Soviet Union: The Baltics Set the Agenda

Estonia, one of the restive Baltic republics where perestroika and glasnost have spawned independence movements, was rebuked by the highest level of government last week. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet said Estonia violated the Soviet constitution by imposing a two-year residence requirement on voters in local elections. Estonia's Russian minority called the act discriminatory, and 40,000 Russian workers went on strike.

It is not certain, though, that Estonia has lost the fight. The Presidium simply sent the electoral law back to the Estonian parliament for review. And in a semi-bow to Baltic sensibilities, Politburo member Alexander Yakovlev confirmed that the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pacts secretly assigned the three states to Moscow's sphere of influence on the eve of World War II. But he denied this had any bearing on the status of the republics, which Moscow annexed in 1940 as members of the U.S.S.R.

Officially recognizing that such nationalities issues are "acute," the Kremlin last week proposed a policy that would grant increased autonomy to all 15 republics and rewrite the 1922 treaty creating the Soviet Union and defining the rights and obligations of its republics. "Recent events," said the proposal, show "a need for radical transformations in the Soviet federation." Specifics are to be discussed at a special Central Committee plenum next month. It will be another risky venture for President Mikhail Gorbachev, aimed at resolving the nationalities problem without curtailing his reform program -- or his hold on power.