What in Lenin's name was going on in Moscow? Soviet oratory can be numbingly dull and dutiful, but the interminable speeches at least provided time for a good snooze. Mikhail Gorbachev had hardly got going in his address to the Central Committee last week, however, when the 307 members must have realized that this was a speech they could not afford to sleep through. Though Gorbachev went on for some three hours, there was hardly a dull moment. The General Secretary of the Communist Party had a bracing message for his colleagues in the Kremlin: the Soviet socialist system is a mess and must be fixed. As if that were not bad enough, Gorbachev went on, "it is the leading bodies of the party and the state that bear the responsibility for all this."
Gorbachev was just getting wound up. In cool and firm tones, with uncommon candor, he rattled off a long catalog of abuses of the system. He charged that:
-- "Disregard for the law, report padding, bribe taking, sycophancy and the encouragement of toadyism have had a deleterious effect on the moral atmosphere of the society."
-- Soviet policymaking has grown rife with "conservative sentiments, inertia, a tendency to brush aside everything that does not fit into conventional patterns, and an unwillingness to come to grips with outstanding socioeconomic problems."
-- "Day-to-day practical activity ((in the party and government)) has been replaced with rule by decree, a show of efficiency and mountains of paperwork."
-- "The growth of alcohol and drug abuse and a rise in crime have become indicators of the decline of social morality."
-- "There were no firm obstacles placed in the path of dishonest, pushy, greedy people intent on personal gain from their party membership."
To remedy the situation, Gorbachev called on the party to approve a series of reforms that could bring about significant changes in the Soviet system. He proposed that local, republic-level and perhaps even national Communist Party officials be chosen from slates of more than one candidate and by secret ballot. He also suggested the election of factory managers by their workers. At the same time, Gorbachev made it clear that any such changes would not be permitted to interfere with strict Communist Party control, which he said will remain "unshakable." Said he: "The point at issue assuredly is not any breakup of our political system."
During his 22 months in power, Gorbachev has presented his own country and the world with a totally different view of Soviet leadership. After a string of aged and feeble General Secretaries, he has emerged as a dynamic figure who challenges both his own people and his adversaries. He has introduced a new policy of glasnost, or openness, that is changing, at least superficially, dozens of areas of Soviet life. His ultimate goal, which he spelled out last week in the clearest terms to date, is nothing less than a transformation of Soviet society, one that will speed up the country's sluggish economic growth and modernize its aging institutions.