President, Shultz Get Words of Praise : Soviet Media Bid Adieu to Reagan

Soviet media once fumed at President Reagan, but two prestigious newspapers bid respectful and even fond farewells today to Reagan and his secretary of state, George P. Shultz, for helping U.S.-Soviet relations.

“Of course, Reagan has remained Reagan, the anti-communist and the troubadour of Western society,” the government newspaper Izvestia said in a front-page article. “But the restructuring of international relations could not bypass the White House.”

Reagan, who in 1983 labeled the Soviet Union “the evil empire,” quipped into an open microphone in 1984 that he would begin bombing the country in five minutes. In the last days of his presidency, however, Soviets recall not those “five minutes” but his five summit meetings with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Izvestia said.

“And this is not because we have short memories, but because a long road lies ahead of us, which we can only overcome together,” wrote the newspaper’s commentator, former U.S.-based correspondent Melor Sturua.

Pravda, the Communist Party daily, painted an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Shultz, Reagan’s secretary of state since July, 1982, and declared: “It will be just to note that Shultz was one of the architects of the turning point in Soviet-U.S. relations.”

In the recent warming between the superpowers, Pravda said, “Shultz’s realism had a telling effect, as well as his sober recognition of the fact that in the nuclear age, the self-preservation of our two countries can be guaranteed only by the avenues of dialogue.”

The U.S. secretary of state is also the father of five children, an experienced gourmet cook, an ardent golf and tennis player and an avid devotee of ballroom dancing, Pravda told its readers--surprising revelations in a country where most citizens know virtually nothing about the lives of their own leaders.

Pravda did make one barbed criticism of Shultz in its profile of the outgoing Cabinet member, saying he had been keener than former U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger to send U.S. troops “to different corners of the planet to defend American interests.”

“It’s well known what blood-letting was caused by the feverish forced march of Marines to Grenada, to Lebanon, and by the bombing of Libya,” Pravda said.