Gorbachev

PRIVOLNOYE, Russia -- Even Andrei Razin's friends say they don't quite understand what the former pop singer and promoter was up to when he bought the four-room house of Mikhail S. Gorbachev's 82-year-old mother.The saga of his ownership, the conflict it aroused, and the suspicion that Mr. Gorbachev's younger brother may have pocketed the proceeds of the sale has been strange and provocative. There is even a hint of greater scandal: that young Razin may be an embarrassing relative.And as with so much that goes on in Russia, the antagonists see conspiracies against them.

In a lecture laced with light humor, Gennadi Gerasimov discussed the very serious problems of inflation, civil war and adapting to democracy in the former Soviet Union."

LENIN'S TOMB: THE LAST DAYS OF THE SOVIET EMPIRE. By David Remnick. Random House. 576 pages. $25.ABOUT 1988, the barriers to genuine journalism toppled in the Soviet Union. Both an old Russian tradition of secrecy and the more sinister system of information control that had developed under communist rule swiftly fell away. Suddenly the country was an orchard laden with untouched fruit, ripe for plucking by any enterprising reporter.David Remnick, then with the Washington Post, now with the New Yorker, was one of the most enterprising.

MOSCOW -- Twelve leaders of the August 1991 coup attempt finally went on trial yesterday, accused of betraying a motherland that no longer exists.While a clutch of die-hard communists cheered behind police barricades outside, the defense unleashed an anticipated barrage of motions seeking to disqualify the military judges, the prosecutors and the court itself. And when the chief judge dismissed these, one of the defendants promptly fell ill.One of the lawyers declared that the entire trial was political.

MOSCOW -- The charge is treason. The defendants once held a superpower in their hands. The witnesses are to include a former Soviet president.It opens April 14 -- the trial of 12 defeated men who are accused of launching the August 1991 coup that was supposed to save communism but spelled its downfall instead.Russia's Supreme Court announced the trial date yesterday and ordered the release of the four defendants who were still in jail after 17 months of pretrial maneuverings.The trial holds the promise of drama, revelation, perhaps even catharsis.

The new leader was a reformer, keenly aware of his mandate to overcome domestic stagnation. A hero at first, he was soon stymied by special interests. Conservatives in his party said he had sold them out, while the opposition, its appetite for change whetted, demanded he move faster.Amid the acrimony, the national standard of living declined. Many concluded that the problem was the system itself. But the leader shrank from profound change and was replaced by more radical reformers.A career summary of Mikhail Sergeivich Gorbachev?

Albuquerque, New Mexico.--As foreign minister, the president-elect is doing it right, which is to say doing very little. It is mostly boilerplate: reassurances to friends, reminders that George Bush is still president, telephone calls to the right capitals, ringing support for the North American Free Trade Agreement now that the unions have safely voted.It is doubly the right attitude in that discretion always becomes a president-elect and this one is a neophyte in world affairs. Presumably his advisers are conducting a crash course.

MOSCOW -- Prodded by President Boris N. Yeltsin, the Russian Constitutional Court agreed yesterday to hand back Mikhail S. Gorbachev's confiscated passport so that the former Soviet leader may attend a state funeral in Germany.It was the most encouraging sign yet that the two men have reached an understanding breaking the internationally embarrassing deadlock caused by Mr. Gorbachev's refusal to appear in a case involving the Communist Party's past.Court Chairman Valery Zokerin announced that the court's summons to Mr. Gorbachev, Soviet Communist Party general secretary from 1985 to 1991, was still in force.

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.

MOSCOW -- Mikhail S. Gorbachev may soon find himself LTC hauled into court by an irritated judge who happens to think that no Russian is above the law.Citing "moral reasons," the former Soviet leader has refused to testify in the long-running, landmark case of the Communist Party now being heard in Russia's Constitutional Court.He says he stands on principle. Valery Zorkin, the chief judge, says Mr. Gorbachev stands somewhere else: In contempt of court.Yesterday, Mr. Zorkin said the court may need to compel Mr. Gorbachev to testify, enlisting the aid of the Russian government if necessary.