Where the Action Isn't

The Red squares in the Kremlin are forever admonishing Soviet youth to devote more time to the "practical construction of a Communist society in our country." But, alas, all too many kids suffer from "negative phenomena": they like to have fun. For some time, teen-agers have displayed a distressing lack of interest in youth-league meetings and lectures, preferring to kill time at youth cafes and ice-cream parlors. Sometimes they get hold of vodka and roam the streets in gangs, smashing park benches and windows. Last June a bunch of high school students celebrated graduation with a rumble that killed one boy and injured 14 in Moscow.

Obviously the new year called for some good resolutions. The Moscow city council made several. Effective Jan. 1, unescorted children under 16 are banned from public places after 9 p.m. on school nights, 10 p.m. on holidays. Children's performances of plays, movies and sports events must end half an hour before curfew. Any child who wants to go may have to walk--not be cause Moscow suffers from any such capitalist nonsense as a transit strike, but because bicycles are forbidden at all times to youngsters under 14, motorbikes to all under 16. Also no-go in most of the snowbound capital are sleds and skis, because they "disturb public order." Presumably young Muscovites will now have plenty of time to curl up with, say, a good biography of Lenin.

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