Soviet Leaders Endorse Reform Changes

The leadership of the Soviet Communist Party on Monday endorsed changes in the controversial legislation that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev says is the essential first step toward creating a democratic political system in the Soviet Union but that critics fear could further concentrate power rather than share it.

The party’s policy-making Central Committee, attempting to soothe these fears, said it has approved extensive changes in the constitutional amendments to be placed before the Supreme Soviet, the national Parliament, when it begins a special three-day session in the Kremlin today.

The committee also approved proposals by Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov for drafting the country’s economic development plans for the next 15 years--a strategic undertaking that, as much as any political measure, could decide the success or failure of perestroika, or restructuring, as the reform program is known.

Gorbachev, more determined than ever to maintain the pace of his reform drive, won Central Committee backing for even further steps to broaden and accelerate the moves, including the proposed adoption of an election platform to be debated nationally next spring.

Neither Gorbachev’s nor Ryzhkov’s reports were released immediately. But when Gorbachev addresses the Supreme Soviet at its opening session, he will lay out the coming steps in the country’s political reforms, and the extent of his compromises with his critics will be clear when the rewritten legislation is introduced for debate.

Although Gorbachev, in a frank weekend speech, had made clear the party leadership’s unwillingness to compromise on such fundamental issues as the country’s unity and its commitment to socialism, the tone of the Central Committee’s communique was conciliatory. Summing up the committee’s closed-door meeting, it stressed that the proposed constitutional amendments, along with a new election law, were just the first step in creating a new political system.

Restive Republics

According to a commentary on Radio Moscow, “due account was taken” of the concerns of the country’s restive constituent republics, which seek greater autonomy but saw increased central control in the first draft of the legislation.

The official news agency Tass, quoting the Central Committee’s communique, said the party was committed to widening the rights of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics, which have feared the loss of their limited powers.

The rewritten legislation “will mean a major step along the road of democratization of Soviet society, ensuring unlimited power of the soviets (governing councils) and creating a socialist, law-governed state,” the Central Committee, quoted by Tass, said in a resolution.

The committee pledged that the new laws would “form a constitutional basis for the further improvement of legislative work, for open, democratic conduct of state affairs, (and) for the solution of major questions by taking into account diverse public interests and the strengthening of legal guarantees against the abuse of power and authoritarianism.”

In his address to the committee, which has about 300 members, Gorbachev apparently went well beyond the current legislation to outline further reforms, including plans for contested elections to a new Congress of People’s Deputies next spring.

To prepare for the elections, which Gorbachev believes would give him a popular mandate as well as provide a powerful political vehicle for more reform, the Central Committee called upon its new policy commissions to work out an election platform.

Other items placed on the party’s immediate agenda include development of a new relationship between the central government and the country’s constituent republics and other areas, reorganization of local government to ensure greater citizen participation and reform of the judicial system.