Shouts of ‘Mikhail’ Greet Gorbachev in Yugoslavia

Visiting Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev made an impromptu foray into a cheering Belgrade crowd today and declared: “We can be proud of our common history.”

Hundreds of Yugoslavs had gathered opposite a monument to soldiers who died in the 1944 liberation of Belgrade, one of Gorbachev’s first stops after arriving on the first official visit by a Kremlin leader to Yugoslavia in 12 years.

Clearly taking the strong security force by surprise, Gorbachev strode into the crowd to shouts of “Mikhail! Mikhail!”

“We must know that in all times our peoples feel friendship,” he said. “We are pleased that our relations now are very good, and I think they will be better.

“We can be proud of our common history,” he added as the crowd erupted in applause. “Now we can do much more.”

Enthusiasm for Changes

The warm response to Gorbachev reflected the enthusiasm of many Yugoslavs for the changes he has brought to Soviet domestic and foreign policies, and showed that four decades had healed an acrimonious split between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.

He later began talks with Yugoslav President Lazar Mojsov. Yugoslav Communist Party leader Bosko Krunic was also at the talks, expected to focus on bilateral relations.

Highlights of Gorbachev’s stay in Belgrade will include the signing of a new political declaration setting out the principles of full equality and non-interference in party and state relations and an address to the Yugoslav Parliament.

The declaration holds symbolic meaning for the Yugoslavs, who were expelled from the Communist movement by Josef Stalin in 1948 for ideological heresy, helped found the nonaligned movement and developed their own distinctive brand of communism.

Yugoslav officials say it will be based on documents signed in the 1950s in which the Soviet party recognized the Communist world’s diversity but will also take account of Yugoslavia’s nonaligned status and the Soviet role as a superpower.

Bank Accord Signed

Meanwhile today, a Yugoslav and Soviet bank signed an agreement aimed at balancing trade between the two countries, a senior bank official said.