Off to Market They’re Going : Soviet Union: The legal groundwork is prepared and the free-marketeers are in positions of power. The need for a burst of entrepreneurial activity couldn’t be stronger.

How close is the Soviet Union to becoming a market economy?

A recent story in the weekly Kommersant disclosed that the Council of Ministers had issued a decree “on preparation of the documents necessary for transition to the market economy system.” Indications are that the decree was not meant for public eyes, so great was the shock among government officials upon learning of its publication. Still, the list of documents that the council commissioned reconfirms the government’s intention to move toward a market economy.

Proposed laws on entrepreneurial activity, price reform, foreign investments in the Soviet Union and antitrust regulation will likely appear before May 1. Draft resolutions on social security in a market economy, the stock market, ruble exchange rates and so on are being readied for consideration by the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers. If these became law, a genuine revolution in the national economy would be at hand.

Disclosure of the council’s decree is the latest in a series of events aimed at creating a market economy in the Soviet Union. Among them:

--The appointment of Nikolai Y. Petrakov, deputy director of the Central Institute of Mathematics and Economics, as one of Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s four closest advisers. Petrakov enjoys a reputation of being a complete “free-marketeer.” Just before his elevation, he was busy setting up the Institute of Marketing Research.

--The Supreme Soviet’s adoption of legislation on land (Feb. 28) and property ownership (March 6). This legislation marks a formal breakthrough toward a market economy in the Soviet Union, even if it does not embrace the Western idea of “private property.” That will have to occur before genuine market relations can take root, however.

--Stanislav S. Shatalin, another well-known advocate of free enterprise and a full-blown market, has been named to Gorbachev’s new Presidential Council. His inclusion on the powerful body is further evidence that the market option has been chosen.

--The formal ending of the Communist Party’s monopoly on political power will inevitably lead to the dissolution of the state monopoly on property ownership, the material foundation of the one-party system.

These developments would not have hastened the day of a market economy unless accompanied by changes in public attitudes. A few years ago, the very idea of private property in the Soviet Union was dismissed as lunatic. But recent polls conducted by the National Center for Public Opinion Studies showed significant shifts. Almost half the respondents believed that privately owned industry would improve the economic situation, though 42% were convinced that private factories would not be permitted to hire workers; 32% said they wanted to start their own business.

Results from another poll conducted by the institute were not as encouraging. Only 7.3% favored removal of all restrictions on private enterprise, and 55% said they would accept a smaller income in return for easier work or job security. Interestingly, only 11% did not object to millionaires; 40% found them contemptible, even if the millionaires worked hard and honestly for their money.

Many Western commentators believe that the Soviet government will follow the example of the Poles and administer “shock therapy” to the economy. Some top Soviet economists have visited Poland and come away with the impression that the Poles did the right thing. These same experts, however, are also studying economic reform in West Germany and France. Tempting as the Polish model is to some Soviets, it must be noted that private enterprise in Poland has a history and that Poles are much more tolerant of it.

All the grand market-economy schemes, of course, are just draft documents. They may well founder in the Supreme Soviet; some might not even make it that far. Still, the evidence is good that the decision to turn sharply toward a market economy has already been made. And with the political trends being what they are, the best time for such a move may be now.