Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990 TAG: 9006240115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1/ EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Although the posts of state president and party general secretary should be separated in the future, Gorbachev said he would retain both for now to deal with the country's multiple crises and press ahead with further political and economic reforms.
"I am convinced now that we have to keep the arrangement as it is," Gorbachev said at the end of a party conference in which his policies came under relentless attack by conservatives. If he gave up his party post, he continued, "confrontations may appear - and elements of such a confrontation were present at this conference."
Replying to a letter from workers calling on him to step aside as the party's general secretary and concentrate on the presidency, Gorbachev made clear his determination to fight any attempt at the party's congress next week to replace him.
He also committed himself to hold the party together despite the growing divisions between conservatives and reformers.
In an impassioned appeal for party unity, he urged radical reformers, many of whom are more determined than ever to break with the Soviet Communist Party, to remain within it.
"A split in the party would lead to the biggest polarization of forces in society and weaken the constructive forces in the country," Gorbachev said. "At this decisive stage of perestroika, it would be a gift to those who want to bury perestroika and defeat it."
Confident and combative as he answered delegates' written questions for an hour and a quarter at the end of the conference, Gorbachev was clearly trying to re-establish his authority after a week of some of the harshest public criticism he has undergone.
"This Politburo initiated perestroika," he reminded the delegates. "There may have been miscalculations. But some of the speakers here almost reached the point of saying, `Stand them up against the wall!' I must defend us so that we have direct assessments of our work, but so that we do not return to what we all wanted to leave behind."
But Gorbachev said there would be a major realignment of the party leadership, starting with the Politburo and the policy-making Central Committee.
"I expect a serious renovation of our party's leadership so that new forces step forward," he said, adding that the congress would assess the work of each leadership member.
The full party congress, which opens July 2, will focus first on renewal of the party itself, Gorbachev said, and then on broadening and accelerating the reforms.
"The Communist Party does have a future," he said. "But this must be a new party that reacts on and perceives everything happening in the country and around the country, a party that can express the vital interests and aspirations of the people, that can generate further ideas for perestroika, that is a consolidating and uniting force.
"It would not fulfill this role if it remained as it has been until recently. There is no third option for the party - either it becomes a consolidating force of the working people or it turns into one of history's bystanders."
by CNB