Soviet Union Next: A Crackdown - Or a Breakdown?

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He looked and sounded weary as he mounted the podium. Bags bulged under his eyes; his thinning white hair was rumpled; his words came slowly at first. But as he warmed to his theme, his voice grew louder and shook with indignation; he waved his finger and brandished a fist over the lectern. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, known the world over for his all-weather, ear- to-ear grin, for once was in a boiling, very public rage.

His words were even more shocking than his manner. Shocking to the nearly 2,000 members of the Congress of People's Deputies, meeting in a Kremlin auditorium; to his longtime close friend, President Mikhail Gorbachev, watching on the tribune behind Shevardnadze; and to a world that had been wondering with increasing apprehension which way the U.S.S.R. was going. Shevardnadze thought he knew: back toward the terrible past. "Reactionaries" were gaining power, he said, and nobody would speak out against them. "Comrade democrats!" Shevardnadze shouted, "You have scattered. Reformers have slunk into the bushes. A dictatorship is coming."

Then came the real bombshell: "I am resigning." As cries of outrage and surprise sounded through the hall, Shevardnadze waved his hands and added, "Don't react, and don't criticize me. Let this be my personal contribution, my protest against the advance of dictatorship. I believe that to resign is my duty as a man, as a citizen, as a communist. I cannot reconcile myself to what is happening in our country and the trials awaiting our people."

The shock waves quickly spread from the Palace of Congresses through the Soviet Union and the world. For Gorbachev, who shook his head in disbelief as his Foreign Minister spoke, it was the darkest hour of his leadership. Not only had he lost one of his closest allies in the Kremlin, but it seemed obvious that he could no longer continue walking a tightrope over the heads of reformist democrats, national separatists and proponents of a law-and-order crackdown; the splits had become too deep and envenomed for that. And Shevardnadze tossed in a warning of what might happen if Gorbachev finally came down on the side of the authoritarians. "No one knows what this dictatorship will be like," he said, "what kind of dictator will come to power and what order will be established." That sounded like a warning that the hard-liners could easily push Gorbachev aside after using him to establish their power.

Speaking to the Congress hours later, Gorbachev sounded as if he could not quite figure out what had hit him. Shevardnadze, he said, had given no inkling of what he was about to do, and that was "what hurts me." Gorbachev had in fact been planning to elevate his old friend to the new post of Vice President. The turmoil in the Soviet Union made this the worst time for Shevardnadze to jump ship, Gorbachev added, and "I condemn" him for it. . Nonetheless, he pleaded for the Foreign Minister to reconsider. But Vitali Churkin, Shevardnadze's spokesman had already said that the Foreign Minister's resignation was no snap decision but had been reached after "many sleepless nights" and was "final." Shevardnadze, however, has not ruled out taking on a new assignment for Gorbachev, perhaps dealing with the country's explosive nationalities issue.