Can Learn From Hungary’s Experience, Soviet Says

Soviet Politburo member Yegor K. Ligachev said Saturday that the Soviet Union will use the experience of Hungary and other Socialist countries as part of its program of economic and political reforms.

However, he also said that the changes introduced under Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev should not be seen as a move towards Western-style liberalism.

“These changes arise from objective conditions in our country,” he said, responding to what he called simplistic speculation in the West.

‘Point of Transformation’

“It is not liberalization but democratization that I’m talking about. . . . The essential point of the transformation is to improve, morally and financially, the standards of the whole nation and of the individual in society.”

Speaking at a rare news conference attended by Western reporters, Ligachev said his three days of talks with Hungarian leaders resulted in “full mutual understanding” of the Soviet Union’s determination to revitalize its own economy and that of the East Bloc as a whole.

“This is clearly not an easy job to implement, but we clearly have made positive changes,” said Ligachev, who is considered to be the No. 2 man in the Soviet hierarchy.

His comments expanded on Gorbachev’s speech to a Communist Party rally in Prague, Czechoslovakia, earlier this month, when the Soviet leader said that “No (Communist) Party has a monopoly on truth.”

Although Ligachev made it clear that Hungary, like other Soviet allies, will have to increase its economic integration with the rest of the bloc, he repeated Gorbachev’s assurances that Moscow will not impose its economic model on its allies.

‘Find Its Own Way’

“Each party can find its own way,” he said. “It’s not like in the past, where Moscow pushed a button and everybody listened. . . . It is very important that each country take into account its own conditions and formulate its own policy, because the leadership has to face up to its responsibility to the people.”

He said that the Soviet leadership is especially interested in Hungary’s experiences in relaxing the direct control of the Communist Party and central planning offices over the activities of individual enterprises.

The Soviet leadership will also draw on Hungary’s introduction of multiple candidates for parliamentary elections when it stages a nationwide experiment for election of local soviets, or town councils, in June, Ligachev said.

Under the Hungarian system, local residents can nominate candidates, but the Popular Front, an umbrella group controlled by the Communist Party, selects the two or more names that appear on the ballot.

Workers Select Managers

Ligachev also said he was impressed by a visit to a Hungarian factory where the management was selected by a workers council.

“We invite the capitalists to take a similar position and to turn over the management of the factories to the workers,” he said. “It has aroused great enthusiasm here.”

The Politburo member said the Soviet leadership is satisfied with world reaction to its latest arms control proposals, which would remove longer-range intermediate nuclear weapons from Europe and begin talks aimed at removal of shorter-range missiles.

“We are prepared to sign an agreement on the elimination of nuclear weapons with any American government, including the present Administration,” he said. “Whether this can be done with the current Administration will be decided by the course of events. . . . It is up to the Americans.”