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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 15, 1985
PAGE 5
month-long reign by Yuri Andropov. During these two brief spells, the So
viet leadership bristled under the image of a creaky superpower ruled over
by infirm leaders. To counteract this, the ten other Politburo members,
all of them older than Mr. Gorbachev, reached down to him at last and there
by passed the reigns of power to a new generation. (But of course they will
carefully supervise and scrutinize Gorbachev's activities for a consider
able period.)
Mr. Gorbachev (pronounced Gor-bah-TCHOFF) was born on March 2, 1931. He is
the first Soviet leader to enter the world after the pivotal 1917 Bolshevik
revolution. He is also the first one not to have been an adult at the
outset of World War II (called the Great Patriotic War by the Soviets). He
was only ten years old when Adolf Hitler launched his "Operation
Barbarossa" against the Soviets, opening up the eastern front of the war.
This fact alone--the lack of a deep personal involvement in the heroic
struggle of the 1940s--could have an impact on the future relations of the
Soviet Union with the nations of Western Europe.
The generational passing of the baton of power inside the Soviet Union is
yet another milestone showing that we are passing into a new age, as we near
the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. For an insight
into the new "red star" as well as the perspective generally held by the
rising generation of Soviet leaders, the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, in their
March 3, 1985 issue, published an article "The Emergence of Gorbachev."
Here are key excerpts from the lengthy article that appeared in print be
fore Mr. Gorbachev's accession to power:
The generation that led the Soviet Union from the ravages of
Stalinism and World War II through the enormous expansion of
power and might over the past three decades is approaching an
end. Now a new guard stands poised to take charge, a generation
of men in their sos and 60s, and the question is whether they will
prove ready or capable of breathing new life into a system that
seems to have followed its leaders into debility and fatigue.
More than any other Soviet leader, [Mikhail] Gorbachev has come
to personify the new breed••••
It was as if in recognition of his importance that a group of
heavyset men in dark coats and heavy fur hats marched across the
frozen tarmac to a waiting Aeroflot jetliner in December. At the
foot of the forward ramp they bid goodbye to Gorbachev, who
mounted the steps, pausing for the stiff wave required by the
ceremony of a Politburo member setting off on a Kremlin mission.
His wife, Raisa Maksimovna, unobtrusively mounted the back steps.
In London, the front door opened and the two popped out together,
jubilantly waving to the welcoming officials and the banks of
photographers.
It was a classic magician's trick: Put a Kremlin heavy into one
end, quietly slip an attractive woman into the other, wave
through the air and--Presto!--out comes a New Soviet Leader,
smiling, charming, gregarious and complete with elegant, educated
and cultured wife.
Few in Britain were disappointed•••• He wore business suits that
made him indistinguishable from the Westerners he courted. She