Playing by New Rules

Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov concedes that he might have done better when it came to picking certain nominees for the 70-member Council of Ministers who are to run the executive departments of government. Under the circumstances, it’s unlikely that anyone will argue with him. Six of Ryzhkov’s choices were rejected outright by committees of the Supreme Soviet, the newly chosen legislature, on the ground that they were demonstrably unqualified for the posts they had been named to. A seventh, sensing the depth of hostility to his appointment, asked to have his name withdrawn. Never before in Soviet history has this kind of thing occurred.

The precedent is dramatic, refreshing, even remarkable, but care ought to be taken not to read too much into it. The Supreme Soviet is not serving notice that it intends to be a runaway legislature, ready to challenge the authority of the executive or eager to force through measures clearly opposed by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his fellow top leaders. The 542-member Supreme Soviet is in fact considerably more conservative and Establishment-oriented than the four-times larger Congress of People’s Deputies from which it wasdrawn. There are dissidents in its ranks, but the Supreme Soviet remains very much an instrument of the Communist Party. Unlike its predecessors, it won’t be a rubber-stamp legislature, but neither will it be a source of chronic opposition.

The message that the Supreme Soviet does seem to be delivering is that it plans to take seriously its advisory role, at least when it comes to deciding on the fitness of those who will be in charge of dealing with some of the country’s forbiddingly serious problems. The notice that has been served is that the era is ending when plum positions could be awarded simply on the basis of cronyism or bureaucratic longevity. From now on, some degree of skill is likely to be demanded.

Ryzhkov seems ready to accept that view. A week ago he pledged that he would fight for his nominees to the bitter end. Now, the end having been unmistakably signaled, he says he sees no cause for prolonging the battle since “I could not see any substantial reasons that would allow me to defend them.” There are new rules to the way politics is going to be played in the Soviet Union from now on. Ryzhkov is saying that he’s ready to play by them.