No Strict Socialist Model for All Nations: Gorbachev

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, urged to renounce the Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty in the East Bloc, said today that there is no strict model of socialism for all countries.

During a meeting between Gorbachev and 240 Polish intellectuals, Father Mieczyslaw Krapiec, president of Lublin University, said Poles have staged armed resistance in the past over attempts by major powers to limit their freedom.

He compared the Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty, as it is known in the West to the oppressive 12th-Century German Teutonic Order. The doctrine, named after former Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev, was formulated to justify the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

“It seems that the pronouncements of General Secretary Gorbachev harmonize with the concept of the natural rights of man, nation and state, especially when he stresses partnership in decision-making,” Krapiec said.

Room for Experimentation

Gorbachev failed to answer directly during the unusual three-hour encounter, televised live and uncensored, but reiterated that there is no one strict model for socialism and that there is room for experimentation.

“At present the dispute over the model of socialism is ending,” said Gorbachev, who arrived in Warsaw on Monday for a bilateral visit and a two-day Warsaw Pact meeting. “We already know there is scientific socialism, which each nation should implement taking into account its own experience, historical tradition and customs.”

Marcin Krol, owner of the independent Roman Catholic periodical Res Publica (Commonwealth), said the Brezhnev Doctrine is “an important question for Poles.” And a Polish writer, Zbigniew Safian, said Poles have lived under a “complex” system of semi-independence, which has caused serious problems.

‘Struggle Is Serious’

Gorbachev listened soberly to the intellectuals as they expressed their concern over the fate of perestroika, or economic restructuring, in the Soviet Union, but explained that he could not answer the questions in detail and promised to do it in writing later.

In a brief address opening the meeting, the Soviet leader acknowledged the struggle over his attempts at reform. “Shots are not heard, but the struggle is serious,” he said.

Jan Szczepanski, a member of parliament, criticized Gorbachev for overemphasizing the role of intellectuals in implementation of the reform.

“The fate of perestroika is being decided in the plants,” he said.

Gorbachev replied, “It does not mean there will not be workers and farmers in the train called perestroika. “