Polish Reforms Get Gorbachev’s Blessing : Diplomacy: Mazowiecki confers with Soviet leader in Moscow. Both sides promise to continue good relations.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, reiterating the Kremlin’s acceptance of freely elected governments in Eastern Europe, told Poland’s non-Communist prime minister Friday that Moscow wishes him and Solidarity success in transforming the Polish political and economic system.

“Some people may consider it strange that I want to wish you success, but, in fact, I do wish you success--luck,” Gorbachev told Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a veteran of Poland’s Solidarity union movement. “I think that no less do we want the government, the nation, the nation close to us to be successful and the government to rule successfully.”

Mazowiecki, the first non-Communist to head an East Bloc regime in more than 40 years, assured Gorbachev in reply that the Soviet Union could continue to count on Poland as an ally in the Warsaw Pact and in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, or Comecon, the Communist trading bloc.

“The changes that are taking place in our country do not alter the international obligations of Poland, and nobody should see a threat in them,” Mazowiecki said, according to the Polish news agency PAP. “On the contrary, they contribute to the stability of Europe and strengthen us as a reliable and solid partner.”

As precise as a minuet, the careful statements reflected Poland’s transition from a political, military and economic vassal of the Soviet Union into a state whose sovereignty is fully recognized but whose nationalism, often headstrong and reckless in the past, is being expressed with a new understanding of the international order.

Against the background of the dramatic and rapid developments across most of Eastern Europe, Gorbachev’s remarks to Mazowiecki took on even greater significance in setting forth the relationship that the Soviet Union hopes to develop not just with Poland but also with Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria and possibly Czechoslovakia as their leaderships change.

“We may have different views. Our experience of life differs, as do our philosophies and political orientations,” Gorbachev told the new Polish prime minister, according to a report by the official Soviet news agency Tass. “But the realization of the most important fact that the Soviet Union and Poland are both interested in good neighborly relations creates a basis for mutual understanding on a broad range of issues.

“Respecting the choice by the Polish people on the course of their development, the Soviet side is very open for close interaction with the new Polish leadership as well as all Polish political forces, public and religious figures, trade unions and other democratic organizations.

“Such interaction, with respect for the sovereignty of both countries, their national dignity and independence, will further promote the successful solution of complex tasks.”

Gorbachev, outlining what may become the new basis of ties among the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, spoke of the similar problems that countries as diverse as Poland, the Soviet Union and the region’s smaller nations experience as they reform their political, economic and social systems.

“Of course, our ideas on how to solve the problems differ in many respects, but this is a stimulus rather than an obstacle for fruitful contacts,” Gorbachev said. He again stressed Moscow’s commitment to the freedom of each socialist party to chart its own course, even while continuing a dialogue with other parties.

As both men made clear, the most sensitive issue remains the question of German reunification--how, where and at what cost?

“It is very important that the major changes now occurring in Eastern Europe and across the Continent as a whole should be organically combined with the preservation of stability, because any disruption could throw Europe back many years,” Gorbachev warned.

Key leaders in the West have declared that they will not take advantage of the developments in Eastern Europe to revive the old confrontation. But Gorbachev and Mazowiecki expressed continuing concern in a communique, warning about an apparent urge among many Germans to reunite East and West Germany and change Europe’s postwar borders.

Gorbachev and Mazowiecki discussed the broad changes under way in Eastern Europe--particularly the dramatic developments in East Germany--as well as the Soviet-American summit meeting off Malta next weekend, when discussion of Eastern Europe is expected to figure significantly.

Mazowiecki, a devout Roman Catholic who spent more than a year in prison for his support of the Solidarity movement, also spoke to Gorbachev about Pope John Paul II, an old friend from his days as editor of a Catholic weekly in Poland. Mazowiecki had been to Rome to see the Pope recently.

On his first visit to the Soviet Union as prime minister, Mazowiecki felt the two-hour session had gone very well, the Polish government spokeswoman, Malgorzata Niezabitowska, said. “The (prime minister) is very, very satisfied with these talks,” she added. “They were very, very open, broad and friendly.”

Gorbachev is “very interested in and knows a lot about Poland,” she quoted Mazowiecki as saying, “and he approaches the country with understanding.”

The Soviet leader had told Mazowiecki that the philosophy of “new political thinking,” which has become the basis for Moscow’s foreign policy, also made it possible to deal with longstanding problems in Soviet-Polish relations.

“History cannot be remade. But lessons can and should be learned from it to preclude the repetition of things that marred relations between our peoples in the past and to cherish and multiply all the valuable things that unite them,” Gorbachev said.

But Mazowiecki raised the painful issue of the World War II massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn forest near the Byelorussian city of Smolensk.

“For Poles, the Katyn crime remains a wound that has not healed,” Mazowiecki said at a Kremlin dinner in his honor. “We want to close all difficult chapters of history. This is not only a matter for our alliance, but for a real reconciliation of our peoples--something that is necessary for us and for you.”

More than 4,300 Polish officers were killed at Katyn. Moscow has maintained that they were slaughtered by German troops in 1941, but most Poles believe--as do Western historians--that the Soviet secret police murdered them in 1940. A joint Polish-Soviet commission has been studying the question for more than two years, but has yet to issue its final report.