Former Leader Seeks to Extend His Philosophy

Having changed history in ways that other world leaders can only dream about, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev left the Kremlin on Wednesday evening with a new mission: extending the philosophy of his reforms more widely in the world and protecting that heritage at home.

It is the occupation of an elder statesman--a Willy Brandt, a Winston Churchill, a Henry A. Kissinger--and a role that Gorbachev covets, for it redeems him from the defeat he suffered in trying to preserve the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev asked in his farewell address to be remembered for what he had accomplished, a political and social transformation so vast that it could not be conceived when he assumed the Kremlin leadership. He asked that he not be cast forever in the minds of his countrymen as the president who overreached himself and plunged the nation into an even deeper crisis.

“This society has acquired freedom,” he said with pride. “It has been freed politically and spiritually. This is the most important achievement, but we have not appreciated it fully because we have not yet learned how to use freedom. Nevertheless, an effort of historic importance has been carried out.”

Gorbachev fears that in the tough times ahead the country may turn toward the dictatorship he had resolutely refused to reimpose, and he made clear that he will remain active in public life so he may speak out on the major issues confronting Russia and the other former Soviet republics.

“I consider it vitally important to preserve the democratic achievements which have been attained in the past few years,” he said. “We have paid with all our history and tragic experience for these democratic achievements, and they are not to be abandoned . . . whatever the pretexts. Otherwise, all our hopes for a better life will be buried.”

Gorbachev’s relations with Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin will determine in large part what role he plays in the future here, and Gorbachev at once criticized and supported Yeltsin. Although the Russian president had forced the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, in the process, his resignation as president, Gorbachev declared that he wants to remain above the fray of day-to-day politics and does not intend to be an opposition leader.

“I do not want to justify the way that (Yeltsin and others) are conducting the policy at various times and when solving some problems,” Gorbachev said in an interview with the Cable News Network. “I cannot share some of the principles that they apply, and I will speak about it.

“We should put above all, however, society’s expectation of decisive moves, the cooperation of all the republics and the solution of the crisis,” Gorbachev said. “It is dangerous today and impermissible for anyone to sow the seeds of opposition in society. I call attention to this for otherwise it will be impossible to pass through this critical stage of reforms.”

Gorbachev believes that, when he speaks out in the future, he should have the “moral authority” of the man who launched perestroika but whose interest now is solely the good of the nation, according to senior aides. Some also said they can foresee Gorbachev, in time, becoming chairman of a new political party and even running for office.

But the role Gorbachev sketched for himself as he left the Kremlin on Wednesday was that of a conciliator, perhaps as the country’s political “conscience.”

“After all the democrats and nationalists have fought each other to death, the country may need Gorbachev once again as the only person who could play the role of referee,” economist Nikolai P. Shmelev said, commenting on Gorbachev’s prospects in retirement.

Yet Gorbachev’s present interests appear much broader, for, as he has said in recent interviews, he believes that “new thinking,” the willingness with which he reassessed and then changed even the most strongly held Soviet policies, can be used by other countries to restructure their societies.

“Is it only the Soviet Union that was trapped in the ‘period of stagnation?’ ” he asked of delegates to a recent international conference here, comparing the political and economic situation that he inherited with that in other countries today. “There are countries in the West, some of the biggest and some of the most powerful, that should rethink and rework fundamental aspects of their policies.

“What about pressing ahead with nuclear disarmament?” he asked. “What about ensuring that the principle of self-determination is truly honored in all countries? What about the civil conflicts that continue around the world and are even growing in some regions? What about an international system of ecological defense?

“To my mind, there is a lot of work for us to do, and a need to apply what we called ‘new political thinking’ where stereotypes and myths and outmoded policies and narrow national interests continue to exist elsewhere,” he said.

“His work here is largely done,” a senior aide said Wednesday, “but he feels that others should be challenged with ‘new political thinking’ to reassess where they stand.”

Gorbachev will undoubtedly have a wide audience abroad for this message, and even his defeat at home probably will not diminish it much, for his achievements in international relations are enduring.