The World - News from June 22, 1988

The Soviet Communist Party has endorsed creation of a political group in the republic of Estonia that is the country’s first outside the Communist Party. The Peoples Front of Estonia says its goal is to promote perestroika , the restructuring of Soviet society launched by Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The newspaper Sovietskaya Estonia reported June 11 that the Peoples Front was founded in April and has more than 40,000 members in 800 affiliates throughout Estonia. The Peoples Front generally follows the Communist Party line but emphasizes the “political and economic sovereignty” of the 15 Soviet republics and the “cultural autonomy” of the country’s more than 100 ethnic groups.