Soviet Leaders Propose ‘Radical’ Changes

The Soviet leadership, alarmed by nationalist turmoil bubbling across the country, today proposed “radical transformations in the Soviet federation” to address the needs of its different nationalities.

A Communist Party policy document said solving demands for greater autonomy, ending ethnic strife and “ensuring free development of spiritual life of all peoples of the Soviet Union” are key components of President Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reform program.

“The main condition of stability and successful development of the Soviet federation is the optimum correlation between the rights of union republics and of the Soviet Union as a whole,” it said.

The document, quoted by Tass press agency, was short on detail. But it said the rights of autonomous republics and regions--minority group subdivisions of the 15 ethnic republics--should be substantially widened.

Reciting a litany of early economic and political successes under the original federation plan, it noted that the “administrative-command system” of orders dictated from Moscow had failed to meet the needs of the republics.

“Independence of republics was curtailed under the pretext of the protection of the interests of the whole state,” it said.

Tass published the party statement a few hours after the Kremlin declared unconstitutional an Estonian election law that deprived many non-Estonians of the vote and provoked a week of protest strikes by thousands of Russians living in the republic.

The party policy statement also followed more trouble in the south, where more than 100 people have been killed in the last year over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and nationalist unrest in the two other Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania.

The document acknowledged that the nationalities question had become “extremely acute” and added: “That is why, now that Soviet society has embarked on radical reforms, we need to ensure free national development.”

It said the legal status of autonomous regions and districts should be enhanced and attention should be given “to the situation of national minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East.”

The policy statement precedes a long-promised plenary session of the party’s Central Committee on the Soviet Union’s nationalities problems, which is now scheduled for the autumn.

On Estonia, which has been pushing for more autonomy from Moscow, a decree passed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on Wednesday did not revoke the election law but called on the republic’s Parliament to amend it by Oct. 1.

There was no immediate reaction from Estonia. It was unclear whether it would bow to the Kremlin’s wishes or try to keep the new law that sets a two-year residence requirement for voters and five years for those standing for public office.

About one-third of the republic’s 1.6 million people are Russians. Many are recent arrivals and would be disenfranchised under the law.

The Presidium acted after it appeared that the strikes in Estonia were spreading to other republics that also have Russian minorities worried that their rights will be limited.