Gorbachev

In this century alone a hundred million Russians, give or take a few million, have died in war, revolution and repression. Against that ghastly backdrop one would have thought the bureaucrats who overthrew Mikhail Gorbachev would have understood that the success of their treacherous enterprise depended upon their willingness to make the blood flow in the streets.But they blinked. Instead of murdering Gorbachev as Stalin would have cheerfully done, the conspirators went to pains to assure that Gorbachev is alive and might even return to power.

Less than a week before the U.S. election, former president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev berated America and all but endorsed the sitting president and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner at an event I attended in Houston. Speaking last Thursday from a podium built by oil money and introduced by a socialite teetering in a French shoemaker's trademarked red-soled heels, he admonished those in the audience to scrap free enterprise for "sustainability. " Taking a theme from Barack Obama's campaign, Mr. Gorbachev said, "The goals of economic growth should not depend on super profits and overconsumption," to vigorous applause at the Wortham Center as the banners of major oil company arts patrons benignly welcomed visitors in the grand foyer.

For the past five years, events in the Soviet Union have been taking place at a head-spinning pace as Mikhail S. Gorbachev tries to resuscitate the crumbling communist giant. He has worked miracles in erasing the Stalinist legacy of fear. He has not been able to stop the economic rot, however. As a result, the country is now plunging into disintegration and chaos.In Moscow, a group of erstwhile perestroika cheerleaders has told Mr. Gorbachev: "Either affirm your ability to take decisive measures, or resign."

VLADIMIR KRYUCHKOV, 83 Former KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former KGB chief who spearheaded a failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, died Friday in Moscow of an unspecified illness, according to the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency. Mr. Kryuchkov started working with the KGB in 1967. Seven years later, he was named chief of the KGB's First Main Directorate, in charge of spying abroad. In 1988, Mr. Gorbachev appointed Mr. Kryuchkov as KGB chief.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev should be invited to the July summit of the seven major industrial democracies in London. This question, which is suddenly high on the international agenda, figured prominently in Washington talks this week between President Bush and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Neither of these leaders would commit himself, but Mr. Kohl was decidedly more receptive to the idea.It is time, in our view, for the Bush administration to stop hanging back. If the president is sincere in his desire to help the embattled Kremlin leader, the time is now. CIA analyses confirm that the Soviet economy is in a catastrophic tailspin.

No one ever doubted President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's ability to start a domestic crackdown. But if events in Lithuania indeed signal a return to the heavy-handed ways of Soviet past, his desperate acts risk rendering his country even more sullen and ungovernable than it now is. Moreover, violent confrontations in the Baltics and elsewhere could also wipe out his constructive reform achievements: political pluralism at home and "new thinking" in international relations.This...

Revolutions tend to devour their children. Mikhail S. Gorbachev at least physically survived the incredible chain of events he set in motion after becoming the Kremlin leader in March 1985. He was a daring reformer but still lacked the courage to take the ultimate leaps to make his programs work and to stay in power. As he steps down as president of the now-defunct Soviet Union he leaves a changed world as his legacy.Mr. Gorbachev was a visionary but his vision failed. He understood his country's deep problems but did not grasp their true cause.

MOSCOW -- First Boris N. Yeltsin took the job, then he took the limousine and now he has taken Mikhail S. Gorbachev's new office complex.Last night, Itar-Tass reported that Mr. Yeltsin had evicted Mr. Gorbachev from the buildings where he runs a social and political research foundation.Mr. Yeltsin signed a decree yesterday transferring the buildings to the Russian government's Financial Academy, which will train new bankers. But the decree instructs the academy to lease one building to Mr. Gorbachev.

"Good Morning America" co-host Charlie Gibson will interview former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Tuesday on "GMA."Mr. Gibson is scheduled to tape the piece in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Sunday, the day after Gorbachev begins his first U.S. visit since resigning in December.*Glenn Close, starring on Broadway in the acclaimed "Death and the Maiden," will host the 46th annual Tony Awards, to air live on CBS May 31. . . . Comic Jeff Marder will host "A Perfect Score," a new late-night "relationship game show" to debut on CBS June 15. "Score," to air weekdays at 1 a.m., will follow "Personals."

With the shop shelves as bare as Mother Hubbard's cupboard and the wolf of winter at the door, Mikhail Gorbachev has once more accumulated substantial power in what probably will be his final chance to alleviate the hardship of the long-suffering Russian people. Aware of the grimness of the situation, the United States and other Western nations acted quickly and sensibly to promise emergency food aid to help the Soviet leader.Even so, there is a sturdy band of old Cold Warriors, generally the neo-conservatives, who seem yet to harbor the suspicion that, given half a chance, Gorbachev would revert to the authoritarianism of such predecessors as Brezhnev or even Stalin.

Arsenals of Folly The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race By Richard Rhodes Alfred A. Knopf / 400 pages / $28.95 In the mid-1950s, Winston Churchill advised Americans that if they continued the nuclear arms race "all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce." With 1,756 nuclear weapons in its stockpile, the United States had the capacity to detonate 192,000 Hiroshimas. Assuming a "greater-than-expected threat" from the Soviet Union, the Pentagon increased its arsenal to 18,638 bombs and warheads (1.4 million Hiroshimas)

AS RUSSIA becomes embroiled in ever-more-contentious disputes with its neighbors, subdued discussion and articles in the Russian press marked a monumental date this month - the 20th anniversary of perestroika. In March 1985, Mikhail S. Gorbachev assumed the post of general secretary of the Communist Party, and he soon initiated a set of incremental political and economic reforms. These policies unleashed a process that brought about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and a new chapter of world history.

MANY AMERICANS probably were surprised at the pictures of Mikhail S. Gorbachev comforting Nancy Reagan at her husband's funeral and by his tribute to Ronald Reagan as "a true leader, a man of his word, and an optimist ... who earned a place in history and in people's hearts." After all, wasn't Ronald Reagan "the man who defeated communism" (as the London Economist proclaimed), and wasn't Mr. Gorbachev the top Communist in the Soviet Union during its latter years? How could Mr. Gorbachev have kind words for the man who defeated him?

A broad coalition of Nobel Peace Prize winners and former U.S. diplomats, allied countries and some of the nation's most influential medical and religious groups pushed the Supreme Court yesterday to abolish the death penalty for teenage killers, pointing to international law and new research on brain development. The court is scheduled to reconsider this fall the question of whether executing killers who committed their crimes at age 16 or 17 is a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

WASHINGTON -- Among the crush of foreign dignitaries paying final respects to Ronald Reagan at the National Cathedral today will be one man -- recognizable by his intense gaze, easy grin and the rose-colored birthmark on his forehead -- who shares history's accolades for lifting the threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Mikhail S. Gorbachev, 73, cuts a much-diminished figure at home nowadays, despised by many fellow Russians for presiding over the collapse of a Communist empire that once stretched from Central Europe to the Pacific and spread its influence deep into the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

MOSCOW - During his eight years as leader of the free world, Ronald Reagan evolved from a fierce Cold Warrior who called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" to "a man you could do business with," as former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev would later describe him. He was both hated and feared by Communist hard-liners. But today, as people around the world mourn his death, Russia's overarching assessment of America's 40th president is largely one of respect and admiration. Many credit his peace-through-strength policies for hastening the downfall of the Soviet empire and curtailing the nuclear arms race.

WACO, Texas - President Bush is welcoming the crown prince of Saudi Arabia to his ranch today. It is not so the Saudi leader can sample the Texas weather. Like many presidents before him, Bush has calculated that one of the best ways to smooth relations with another foreign leader is to escape the formal trappings of Washington and bring the leader to some casual place out of town to chat. The normally warm U.S.-Saudi relationship has fallen to its tensest point in some time, and Crown Prince Abdullah, who will arrive at Bush's 1,600-acre ranch this morning, brings with him an angry message from moderate Arab leaders: If they are to remain American allies, Bush must exert more pressure on Israel to pull out of the West Bank.

MOSCOW - In the crowded offices and hallways of NTV yesterday, caffeine-jagged editors, reporters and producers waited for the inevitable moment when their foes would come and take possession. It has become something of a Russian trademark: Workers have occupied factories, and scientists have taken over their institutes until chased out by police. Eight years ago, members of parliament took over their own building, to be ousted in the end by tanks. But in the struggle by the nation's only independent television network against the new management selected by its Kremlin-associated debtholder - a struggle that they cast as one for freedom of the press - none of the sweating, exhausted, excited employees quite expected what would happen yesterday, which was nothing.