Reagan to Soviets: Support Reforms : Tells Students That Freedom Fuels Progress

MOSCOW —  With the cream of Soviet university students gazing up at him and the bronze visage of Lenin scowling down, President Reagan on Tuesday delivered an often eloquent defense of the principles underlying Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s campaign for perestroika and glasnost.

In a speech delivered at Moscow State University, Reagan warned that no nation can thrive in the future without permitting a high degree of personal freedom, because such liberties are vital in mobilizing the individual creativity needed to compete in the emerging world of high technology.

“Standing here before a mural of your revolution, I want to talk about a very different revolution that is taking place right now, quietly sweeping the globe, without bloodshed or conflict,” Reagan said. “It’s been called the technological, or information, revolution.”

Where physical labor and natural resources were the keys to growth and prosperity in earlier times, he said, technical and economic strength now increasingly depend on the inventiveness and daring of individuals, on an entrepreneurial spirit in business and in the laboratory.

“But progress is not foreordained,” the President declared. “The key is freedom--freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of communication.”

Beyond the much-noted drama of a leader known for his anti-Communist, anti-Soviet rhetoric presenting a smiling face here, Reagan’s speech offered the extraordinary spectacle of an American President giving the Soviet Union what was clearly heartfelt advice on how to build its technical and economic strength.

In doing so, Reagan put forth a rationale for greater personal and political freedom in this long-repressed country that closely parallels the arguments Gorbachev has made for glasnost , or openness, and perestroika , or restructuring of Soviet society.

For Reagan, the speech also amounted to a sharp break with some of his conservative backers, who have argued that the United States should not help or encourage Gorbachev because the Soviet Union will emerge as a greater threat if he succeeds.

Instead of making the Soviet Union more dangerous, Reagan suggested, the increased freedom of perestroika will ease tensions because “a people free to choose will always choose peace.”

Even as he was encouraging support for perestroika , Reagan presented a short course on America: on the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, on freedom of worship and trial by jury, on freedom of speech and on the “open, sometimes heated discussion on the problems in American society” that can be found on “any university campus.”

“Freedom is the right to question, and change, the established way of doing things,” he said.

As he has throughout his public appearances in Moscow, Reagan sought to drive his point home with a quotation from a widely respected figure from Soviet history--this time Mikhail Lomonosov, the scientist-founder of Moscow State University.

“The achievements of science are considerable and rapid, particularly once the yoke of slavery is cast off and replaced by the freedom of philosophy,” Reagan quoted Lomonosov as saying.

And in sometimes poignant terms, Reagan expressed sympathy for those in the Soviet Union who fear the changes Gorbachev is seeking.

“There are some, I know, in your society who fear that change will bring only disruption and discontinuity. . . . Sometimes it takes faith.”

Then, with a bas relief of Karl Marx peering over Reagan’s right shoulder and a similar depiction of V. I. Lenin, founder of the Soviet state, looking over his left, the President used a scene from the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”--shown recently in Moscow--to illustrate just where he thinks the Soviet Union stands today.

Sundance Kid’s Dilemma

Reagan described a scene in which the two outlaws are hemmed in by a posse, with the only way out a sheer drop of several hundred feet into a mountain torrent. The Sundance Kid at first refuses to jump, reluctantly admitting he cannot swim.

“You crazy fool,” Cassidy laughs, urging his friend over the edge in a blend of fatalism and hope, “the fall will probably kill you.”

“By the way,” Reagan told his largely uncomprehending audience, “both Butch and Sundance made it, in case you didn’t see the movie.”

“I think what I’ve just been talking about is perestroika and what its goals are,” he said.

Reagan also spoke with feeling about the sense, felt by many of the Americans who have accompanied him here, that Moscow stands at one of those moments in history when great possibilities seem at hand but the outcome is impossible to predict.

“Your generation is living in one of the most exciting, hopeful times in Soviet history,” he said. “It is a time when the first breath of freedom stirs the air. . . .

“We cannot know what will be the conclusion of this journey, but we are hopeful that the promise of reform will be fulfilled. In this Moscow spring, this May, 1988, we may be allowed that hope: that freedom, like the fresh green sapling planted over Tolstoy’s grave, will blossom forth at last in the rich, fertile soil of your people and culture.

“We may hope that the marvelous sound of a new openness will keep ringing through, leading to a new world of reconciliation, friendship, and peace.”

The 1,200-seat hall was packed, about half by students and half by faculty members and officials. The informal clothing of the students, including faded blue jeans and plaid shirts, contrasted with the bureaucratic gray suits and muted ties of the older generation.

Reagan, dwarfed on stage by a towering backdrop of a mosaic of gold and red tiles depicting red flags, was given a warm reception by the students and others, although the audience did not stand upon his arrival until a few American correspondents who accompanied Reagan rose to their feet.

“He’s a very clever man,” said one woman, a geology student. “I was interested in everything he said, because first of all he’s the President of a very large country. I don’t agree with some things he said, but everything he said about strengthening the peace between our countries--it was very good. These were the words everyone in the university likes to listen to.”

The 35,000-student university occupies a Stalin-era skyscraper atop the Lenin Hills overlooking the city. It is considered the premier education institution in this nation of 280 million, and its graduates include one Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev--a fact Reagan pointed out in his late-afternoon speech.

Earlier in the day, Reagan had lunch at the Central House of Men of Letters, which is the home of the official Soviet writers’ union, where he was joined in a dark-paneled room by 38 Soviet cultural figures selected by the White House and U.S. Embassy.