Hungary, Poland Eroding East Bloc Unity : NEWS ANALYSIS

In opening its borders to thousands of East German travelers wishing to emigrate to the West, Hungary this week unleashed a major foreign policy initiative among reformist countries of the East Bloc.

At times, it seemed as though the Budapest regime was engaged in an unspoken contest with Poland to determine which Warsaw Pact nation has the greatest determination to test the limits of reform.

A critical difference exists, however: In Poland, the sweeping political reforms adopted in recent weeks have been primarily concerned with domestic politics. But Hungary, which is geographically farthest from the Soviet Union, has taken a major step toward breaking down the common foreign policy of the East Bloc.

Hungary’s announcement Sunday night that it would break with East Germany and allow citizens of the latter to emigrate through its territory has taken it into an arena that directly affects Eastern Europe’s relations with the West.

And taken together, the moves by the two leading Warsaw Pact reform states have severely eroded the monolithic unity in domestic and foreign affairs generally found among the Soviet Bloc’s member nations.

Now, according to some analysts, the Soviet Union’s attitude of expressing “concern” over Budapest’s move but keeping hands off seems to suggest that Moscow is willing to allow continued East Bloc overtures to the West. Political observers in Budapest say it is likely that Hungary in coming months will be the first East Bloc country to press for neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact.

In the short term, the Soviet stance amounts to an increase in pressure on the East German regime to conform to the trend toward reform in Communist Europe. While the Soviets have not directly pushed for reforms in the hard-line states of Czechoslovakia and East Germany, their tacit acceptance of Hungary’s and Poland’s broad political reforms suggests that the underpinings of the old order in Eastern Europe is steadily eroding.

The 12,000 generally young and skilled East Germans who have fled across the Hungarian border so far represent for the East German government important and potentially destabilizing evidence of the nation’s economic and political stagnation.

On Wednesday, an East German newspaper for the first time raised the issue of government responsibility for the exodus, which, Hungarian authorities suggest, eventually could result in as many as 60,000 East Germans defecting to the West.

“How do we make this country indisputably the focal point for dedication and happiness for every individual?” the newspaper, Junge Welt, asked. “How do we make it a homeland for even more people, in which one accepts the burdens and from which one is not lured away by shop windows full of bananas and glossy travel guides?”

But at the same time, the Hungarians continue to face--and resist--criticism from their neighbors, in particular Romania and Czechoslovakia, who persist in charges that West Germany is trying to “lure” East Germans away.

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry stood by its rejection of East German assertions that it was pandering to Western economic considerations by allowing the East Germans out.

Foreign Minister Gyula Horn has said that Hungary is reevaluating those parts of its foreign policy that are made obsolete in the new era of reform in Eastern Europe.

“Existing bilateral agreements between socialist countries, most of them in effect since the 1960s, damage Hungarian interests,” Horn said during an appearance in Madrid on Tuesday. “I don’t understand how they were accepted. They set obligations for Hungary while they give advantages to the other side. Such agreements should be annulled or modified.”