Soviets Proud of Nobel but Complain of No Bread

Soviet citizens rushing from store to store today seeking food, clothes and other essentials expressed as much anger as pride over Mikhail S. Gorbachev, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

“For world peace and disarmament, he has done an awful lot. But for his own people, he hasn’t done much,” said Bela, 53, a subway rider who declined to give her last name.

“Around the world, he’s popular, of course. But here, he’s not,” she added, gesturing at grim-faced passengers carrying half-full shopping bags.

Most of the 15 Soviets interviewed in Moscow streets, markets, subways and apartment buildings praised Gorbachev for his role in raising the Iron Curtain and ending the Cold War. But they expressed anger over his domestic policies, which they blame for ethnic violence, inflation and shortages of staples ranging from gasoline to instant coffee.

“I don’t know much about politics, but what I see in the stores, I hold the government responsible for,” said Lyova Likacheva, a 35-year-old factory worker.

“And what I see in the stores is nothing--they’re empty.”

The news that Gorbachev had won the prize spread quickly through the city and seemed to take most people by surprise. There had been virtually no speculation in the Soviet media about Gorbachev’s possible receipt of the award.

Arkady I. Sokolov, a 62-year-old machinist, was one of the few people interviewed who smiled broadly on hearing that Gorbachev was the first Soviet to win the peace prize since dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov in 1975.

“He deserves it,” Sokolov said. “Armaments are being reduced everywhere, that’s the main thing. . . . Of course I’m proud of him.”

Andrei Tatishchev, 23, said he felt no such pride.

“In international affairs, I think he’s done everything right. It’s domestically that there is disorder,” Tatishchev said.

Lena Somochkina, 17, and her classmate, Tanya Fokina, said they believed that Gorbachev deserved the award for reducing the chances of nuclear war, allowing freedom of speech and encouraging reform throughout the former East Bloc.