Gorbachev Lays Strife to Tardiness of Reforms

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, speaking with a rare poignancy over the weekend, attributed the upheaval in Eastern Europe to the failure of the Communist parties there, all of them the Soviet Union’s proteges and allies, to embark earlier on essential political and economic reforms.

“The truth, about which we have spoken so often in the past few years, has been reaffirmed once again: Where there is a delay in dealing with overripe problems, excesses are inevitable,” Gorbachev said in a speech that was as philosophic as political.

“We welcome the positive changes while fully realizing the difficulties, both domestic and international, that accompany them.”

In his most extensive public discussion of the changes now under way in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev urged the Communist parties there to adopt new strategies that “consolidate all forces standing on the positions of socialism, democracy and progress” in an effort to restore their political influence.

Gorbachev, who has calmly accepted the dissolution of what had been a virtual Soviet empire of Communist satellites in Eastern Europe, was speaking on Saturday to the Communist Party’s policy-making Central Committee, where concerns have been expressed about the nature, scope and extent of the changes. His comments were published Sunday in the party newspaper Pravda.

Reaffirming Moscow’s support for the sweeping reforms, he described them as analogous to his own program of perestroika, and he reiterated the Soviet pledge to let each East European nation pursue its own course, even if that means a break with socialism.

“These are not only our allies but also our friends and neighbors,” Gorbachev told the Central Committee. “We seek to ensure progress and stability in every way--stability in these countries themselves, in Eastern Europe as a region and on the whole Continent--as well as the inviolability of postwar borders of all the states in Europe.”

Quickly surveying a region where the Soviet Union had fostered and often installed allied Communist parties in power, Gorbachev observed: “Fraternal parties are no longer ruling in Poland and Hungary. Our friends in the German Democratic Republic and in Czechoslovakia have largely lost their positions.

“New political forces have emerged in the arena, and they include both those who support the socialist idea and those who seek other ways of social development.

“The new situation demands from our friends resolute, well-considered actions to restore their influence and positions in society and, consequently, the need to elaborate a new strategy and tactics.”

Gorbachev, who along with other top Soviet officials met last week with the party leaders from all of Moscow’s Warsaw Pact allies, assured the Central Committee that “our friends realize this and take account of the situation, even though they have to master on the move the science of political work in new conditions of real rather than rhetorical pluralism.”

Warning the West again not to interfere in the East’s reforms and to let them take their own course, Gorbachev told the Central Committee, “We are doing everything possible to prevent interference from outside and to neutralize attempts at such interference, particularly in regard to the German Democratic Republic.

“We firmly declare that we will see to it that no harm comes to the German Democratic Republic,” he continued. “It is our strategic ally and a member of the Warsaw Pact. It is necessary to proceed from the postwar realities, including the existence of the two sovereign German states. Departure from this threatens Europe with destabilization.”

The Soviet Union, which still has 380,000 troops based in East Germany, has repeatedly warned West Germany--and the United States and Bonn’s other NATO allies--not to press now for German reunification, but to “let history decide” the issue.

“This is not to say that relations between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany cannot change,” Gorbachev continued. “Peaceful cooperation between them can and must develop. As for the future, it will take shape in the course of history, in the framework of the development of the general European process.”

Moscow itself will “build its relations with East European countries, whether they have been carrying out transformations for quite some time, or have only embarked on that road, or are yet to do so, on the single position of respect for sovereignty, non-interference and recognition of the freedom of choice,” Gorbachev said.

“We proceed from the fact that any nation has the right to decide its fate itself, including the choice of a system, the ways, the pace and the methods of its development.”

The Soviet Union, in fact, is known to have blessed the reforms in Poland and Hungary as they were under way and then actively encouraged the changes recently begun in East Germany, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. The Soviet news media have now begun to ask when Romania will join the reform process.

While describing the “essence of the changes under way . . . (as) democratization and the renewal of socialism,” Gorbachev said, “it is no secret that these processes do not proceed easily. . . .

“What is taking place in socialist countries is the logical outcome of a certain stage of development that made the peoples of these countries aware of the need for change. This is the result of internal development, the result of choice by the people themselves.

“Despite the specific character of the deep changes in the different socialist countries, one cannot deny the fact they proceed in the same mainstream as our perestroika, though we in no way encouraged them.”

And Gorbachev praised the new Soviet-Polish relationship as a model for relations with other East European countries going through this transition. Recalling the visit here last month of Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a leading activist from the Solidarity labor movement, Gorbachev said that Mazowiecki had expressed a desire to develop better relations with the Soviet Union as well as a commitment to Poland’s treaty obligations as a member of the Warsaw Pact.

The Soviet Union will have to adjust, Gorbachev said, to the new political processes under way in East Europe and will have to work with the “new political forces, parties and organizations” emerging there alongside of or even in place of the Communist parties.

The changes in Eastern Europe will also require major adjustments in both the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance grouping the Soviet Union and Bulgaria, Czechoslovkia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania, and the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, which also includes Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam.

At Comecon, as the trading bloc is known, “cardinal changes in the mechanism of cooperation are needed,” he said, “and it is essential to put it on a sound economic track. Without that, it will be inconceivable to accomplish one of the main tasks of today--to integrate gradually the economies of our countries with the all-European and world structures.”

In a review of Soviet foreign policy, Gorbachev argued strongly that perestroika is having a major impact on international relations and paying off for the Soviet Union in terms of lower international tensions, greater opportunities for economic cooperation and trade and faster disarmament.

Evaluating his summit meeting last weekend with President Bush on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Gorbachev said that, largely as a result of perestroika, the United States “had decided to stop its economic war against us” and that major agreements reducing strategic and conventional arms would be signed next year.

The talks were “the beginning of a new stage in Soviet-American relations,” he said, “and great and tangible changes are taking place.”

Taken together, the country’s foreign policy successes have reduced the threat of war and are making it possible now, Gorbachev argued, to reverse the allocation of resources, spending less on defense and more on improving the quality of life in the Soviet Union.