A Step for World Safety, If East Bloc Is Serious : Terrorism: The Soviets may now recognize it as a menace that must be fought, though their actions so far go only partway.

Western governments were intrigued but skeptical when Mikhail S. Gorbachev declared almost four years ago that “the Soviet Union rejects terrorism in principle and is prepared to cooperate actively with other states to uproot it.”

The Soviet Union and other East Bloc nations have a long track record of providing weapons, training and sanctuary for America-hating terrorists dedicated to the destruction of Western democracy through assassination and sabotage. They have been the major source of arms and political support for Syria and Libya, which in turn have sponsored the Middle Eastern fanatics who maim, murder and kidnap in the name of holy war against Israel and “imperialism.”

Evidence is growing, however, that the Soviets really have come to see international terrorism as a menace that must be fought in cooperation with the United States and other countries. If so, the ramifications for the war against terrorism are incalculable.

Gorbachev’s 1986 remarks on terrorism were followed by feelers to the West and subsequent U.S.-Soviet contacts on the subject. Formal superpower talks opened last June. And an unofficial task force of U.S. and Soviet experts has twice met to discuss possible areas of cooperation. The last such meeting, which included an ex-CIA chief and two former generals in the KGB secret police, occurred this month in Santa Monica.

Task force members agreed on the need for “timely exchange” of information on terrorist plans and activities. They proposed that no nation “sponsor, encourage, train or supply any kind of terrorist activity,” and that all governments “take all appropriate measures to . . . persaude other nations and groups with which they have contact to cease and desist from employing terrorism tactics.”

The proposals bear no official imprint so far, but they are being relayed to both governments in preparation for a second round of official talks.

Most Western experts dismiss any notion that the Soviets have masterminded the global terrorism network. But Moscow has supported terrorist groups that would have existed anyway in the apparent conviction that violence directed against the capitalist West was, by definition, in the Soviet’s interest.

Thousands of Third World “freedom fighters” received training in subversion and sabotage at training camps in the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. Many later emerged as terrorists. Defecting terrorists have told of East German and Cuban instructors at similar training camps in the Middle East.

The Soviets clearly are in a position to provide, if they will, a gold mine of information on the personalities, communications and logistics arrangements of international terrorists.

But why should they do us favors? Part of the answer, Western experts believe, is that Moscow has become increasingly concerned that links with terrorists could seriously endanger the good relations with the West that are essential for the economic success of perestroika . Beyond that, the Soviets have come to realize that terrorism could endanger the internal stability of the Soviet Union, too.

Brian Jenkins, formerly of the RAND Corp., recently noted that, while many incidents have not been publicly reported, “in recent years hijackings inside the Soviet Union and terrorist attacks against Soviet officials abroad have brought the Soviet Union to fifth place in the list of terrorist targets.”

In view of the nationalist fervor now sweeping the Soviet Union, the Kremlin must be uneasy that terrorist tactics could be adopted by anti-Soviet elements in the Baltic states, the Ukraine and especially the southern border republics with their large Muslim populations that might be potentially susceptible to the fundamentalist extremism that is rampant in neighboring Iran and Afghanistan.

Gorbachev, one suspects, would like to head off the possibility of home-grown Soviet terrorists receiving support from the West. What’s needed now is action to back up the rhetoric of cooperation.

The Soviets have gone part way. They are credited with helping to influence the Palestine Liberation Organization to embrace efforts for a negotiated settlement with Israel. They are also said to have bluntly told Syria not to use military force against Israel, to have urged a policy of restraint upon Iran and to have been active in trying to end the cycle of murder and terrorism in Lebanon.

If the Soviets are serious, though, they could do much more. They could pressure Cuba, Bulgaria and East Germany to stop giving aid and comfort to visiting terrorists. As the major supplier of arms to Syria and Libya, they could exert great leverage on these state sponsors of terrorism to knock it off. They could blow the whistle on impending terrorist operations known to Soviet intelligence.

Until such things happen, the Soviets will be a part of the problem instead of the solution.