet units intervened in December, 1979.

Gorbachev has said that Soviet troops will be withdrawn when Western nations stop supporting Afghan rebel groups and a political settlement has been achieved.