Pressure On Till ‘Sense Prevails,’ Ligachev Says

The Soviet leadership is prepared to increase political and economic pressure on Lithuania until “common sense prevails” and it abandons its attempt to break away from the Soviet Union, a senior member of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo warned Friday.

Yegor K. Ligachev, describing the Baltic republic’s declaration of independence as a grave crisis for the Soviet Union, said in an interview with The Times that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the country’s leadership are ready to implement “a whole range of measures” to force Lithuania to drop its secession efforts.

Ligachev unequivocally ruled out once again the use of military force against Lithuania.

“We are not going to take any military measures to resolve this issue, absolutely not,” he said. “We still believe, at least up to this moment, that in the end common sense will prevail there. We have to show patience here, but at the same time determination.”

Although regarded as the voice of conservatism on the Politburo for his forthright adherence to traditional socialist values, Ligachev was clearly speaking for the whole Soviet leadership as he declared with “full frankness and full authority” that Moscow is determined that the Lithuanian secession not succeed, at least not in such a unilateral way and not at this time.

“Our president is in a very resolute mood,” Ligachev said of Gorbachev. “He will take political measures against this, he will take economic measures, and he is absolutely dedicated to the enforcement of Soviet laws in this constituent republic, in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.”

Over the past week, Gorbachev has issued a series of orders with the aim of asserting the central government’s authority in Lithuania and preventing the nationalists there from implementing their plans for independence.

Following a plan of graduated measures, he put Lithuanian factories and other enterprises owned or managed by the central government under the direct authority of Moscow; dispatched internal troops to tighten security at key installations, such as the Ignalina Atomic Energy Station; ordered the Interior Ministry and the KGB, the country’s security and intelligence agency, to strengthen their control of borders and on foreigners in Lithuania; ordered Lithuania to stop formation of its own border force and customs service; ordered Lithuanian citizens to surrender all weapons, and sent a high-level team of prosecutors to Lithuania to enforce the federal constitution and national laws there.

How much further Gorbachev will go, Ligachev suggested, stressing the Kremlin’s firmness on the issue, depends on how long the crisis lasts; Moscow is prepared to increase the pressure until the Lithuanians back down.

“We understand the danger, and we shall continue to take measures, quite adequate measures,” Ligachev said.

Ligachev emphasized that the Soviet leadership does want a political settlement of the crisis, but he said that talks would have to be on Moscow’s terms.

“They want us to negotiate with them, but we have already declared with full responsibility, and we continue to maintain, that we will never engage in negotiations with the current leadership of Lithuania,” he said. “But we are prepared to resolve any problems, whether economic or social, that are discussed with other constituent republics in ordinary and established ways.”

The difference between “negotiations” and “discussions” is crucial for both sides. Moscow and Lithuania interpret “negotiations” to mean talks between two sovereign states, thus implying Soviet recognition of Lithuania’s independence. They interpret “discussions” to mean simply talks between two parties without regard to status.

While this difference is now a barrier, it could become the basis of a compromise in which Moscow calls the talks “discussions” and pretends not to hear when Lithuania calls them “negotiations.”

The Lithuanian Parliament has named a delegation to represent it in “negotiations” with Moscow, but the talks have been stalled--except for a brief, half-hour, midweek meeting between Gorbachev and two Lithuanian members of Parliament--by the lack of agreement on their goals and status.

In Moscow’s view, Lithuania’s decision to re-establish the independence it had before it was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 was “an anti-constitutional takeover,” Ligachev said, and the move violated both the Soviet constitution and national legislation.

“No organ of whatever republic has the right to bypass the Supreme Soviet (legislature) of the Soviet Union and without obtaining the prior agreement of other constituent republics to, for example, suspend the Soviet constitution on its territory, as Lithuania did,” Ligachev contended.

“I think that issues connected with secession of a constituent republic must, first of all, be the prerogative of the entire population of that republic. I believe that in deciding such matters, a referendum should be held.”

He noted that the Communist Party is appealing to those Lithuanian Communists who remained loyal to it when the Lithuanian branch of the party declared itself independent from Moscow in December. Citizens’ committees are being established to demand “strict observance of the Soviet constitution and keeping Lithuania within the Soviet Union,” he said.

“We know that the decision to declare an independent Lithuanian state received a very mixed reaction in Lithuania,” he said. “So far, the majority of workers do support that declaration, but we are confident that, as events develop, the trend among the people will intensify in favor of keeping Lithuania in the Soviet Union.”

Ligachev accused the Lithuanian leaders of failing to assess the consequences of their action, of refusing to take account of its impact on the country as a whole and, consequently, of jeopardizing the political, economic and social reforms now under way here.

“We could, in fact, create very serious difficulties for the new leadership, but we are thinking about the people, about the ordinary citizens of the Soviet Union who live in Lithuania. So, we cannot deliberately inflict damage and create economic hardships.”

Ligachev said that Lithuania’s bid for independence is a serious threat not only to the Soviet Union’s integrity as a state but to the ultimate success of the reform program known as perestroika. The realistic but long-term solution of all the Soviet Union’s nationality problems, including the Lithuanian crisis, he said, lies in the success of perestroika.

“When we have developed, widely and in depth, democracy and self-management by the people, the degree of acuteness of ethnic problems will decline,” he said.