Majority of Party Members Turn Deaf Ear to Share-the-Wealth Faction : Soviet Union: Officially, the Communist Party has about $7.8 billion in assets. But critics say it owns much more--and they want it redistributed.

Reluctantly drawn from his saunter along linen-draped banquet tables groaning with fruit and finger foods, Viktor Kolomiyets brushed pastry crumbs from his Western-made suit and frowned uncomfortably at a question about Communist Party privilege.

“Almost nobody in the party believes that what belongs to the party should be taken away,” said Kolomiyets, who runs a special military health spa in the Caucasus Mountain resort of Kislovodsk. “Our majority considers this just a lot of sloganeering.”

The property and privilege of the Soviet Union’s ruling party have come under attack at the 28th Communist Party Congress, where radical reformers demanded Tuesday to know exactly what the party owns and how the goodies are being distributed.

The Robin Hood minority seeking to share the wealth among the masses is worried that leaving the property issue in the hands of the party faithful is akin to expecting foxes to fairly oversee a hen house.

Many of the nearly 4,700 Communists taking part in the congress this week are on the receiving end of the party’s considerable network of perquisites and privilege.

Fleets of shiny, chauffeured Zil limousines and black Volgas cover the vast cobblestone expanses around the Palace of Congresses, where the delegates are pondering the future of their party, waiting to whisk local luminaries to elegant central apartments or dachas at exclusive party enclaves in the countryside.

The party has never disclosed the number of cars, homes, resorts or private services it operates, although recent reports have provided a hint of its considerable holdings.

“Basic assets” belonging to the party are valued at 4.9 billion rubles ($7.8 billion at the official rate of exchange), Central Committee business manager Nikolai Kruchina told the delegates Tuesday.

Reformers campaigning for social justice contend that the figure doesn’t begin to cover the party’s true wealth.

Pre-revolutionary buildings like the lavish palaces enclosed in the Kremlin are at the disposal of the party that has held power for 73 years, but they are listed as public property and thus left out of the party accounting.

Occasional reports like Kruchina’s have revealed sources of income and vague details of some assets, but no independent peeks have ever been permitted into the party war chest.

“We need to conduct a full inventory to show exactly what the party owns and what has come from government sources and therefore belongs to the people,” said Boris V. Gusev, a Kiev engineer fighting what he sees as an army of fat cats.

Gusev helped draft the radical Democratic Platform group’s blueprint for reform, which calls for redistribution of party property as a step toward recovering the trust of the proletariat that the Communists claim to serve.

“Those fighting against interference with the current situation are exactly the people who are enjoying privileges without earning them,” Gusev complained.

A public opinion poll conducted by the populist weekly Moscow News has shown broad resentment among Soviet citizens of the comforts accorded the elite. Ranked as the least deserving were party functionaries, government executives and trade union leaders, and respondents were particularly opposed to priority provision of food and housing.

The Democratic Platform, which includes only about 5% of the congress delegates and suffers disunity even within its meager ranks, wants party property nationalized to return it to the people.

“We must announce a split in the Communist Party and demand in court part of the property for the purpose of nationalization,” Yuri Boldyrev, a radical member of the new democratically elected Congress of People’s Deputies, said in a recent interview on the thorny property issue.

While the forces fighting against privilege are few, they have been active in the opening days of the congress.

“When are we going to learn details of the personal wealth of the Politburo, the Central Committee and other leading party organs?” one delegate from Leningrad demanded after Kruchina’s report on party assets.

A Soviet navy officer from Kiev quickly followed with a call for disclosure of the party’s hard-currency reserves, as well as an explanation of the sources and the uses made of the money.

While many of the party’s 18 million members never taste the good life that shields the upper echelon from the grim reality of Soviet society, hundreds of thousands have access to an extensive network of special health-care facilities, vacation resorts and well-stocked commissaries where delicacies can be ordered by phone.

The privileges contrast sharply with the lot of the ordinary Soviet citizen, who lines up for hours each day to buy the most basic of foods and struggles with crowded transportation, chronic shortages and indifferent service.

The lifestyle gap between party bosses and the people has been aggravated by emerging evidence that the party lays claim to more than it has paid for.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev used the excuse of reclaiming party property when he sent tanks and troops into Lithuania in March in an attempt to take control of the republic’s Communist Party headquarters and other buildings. The Moscow-based national party contended that it, not the republic party that was supporting the drive for independence, actually owned the facilities.

Central party authorities have also transferred assets such as newspapers and publishing houses from the local to national organizations in Moscow and Leningrad to prevent elected radicals from disposing of valuable assets.

About 40% of party income comes from publishing and other Communist-owned enterprises, deputy auditor Alla Nizovtseva informed the congress. Kruchina reported earlier this year that the party had revenue of about 2.6 billion rubles ($4.2 billion), with 58% coming from membership dues.

Communists have been quitting the party by the tens of thousands in recent weeks, sensing a loss of public tolerance for the party that has maintained a monopoly on power since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

Some predict that as much as 30% of the membership might leave after the congress if it fails to revitalize a flagging reform drive or lower the dues that cost each member about 3% of his or her earnings.

With the inner-party pressure for divestiture still minor, party functionaries have been staving off a public confrontation on the issue.

“Every party has its resources, and ours were earned and accumulated in the normal way,” said Vitaly Sigedin, a party member of 28 years from the Uzbek city of Khalmolik. “I don’t see any need for redistribution.”

Kruchina assured the congress that the new Central Committee to be elected will “return to the problem once again and decide openly what is privilege and what is remuneration for work.”

The issue promises to continue surfacing as public pressure for justice increases and resignations from the party mount, cutting deeply into its coffers.

“The members who have paid their dues over the years see what is happening with the money,” said Gusev, from the Democratic Platform. “It is being used to buy cars and luxuries that are not enjoyed by the whole party but only by certain individuals and leaders, not all of whom have earned them.”