Soviet Union Mikhail's New Best Friends

By JAMES CARNEY MOSCOW

On paper, Mikhail Gorbachev has accumulated more power than most heads of state ever dream of possessing. Last week the Soviet parliament granted him even greater authority by approving a presidential plan to place the government directly under his control. Only this time, Gorbachev's victory seemed more like a retreat from his pursuit of democratic reforms. Under growing pressure to halt the country's descent into political and economic chaos, the Soviet leader appears to be recasting himself in a conservative mold.

Gorbachev has become more and more adamant in his insistence that the Soviet Union "cannot be divided." In fact, he has turned to the army, the KGB and the police to be the enforcers of his plan to stabilize the country. First he directed the KGB to form a special unit to supervise food deliveries from abroad; then he issued a decree establishing "worker control" groups to clamp down on black-market pilfering of food supplies. Last week he began his promised shake-up of the government leadership by going after the police. Two days later Gorbachev told the Supreme Soviet that he was "boosting the authority and responsibility" of the armed forces.

The string of announcements came amid signs that conservatives in the party and armed services, long on the defensive, have finally found an audience among a public that increasingly associates perestroika with long lines and empty shops. Faced with mounting criticism and declining popularity, Gorbachev may have decided that he has no choice but to loosen the reins on the KGB and military. Says Amy Knight, a Soviet-affairs analyst at the U.S. Library of Congress: "He is resorting to authoritarian, coercive measures because he is losing his ability to use more legitimate powers."

In a move applauded on the right, Gorbachev replaced Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin with Boris Pugo, a senior Communist Party functionary and former chief of the Latvian KGB. Conservatives in the 2,250-member Congress of People's Deputies, banded together in a 500-strong group called Soyuz (Union), have blamed Bakatin for tolerating ethnic violence and demanded his resignation. The right, however, may not be rid of Bakatin for long. Some Kremlin watchers expect him to be named head of the President's new national security council.

Choosing Pugo may have seemed like a sop to restless conservatives, but appointing General Boris Gromov as Deputy Interior Minister showed that Gorbachev intends to put military muscle behind his calls for law-and-order. Gromov, who commanded the last contingent of Soviet forces to leave Afghanistan, has figured prominently at times in rumors that the military was plotting a coup. Gromov has denied the possibility of such a move, and he downplayed suggestions that his combat experience alone earned him his new job. But the connection was too evident to ignore. "Gromov is a reliable trigger puller," says William Odom, a former head of the U.S. National Security Agency. "They put him in Interior Ministry ((because)) they can rely on him to put down demonstrations."

Gromov's appointment was widely viewed as a means of giving the army influence in the Interior Ministry. Under Gorbachev, the once celebrated army has become the target of radical nationalists in outlying republics and the whipping boy of a newly sensational and aggressive press. Defense Minister Dimitri Yazov has denounced the spate of attacks on soldiers, and grimly declared that servicemen were authorized to open fire in self-defense. Said Yazov: "The army will not allow anyone to mock it."

The spotlight of glasnost has also penetrated the KGB under its chairman, Vladimir Kryuchkov. Public testimonials by past and present agents detailing the KGB's corruption and oppression have tarnished the organization's already poor image. But having the KGB oversee the distribution of vital food supplies in a time of chronic shortages suggests that Gorbachev still considers it the most efficient and loyal institution at his disposal.

While Soviets of all political persuasions agree on the need to curb the country's soaring crime rate and to attack the burgeoning black market, Gorbachev's new embrace of the military and KGB has particularly alarmed ^ radical reformers. "Gorbachev is willing to use any source he can find right now to help him regain the power he has lost," says Andranik Migranyan, a Moscow political scientist. "But if he allows the right to consolidate, he will only create more serious obstacles in the path leading to democracy and a market economy."

If past performance is any indication, Gorbachev may be swinging to the right only to lull conservatives into complacency before swinging back toward the middle. TASS political analyst Andrei Orlov explained Gorbachev's recent behavior as "a carefully hatched multistep maneuver aimed at changing the alignment of political forces in ((his)) favor."

Gorbachev no longer has much room for maneuvering. Should he fail to display "the necessary firmness," warns the Soyuz group, it may call for his resignation when the fourth Congress of People's Deputies opens next week. But while adopting a harder line may endear Gorbachev to the right, it will just as likely torpedo his hopes of persuading a majority of the leaders of the country's 15 republics to sign a new union treaty without being coerced.