Gorbachevs Mingle With Cheering Crowds at Start of Yugoslav Visit

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, arrived here Monday for a five-day state visit and interrupted their schedule to plunge into cheering crowds for handshakes and small talk.

To the surprise of security men, Gorbachev left his armored limousine to meet with a cheering throng at a war memorial for soldiers and partisans who died in the liberation of Belgrade in 1944 from the German occupation.

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.”

A similar stop on a Washington street in December, with Vice President George Bush, created a mild sensation. On Monday, however, few reporters or photographers were with Gorbachev and even those traveling with the official party had been taken on to the next scheduled stop.

Later in the day, Mrs. Gorbachev crossed the road before entering the National Museum to greet throngs chanting support for perestroika, her husband’s reform program.

Her security cordon caved in as Raisa was mobbed, a tiny figure invisible in a surging crowd.

Late in the day, after visiting memorials and monuments, Gorbachev began talks with President Lazar Mojsov and Bosko Krunic, head of the Yugoslav Communist Party.