Soviet Union Wooing The West

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It looked for all the world like a Communist version of the old czarist days, when the most fashionable people of European society were entertained in % glorious style at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. There, amid the winter grayness of Moscow, was a mega-gaggle of the most famous Western cultural and scientific notables, appearing about as classy as one can in an avowedly classless society. But their sudden arrival was hardly because of a glitzy jet-set party. Rather, the celebrities were in town for a three-day forum grandly billed as a conference "For a Nuclear-Free World and the Survival of Mankind."

As the event unfolded, it was soon apparent that the brightest star among the throng of nearly 1,000 foreigners and more than 300 Soviets meeting in the Grand Kremlin Palace was Communist Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Indeed, so firmly did Gorbachev bestride the event that many observers professed to be dazzled. Said Novelist Gore Vidal, whose tongue is usually coated with acerbity: "The only interesting political moves in the world right now are being made by Gorbachev. History seems to be moving again, and I want to get a sense of it."

Beyond the glitter, the latest steps in Gorbachev's drive to reform Soviet society produced a mosaic of hopeful and chilling signs. While the Kremlin leader continued to plump for peace and told his visitors that Moscow was sincere in its "new approach to humanitarian problems," the Soviet bureaucracy seemed as stolid as ever. Officials issued confused and conflicting statements about Iosif Begun, an ailing Jewish dissident who at week's end was finally released after a 40-month confinement. As the Begun drama proceeded, perhaps a thousand political prisoners remained in detention in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospitals.

Gorbachev's blitz continued through the week. The day after his speech to the Moscow forum, the Soviet leader embarked on a tour of the independent- minded Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia. The visit was his first to an ethnic region since last December's Kazakhstan riots (see following story). Accompanied by his wife Raisa and Soviet television crews, Gorbachev waded into a crowd in Riga, the Latvian capital, and told the people, "We've got a lot to do."

Other displays of Gorbachev's new style were evident. In Geneva, Soviet negotiators surprised their U.S. counterparts by offering for the first time to permit on-site inspection of arsenals of chemical weapons. Soviet television carried a frank documentary of last spring's Chernobyl nuclear disaster that showed villagers being evacuated and was sharply critical of the way the disaster was handled. .

Moscow's nonstop diplomatic offensive is creating interest in the West, particularly in Western Europe. In London a Marplan survey suggested that Gorbachev is overtaking an Iranscam-weakened Ronald Reagan in the battle for public opinion. Among British respondents, 30% said they trusted Reagan more than the Communist boss to end the arms race, vs. 27% who put faith in Gorbachev.