Soviet Union: Boris Looks Westward

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He did not say "Read my lips." In fact, his wording was rather pedestrian. But the substance of Boris Yeltsin's campaign promise was quite as bold, and may be every bit as difficult to fulfill, as George Bush's 1988 vow not to raise taxes. Under his "program of immediate economic stabilization" for the Russian Federation, said Yeltsin, "there will be the beginning of an improvement in living standards toward the end of 1992." In other words, he would not just stop but reverse the calamitous economic plunge that is the legacy of more than 70 years of communist mismanagement. And he would do it in only a year and a half. And while the main levers of economic power -- to the extent that there are any left in the chaotic production-and-distribution system -- are not in his hands but in those of Mikhail Gorbachev.

The impetuous optimism, however, was quintessential Yeltsin, and it has helped make him the first popularly elected head of government in Russia's 1,000-year history. The eventual outcome of last week's presidential election was never in doubt, but there was some question whether Yeltsin would win the 50%-plus majority -- against five other candidates -- necessary to avoid a runoff. Those doubts dissolved almost as soon as voters began entering polling places stretching across the Russian republic's eleven time zones. Though the official count of more than 70 million mostly paper ballots will not be announced until late this week, informal tallies indicated he had won in a landslide with about 60% of the vote.

So now Yeltsin will have to produce results rather than just carp about the Kremlin. The future of nascent democracy not only in Russia but in many of the other 14 Soviet republics may ride on his success. His demonstrated popularity may boost his chances of negotiating with the Kremlin and the other republics a new union treaty that would give his government greater autonomy. That in turn might increase Yeltsin's ability to actually create the private-property, free-market economy he envisions, and to strip away most of the authority still exercised by Communist Party bureaucrats. Even then, however, Yeltsin will have to stop relying entirely on his personal popularity and begin building a genuine political movement and an efficient bureaucracy of his own.

But before even beginning to tackle those problems, Yeltsin prepared for a visit to the U.S. that underscored his growing clout. He was initially invited by congressional leaders, but once the election returns were in, President Bush lost no time asking Yeltsin to drop by the White House also as long as he was in town. They plan to chat in the Oval Office this Thursday. Simultaneously, some Administration officials began hinting that Bush's twice- postponed summit with Gorbachev may be held off until fall, though others continued to say late July. The hang-up is lack of progress on a nuclear arms- reduction treaty that Bush has identified as a precondition for the summit.