Senior Aide Offers Glimpse of Kremlin Proceedings : Gorbachev’s Style: Listen and Then Act

A senior aide to Mikhail S. Gorbachev offered a rare inside glimpse at the Soviet president’s leadership style in an interview published Friday.

Georgy K. Shakhnazarov, a member of the Academy of Sciences’ Department of Philosophy and Law, described round-table arguments in the Kremlin preceding major policy decisions in which Gorbachev listens to everyone, regardless of rank, but voices his own views with determination and conviction.

He said that Gorbachev, apparently fearing that his successor might try to reverse his policies, hopes to create a system of checks and balances that would eliminate the possibility of a dictator taking over and make future leaders responsible to the people.

The interview, with the monthly journal Horizon, was a far cry from the gossipy memoirs that have been written by some advisers to American presidents. And although it was a largely glossy look at the Gorbachev administration, it appeared to be another step in Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost , or greater openness.

It took readers behind the walls of the Kremlin and provided unusual insight into the decision-making process adopted by Gorbachev’s inner circle. Shakhnazarov described this as a “truly creative process” that is concluded only after Gorbachev sifts through a variety of viewpoints.

Shakhnazarov, 64, has served as a party official since the 1950s, when Nikita S. Khrushchev ruled the Soviet Union. He said Gorbachev “almost always introduces his own views to all questions because he is a person who thinks actively and independently.”

“He is an exceptionally staunch person and ardently upholds his point of view, even argues,” Shakhnazarov went on. He said that when Gorbachev is displeased by someone or something he is not slow to express his displeasure.

‘Tells You Straight’

“He is firm and resolute when necessary,” Shakhnazarov said. “If he is dissatisfied with something, he tells you straight, but in a non-offending manner. . . . Gorbachev never permits himself to offend anyone by rude words or in some other way.” He said Gorbachev eschews “rigid hierarchic discipline.”

“One should say that he highly respects the work of the collective . . . all those who are invited to participate in the effort,” Shakhnazarov said. “The readiness to lend an ear to different opinions and integrate them into a single whole is characteristic of Gorbachev. That our views do not always fully coincide is another thing. And this is only natural.

“Sometimes he disagrees with us and we try to prove something to him. Real arguments ensue. But one should say that he is a democratic person. It also happens, of course, that Gorbachev may change his point of view, with due regard for objections. Even if he had an opinion of his own but the interlocutor proved to him that this was not right, he agrees, as a rule, that his interlocutor is perhaps right.”

Shakhnazarov praised Gorbachev for his willingness to listen to others. “There is nothing worse for a politician than obstinacy and unwillingness to recognize the fallacy of one’s approach,” he said.

Shakhnazarov shrugged off critics who have complained that Gorbachev, by taking over as both general secretary of the Communist Party and president of the country, is creating the possibility of a new dictatorship.

“In 1985, when Gorbachev took office as general secretary, this meant that he had the opportunity to be in command of everything,” he said. “Then, it did not occur to anyone to dispute the possibility.”

But he said Gorbachev wants to create a system in which there are controls on the party leader.

“He is a reformer,” Shakhnazarov said. “He wants to make our system democratic and to enable our country to advance steadily in its development. Therefore, to my mind, he has no desire to cling to power at all costs. What he wants is to create a system in which the next leader would not have an opportunity to get out of the people’s control.”