Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!UMKCVAX1!CARBUCKLE From: CARBUCKLE@UMKCVAX1.BITNET (Valentine M. Smith) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics Subject: USSR(#33) Message-ID: <90038.2126.CARBUCKLE@UMKCVAX1> Date: 7 Feb 90 21:26:00 GMT Sender: Forum for the Discussion of Politics Reply-To: Forum for the Discussion of Politics Lines: 97 Approved: NETNEWS@AUVM Gateway I have to hope these posts are not too boring to the HISTORY list, but as I see it, I'm commenting on history being made, which may be a poor approach for a historian, but usual for us journalist types. Fortunately, I do have a slight historical grounding in the area of Soviet affairs(see #12 in this series). This afternoon, I'd like to partially report on the CP press conference that finished about 1415 our time, I only got in on about 35 minutes. There were 6 ranking members of the party allowing themselves to be queried by the Western press about their actions! In my life(42 years), I cannot recall ever seeing more than a selected member of the Politburo face the press, and usually only with a prepared statement. There were 6 on this platform, of whom I saw four speak. Only two of the four were identified. Anatoly Lubyanov and Aleksandr Yakovlev, the latter alleged to be Gorbachev's strongest supporter on both the Central Committee and the politburo. One of the two unidentified is apparently an agricultural expert. Another on the platform was G. Gerasimov, who did no more than gesture to which reporter would be next. The main points decided by the Central Committee that i gleaned from the press conference- 1) A strong Presidency elected nationally. 2) All forms of land ownership permitted(though this was not spelled out clearly) 3) Accepted Lithuanian CP breakaway from USSR CP, but called for a cooling off period, "reconsideration", and one referred to the Lithuanian move as "dangerous" 4)Moved the Party Congress up to "the end of June, the beginning of July" 5)Strengened the judicial system 6)(most importantly) recommended that Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution guaranteeing CP dominancy be abolished. In addition, some intersting comments were made. Yacovlev-"Not the function of our party to permit or not permit other parties" in response to a question about permitting conservative parties when the CC plenum called for parties of "socialist choice." He also called the adopted program as "program of action," "a big step towards democracy." He said the German issue, whether a person could hold two posts at once, and specifics of other reforms not discussed at the plenum. He acknowledged that the USSR is in terrible shape economically and socially, these changes are moves to address those admitted difficulties. He admitted also that these changes were primarily caused by events in eastern Europe, not by any long-held plan. He said,"Let the people decide on an alternative to socialism." Both he and Lubyanov said all of these changes will have to be ratified by the Party Congress. Look for BIG debate there on all of these and a multitude of other changes. Yacolev said in regards to the Germanies- "We need to make sure our borders are safe, that there is no threat from Germany. We are for Germany in Europe, not a European Germany." The Germanies- Yesterday, it was announced the Federal Bank of West Germany and the State Bank of East Germany were negotiating on a joint currency. Ha! I suspect that all this will take awhile. Earlier today, I posted a comment to the 9Nov89-L list speculating on the Schvernadze proposal that the world vote(Huh?) on the reunification. I think this a European question, at the most the nations of Europe should decide, at the least-the US, the USSR, France, Great Britain, and the two Germanies. Somewhere in between might be a partial European referendum. I've not thought this out yet. The trade minister for West Germany warned that East Germans should abey coming to West Germany, as currently thee over 130,000 unemployed East Germans there. Lastly, I watched Marshall Shulman, Professor Emeritus at Columbia University's Harriman Institute interviewed this afternoon.(God, if Averill were alive! He'd delight in all this Soviet activity!) Some of his comments follow. "There will be a long period of continued struggle." "Two other questions that need dealing with are the nationalities question, and the state of the economy." "The Soviets have excluded the idea of the use of military force, such as in the case of Lithuania."(actually a paraphrase) "There will probably be an intermediate step(on land ownership), "some kind of leasing arrangement." On the multi-party idea-"The battle isn't over on this. some may drop out(of the CP) and form new party, others will form factions." He also felt that the Baker visit would be primarily to deal with the summit in June's details. On did he expect these changes?-"I did not expect this, did not think that changes we've seen would occur in my lifetime. After 44 years of watching the Soviet Union, I thought this would take much longer." He concluded, as do I until this evening, with, "Sometimes change comes like a glacier, sometimes like an avalanche.