Soviet Survey Shows Party’s Slide Continues

A poll conducted a week before the Soviet Communist Party holds a crucial congress shows that its authority is continuing to slide, the party daily Pravda said Monday.

Just 18% of those polled were firmly convinced that the party is the leading force in Soviet society, the newspaper said. More than half--53%--did not consider it the leading force.

“This means the authority of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) is continuing to fall,” Pravda said.

Fifteen hundred Soviet citizens in 18 regions of the country were polled during the founding congress last week in Moscow of the new Russian Communist Party, Pravda said.

The poll was conducted by the Center of Sociological Research, an institute run by the party’s policy-making Central Committee.

The Russian Communist Party, newly founded in the Russian Federation, the biggest and most influential of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics, is dominated by conservatives who are critical of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reform policies.

“The poll shows society has moved somewhat to the left, and continues to distance itself from the political and state structure,” Pravda said.

One-quarter of those polled thought the party should take its place alongside other parties now legalized and should not play a special role in Soviet society, Pravda said.