WORLD IN BRIEF : SOVIET UNION : Gorbachev Attack on Reformers Told

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev reportedly stunned reformers by harshly criticizing historian Yuri N. Afanasyev, a key leader of radical forces, at a closed meeting with top editors last week. Gorbachev also attacked a poll that ranked physicist Andrei D. Sakharov as the most popular member of the new Congress of People’s Deputies, Soviet journalists with knowledge of the meeting said. Gorbachev called Afanasyev’s recent speeches incompatible with his party membership, suggesting that he should quit or be expelled, they said. And he told Vladislav A. Starkov, the editor the country’s most popular periodical, that as a result of publication of the Sakharov poll, he should considering resigning, they said.