Gorbachev Prods Party Leaders to Abide by Reform

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev has put Communist Party officials on notice that their role is to serve society and not to rule by fiat, the official news agency Tass reported Saturday.

In a speech to party leaders in the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, delivered on Friday, Gorbachev said his reform process had sparked “a real struggle” in the country.

“I would like to remind you, although I am repeating myself: the party is at the service of the people. Anyone who forgets about this does not deserve to be called a party member,” he said.

Gorbachev said some local officials were behaving as though factories, farms, villages and even whole cities were their own fiefdoms and declared that “administration by fiat” must stop.

He added that the party could not tolerate such people in its ranks and vowed to pursue moves to “democratize” Soviet society, pointing to a party conference to be held in June as a forum for making the changes official.