Warsaw’s Week: Gorbachev and a One-World Walker

--So you want to know about the comings and goings in Warsaw, right? Well, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrives today in the Communist capital for a six-day visit. So much for the comings. As for the goings, a British peace activist and former Roman Catholic priest will leave the city today in hopes of bridging the gap between East and West. Bruce Kent, 59, sets off for a 1,000-mile, 45-day hike through Poland, East Germany, West Germany and Belgium to demonstrate the need for a conflict-free Europe. He chose Warsaw as his starting point, he said, because the Warsaw Pact was signed there in 1955, and the Belgian capital, Brussels, as his destination because it is the nerve center of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “My main purpose is to get across the message that Europe could live without the two military blocs and without confrontation,” said Kent, who will wear a sweat shirt that reads “one world” in five languages.

--British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will be plugged in to residents of the Soviet Union tonight, fielding their questions on a phone-in radio program. The broadcast will be carried live to the Soviets through the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Russian Service, and Thatcher will be in the London studio. Only residents of Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev will be taking part in the 55-minute program, since those are the only Soviet cities with direct dialing to Britain. “It will be the first time we have ever attempted something like this in the Russian context,” John Tusa, managing director of BBC External Broadcasting, said. “We don’t know exactly what prompted the opening of the telephone dam.” Usually, 18 million Soviet citizens listen to the Russian Service, but, naturally, Thatcher’s participation is expected to attract a few more comrades.

--A malfunctioning voltage regulator has put Christopher Lee Marshall in a holding pattern in his quest to become the world’s youngest transatlantic pilot. Marshall, 11, of Oceano, Calif., is attempting to emulate Charles A. Lindbergh’s historic 1927 flight to Paris, but for now, he will have to wait in Montreal, while his plane’s voltage regulator is repaired. The youngest pilot to cross the United States left San Diego on Thursday and had expected to land in Paris on Wednesday. But Marshall, who started his fascination with airplanes at age 4, and his co-pilot, Randy (Duke) Cunningham, will resume their historic flight today, leaving in their Mooney 252 two-seater for Greenland. After that, they plan to stop in Iceland before touching down in Paris.