Gorbachev Criticizes Radicals as Parliament’s 1st Session Ends

Winding up the first session of the Soviet Union’s new Parliament, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Friday criticized a fledgling opposition group and called for action to combat the country’s rising crime rate.

The Soviet leader told the 542-member Supreme Soviet that its first 40-day session had coincided with a particularly difficult period for his perestroika reform effort. But he denied that there was any reason for panic, saying that recent events had shown that problems should be settled through “dialogue between the authorities and working people.”

Wave of Violence

“The country has not had a single calm day throughout the past 1 1/2 months,” Gorbachev declared, referring to ethnic violence in many parts of the country followed by miners’ strikes in western Siberia and the Ukraine.

The Supreme Soviet, which was elected by the 2,250-member Congress of People’s Deputies to operate as a legislature, has been learning during its inaugural session how to flex its political muscle. Over the past few weeks, deputies have rejected nine candidates for ministerial office, overruled the Defense Ministry on exempting students from military service and passed a spate of legislation.

Gorbachev, who called for new political institutions as a way of giving impetus to his economic reforms, also expressed satisfaction with the results of the first parliamentary session. But he acknowledged that the body suffered from poor organization, too much talk, and a lack of “political culture.”

The Soviet leader also criticized radical and progressive deputies who have formed a parliamentary faction known as the Inter-Regional Deputies’ Group in order to push for faster reform. He condemned what he called “provocative appeals” made at mass meetings by some members of the group, which includes former Moscow Communist Party chief Boris N. Yeltsin and human rights campaigner Andrei D. Sakharov.

At Gorbachev’s urging, the Supreme Soviet, which is scheduled to resume in late September, passed a resolution calling for “extraordinary measures in the critical battle against crime,” including an unspecified increase in the Interior Ministry’s 300,000 troops.