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World

A window ‘opens on USSR’s Far East

First of a Series

VLADIVOSTOK — Ask anyone here
what’s new, and they really have something
to tell you. After more than 40 years as the
USSR’s premier example of a “closed” city,
Vladivostok is suddenly springing open.
For the people of this Pacific-coast town of
600,000, the change has come abruptly, but
Not too soon. Many of them have long
dreamt of building upon their strategic posi-

_ tion, at the crossroads of the Orient, to

integrate their economy into the life of this
Tapidly growing region.

There is something in the look and air of
this city which reminds a Canadian
instantly of Vancouver — which, in fact,
Vladivostok faces directly across the Pacific
at a distance considerably less than that to

- Moscow in the other direction. Much closer

at hand are Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The
large Chinese city of Harbin is just a four-
hour train ride away.

Speaking two years ago in Vladivostok,
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed
a broad program for reducing tensions in

the Pacific, and put forward the idea of

making Vladivostok an open port for trade
and contacts between all nations of the
Tegion. This September, in the Siberian city
of Krasnoyarsk, he went considerably
further, arguing that the Soviet Pacific terri-
tories must learn to “move with the rhythms
of the Far East.

“The radical economic reform and the
Overhaul of the political system will ensure a
Mighty scope for the modern development

tus during the cold war —_ that it is the
main headquarters of the Soviet navy’s
Pacific fleet — seems to pale somewhat in
the light of new thinking. Apart from a few
destroyers dry-docked in the Zalotai Rog
(Golden Horn) bay, the visitor sees only a
beautiful, modern hilltop city edging down
to harbour facilities that are bustling with
cargo ships and fishing boats.

Officials here chafe at descriptions in the
press that picture the Soviet maritime terri-
tory as “backward” and “less productive”
than the rest of the country, but admit that
the area lacks a comprehensive industrial
base.

“Unfortunately, when people think Vla-
divostok they think fish,” says Chernyshev.
“Our area brings in some 40 per cent of the
national catch. We also have a large
number of extractive industries based on
forest products and mineral resources —
with which we are extraordinarily well-
endowed — but we do far too little of our
own processing. For instance, we export
wood to Japan, but not furniture. This is
what has to change.”

The Soviet Union’s shifting international
posture is dragging Vladivostok into that
new era, ready or not. Foreign delegations
have begun to arrive in unexpected
numbers, some from places one wouldn’t
have thought possible a couple of years
back — like South Korea — and many of
them are interested in doing business or
setting up joint ventures in the Soviet Far
East.

of Siberia and the Far East, befitting these
great and promising components of our
country,” he said. “This will make it
Possible — given the desire on the part of
Our neighbours as well as more remote
States — to jointly weave not only a strong
but also a beautiful fabric of economic,
Scientific, technological, cultural, environ-
Mental and other contacts in that part of
Asia.” ;
However, the situation on the ground is
complicated. ‘“Philosophically we are ready
for this,” says Victor Chernyshev, first

Secretary of the Soviet Primorsky Krai

(maritime territory) Communist Party
Organization. “In reality, we have a lot of
work to do before we'll be able to realize this
dream. Our immediate goal is to make Vla-
divostok a ‘free port’, receiving shipping,
tourists and commerce from all over the
World, and we are studying the idea of turn-
ing the whole area into a ‘free economic
zone’.” ;
What this latter notion might mean is not
yet clear, but Gorbachev spoke in Kras-
Noyarsk about giving “favoured treatment”
to Soviet Far Eastern economic enterprises
and institutions to build direct relationships

’ nd joint enterprises with outside firms,

cluding tax, price and even wage conces-
Slons.
One immediate obstacle is that Vladivos-
tok has been closed for so long that it now
has few facilities to meet this onrushing
Openness. The city has no tourist hotel and
No infrastructure for dealing with visitors. It
as only been since Oct. 1 that Soviet citi-
zens have been able to come here without
first obtaining a special permit, and the rare
‘Oreign visitor still attracts surprised interest
' the streets. .
The reason for Vladivostok’s closed sta-

As another by-product of the new open-
ness, the territory is now finding it possible
to solve its perennial labour shortage by
bringing in workers from nearby countries
which have a surplus, such as North Korea,
Vietnam and China. Since the beginning of
this year, several thousand. “guest workers”
have arrived to take jobs in factories and
construction projects. According to Soviet
officials, they receive the same wages and
conditions as Soviet workers, and many
have an educational program included in
their contract.

The most dramatic change, and the one
with the most far-reaching potential, is the
rapidly-thawing relationship with China.
Though it is unlikely that the naive idealism
of the 1950s will ever return, the present
atmosphere, after decades of hostility and
near-war, seems euphoric enough. Chinese
sport, cultural and trade delegations are
criss-crossing the Soviet maritime territory
these days, setting up contacts and initiating
joint ventures. Just about everybody here is
trying to think of ways to take advantage of
the new possibilities.

In the city of Khabarovsk, theatre direc-
tor Alexander Shalygin has already ex-
changed visits with his counterparts in
Harbin and arranged for a Chinese troupe
to stage productions in his theatre next year.
He describes his contacts across the border
as “warm, friendly, terrific.” In another part
of town a big, gaudy Chinese restaurant is
nearing completion — a joint venture —

and the young Chinese manager of the pro- -
“ject enthuses about future possibilities in

passable English and Russian. In Soviet
Birobidjan, collective farmers are scheming
to invite Chinese farmers to come and take
out lease holdings — according to the same
terms Soviet farmers now do — on their

Pena ra’

VLADIVO
development in the Far East.
surplus fields. The list could go on ...

“Vladivostok is a city with many Euro-
pean features, it is a Soviet city,” says Vla-
dimir Simyonkin, 38, first secretary of the
Vladivostok city party organization. “But
we need to recognize that we are also part of
Asia, a city of the Far East. It’s high time we
ended our isolation, and became a centre of
peaceful development, trade and communi-
cation.”

Vladivostok is also the terminus of one of
the world’s most famous railways, the
Trans-Siberian, a slender steel bridge flung

STOK...a vital port on the Pacific as the USSR embarks on new economic

across the immense land-ocean that is
Soviet Siberia. On this train one travels in
comfort, if not splendour, in sleeping com-
partments with fresh linen, an ever-present
provodnitsa (attendant) who brings piping-
hot glasses of tea at all hours, and a restau-
rant car awash in beef stroganoff.

In Vladivostok station, where I boarded
the Trans-Siberian, there is a small obelisk
that was placed there during the railroad’s
construction in 1893. It reads: 9,228
kilometers — eight days — to Moscow.

MOSCOW — Soviet society is facing
an agenda of “huge and complex” prob-
lems which will only be resolved by see-
ing through the course of reform and
renewal now well underway, President
Mikhail Gorbachev told the opening of
the 12th session of the Supreme
Soviet — the nation’s parliament —
here last week. ;

Sweeping political and constitutional
reform, mapped out at the 19th confer-
ence of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union (CPSU)last summer, must
not be delayed, he warned. “The ques-
tion of power in any society is the crucial
question,” he said, “but this is especially
so during a revolutionary moment ....
That’s why it’s important to stay on
course, not to lose our perspective in
events, to keep the whole picture firmly
in mind”. :

The constitutional reforms are aimed
at investing power in the representative
arms of Soviet government, which are to
be thoroughly restructured to cope with
the new loads and functions. Some of the
proposed changes have been criticized by
legislatures of smaller republics — in
particular Estonia, which has claimed
the right to veto unilaterally any laws
made in Moscow — as limiting the sov-
ereignty and freedom of action of the
USSR’s 15 constituent republics.

The Supreme Soviet session came
against a background of heightened
debate and inter-ethnic tension in several
republics, particularly those in the Cau-
casus and Baltic regions. Some conserva-

GPSU reforms ‘crucial’

tive voices have been arguing that the
reform drive itself is the cause of these
troubles, and have been urging suspen-
sion or postponement of the process of
change.

“It is important to recognize that we
are engaged in an intensive and profound
struggle for renewal,” Politbureau mem-
ber Vadim Medvedev told a press con-
ference here Nov. 29. “There will be
many stages of change, this process will
be long and drawn out ....”

Medvedev noted that the constitu-
tional amendments placed before the
Supreme Soviet session had already gone
through several phases of revision in
response to public input and criticism
from various republics.

Concerning the ongoing turmoil in
Armenia and Azerbaijan, and other
uncertain situations around the country,
he said: ““The main thing now is to pre-
vent escalation of inter-ethnic tensions,
and then, step by step, using constitu-
tional means and democratic channels,
to find the appropriate solutions to the
deep and multi-faceted problems that
exist.”

One major event along this road, he
noted, will be a special plenary meeting
of the CPSU’s Central Committee, sche-
duled for mid-1989, which will under-
take a full-scale review of Soviet
nationalities policy and propose major
structural and legal changes to place
inter-ethnic relations on a completely
new level.

— Fred Weir

Pacific Tribune, December 5, 1988 « 9