Eastern Europe Communism's Old Men

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Smiling and affable, Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in East Germany last week. Emerging from his Aeroflot IL-62 jet, the Soviet leader, followed by his wife Raisa, flashed his friendliest grin as he greeted East German Party Chief Erich Honecker with a hug and kisses on both cheeks. Gorbachev had come to East Berlin for the East German Communist Party Congress.

The message that Gorbachev brought with him, though, was not really one of smiles and kisses. His visit was aimed at quietly strengthening Moscow's hold on its Warsaw Pact allies. From Poland to Hungary, Eastern Europe is being summoned to join a Soviet-led drive to prevent the bloc's economies from falling even more hopelessly behind those of the West. In a 40-minute speech to the 2,600 delegates in East Berlin's modernistic Palace of the Republic, Gorbachev called on his allies to meet the challenge of swift economic and technological change by moving toward close and intense cooperation "on a whole new order of magnitude." Said he: "Socialism's appeal and its strength in the international arena will depend, to a decisive degree, on this."

During the long twilight of Leonid Brezhnev's era and the infirm leadership in the Kremlin that followed, Eastern Europe was granted an unprecedented degree of latitude. Each country reacted differently to the chance to take some independent action. Hungary, for example, introduced many Western-style incentives for workers and managers. Czechoslovakia stagnated, though, and Poland lurched toward freedom until Moscow ordered a crackdown.

Gorbachev is now moving gradually, but determinedly, to bring his allies into line and push them toward better economic management. He chose East Germany's eleventh party congress as a platform in tribute to the front-line country whose economy, by Soviet standards, is a model of efficiency.

But despite all the public camaraderie, an undercurrent of tension reportedly has run between Gorbachev and Honecker. Noted one leading West German expert on East bloc affairs: "There is no love lost these days between the East Germans and the Soviets." Once considered among the most dutiful of Moscow loyalists, Honecker, 73, according to another West German observer, "now wants to be accepted as the leader of an important national state, not a provisional one, or a colony of the Russians. One wonders how long Honecker can get away with this policy. Gorbachev cannot be comfortable with all the old leaders of this generation."

Most of the top command in Eastern Europe dates from the era of Brezhnev or before. With the exception of Poland's Wojciech Jaruzelski, 62, all are over 65, and four out of six have passed 73. Moreover, they have all shown a greater capacity for political survival than for the kind of shake-up of the bureaucracy that Gorbachev is trying to bring to the U.S.S.R.

While Gorbachev has been steadily easing his country's aging leaders out of power, he apparently has no desire to see the East European party bosses forced into retirement anytime soon. Despite his commitment to revitalize the Soviet bloc's economy, he values stability even more. Explains a veteran U.S. Government analyst: "Gorbachev is preoccupied with the Soviet economy and with superpower relations. He knows that with major changes in either the economic policies or the leadership of his allies, all hell could break loose. He has shown he will not risk that."