Soviet Union the Reformers Lead the Way

For hours on end, the small army with ice picks chipped away, trying to undo the winter's work in Moscow. Thousands of men and women, ordered to turn out for subbotnik, a Saturday of so-called voluntary unpaid labor, cleared streets and sidewalks of slippery patches. At the same time, tons of special food consignments were flooding into the city for proud display in store windows. Convoys of black limousines snaked through the streets or lolled at curbside. And everywhere throughout the country, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, red banners and billboards appeared bearing the Roman numerals XXVII.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union last week was making final preparations to hold its 27th congress, which will open this week in the marble-and-glass Palace of Congresses behind the walls of the Kremlin. For the 5,000 delegates chosen to attend, it is a chance to watch Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev make history. Says one Washington-based Soviet diplomat: "This is the most important event in our history since the death of Stalin. People's expectations have been aroused."

Since he became General Secretary of the party last March 11, Gorbachev has been reshaping the power structure of the Soviet Union. He has broken the back of high-level cronyism that flourished for nearly 20 years under former Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev, until his death in 1982. The new man at the helm has given fair warning that he intends to wean the country from deeply ingrained habits, including alcoholism, corruption and sloth. Gorbachev's speech this week will show the direction in which he intends to lead his country.

In principle, the congress is the Soviet Union's ultimate decision-making body. Delegates were selected by the 17.5 million members of the Communist Party, from regions that stretch as far as 4,200 miles and ten time zones away from the capital. The representatives theoretically inform the party's leaders of the people's will, weigh the merits of proposals, and then return home to explain the program.

In reality, the vast majority of delegates does no more than listen to a string of speeches on foreign policy, economic objectives and the role of the party. When asked to vote on proposals, delegates raise red credential books in approval. The propositions have been hammered out long before in the party's Central Committee, where true power resides.

The Soviet Union today is being run by a man empowered to take radical action to rouse a lethargic country and fulfill its potential as a superpower. The changes Gorbachev has already imposed would have been unthinkable just a year ago. Three members of the party's eleven-man top decision-making body, the Politburo, have been removed since he succeeded Konstantin Chernenko. In their places are younger men who conform to Gorbachev's vision. A new Premier has been installed, and 21 government ministries have new bosses. At lower levels of the party, new chiefs have taken over 30% of the 147 regional organizations. Approximately 35% of the 319 party Central Committee members elected at the last congress, in 1981, have retired, died or been removed.