The Politburo Loves a Parade

Moscow's celebration ends on a rumble of strength

Loudspeakers blared Soviet slogans across the 20-acre expanse of Moscow's Red Square. Thousands of paratroops, rangers, sailors and soldiers chorused "Uuuhhh-raaah! Uuuhhh-raaah!" then goose-stepped smartly across the ancient cobblestones outside the Kremlin. Gun salutes echoed around the snow-shrouded, onion-shaped spires of St. Basil's Cathedral. Unmistakably, the theme of the three-hour parade that marked last week's 60th anniversary of the Soviet Revolution was brute strength.

In terms of military brawn, this year's parade was twice as muscular as the one in 1976, when the Kremlin cut back on the traditional flaunting of military hardware after city officials complained that parading armor tore up the pavement. This time 336 Soviet heavy weapons and mechanized vehicles clattered through Red Square, compared with 151 in 1976. Some of the speeches, too, were steelier. The mighty bash--televised live throughout the Soviet Union--opened with a blunt address by Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov. Standing in subfreezing weather, with his Politburo colleagues, atop Lenin's mausoleum, Ustinov, 69, made the obligatory bow to "the struggle for peace, detente and disarmament," then launched into vigorous affirmation of Moscow's determination "to further strengthen our armed capabilities" so that no potential foe "will risk violating our peaceful lives."

Although the parade included the customary representatives of youth organizations, sports groups, factories and ordinary citizens, the centerpiece was Ustinov's military show. Along with the sight of thousands of troops marching to the music of 750 massed musicians, the audience, which included military attaches of Western embassies, was treated to the first public display of the Red Army's formidable new T-72 tank. Trailing a heavy blue cloud of exhaust fumes, 46 of the diesel-powered 40-ton machines roared through Red Square. One Western government observer's assessment: "A very businesslike-looking weapon." Already in service in East Germany and the Soviet Union, the T-72 has a 115-mm. gun with an infra-red and laser range-finding system for accurate fire through fog or at night. Because the gun is loaded automatically, the tank requires a crew of only three; crews of four are required by its predecessor, the 37 1/2-ton T-62, as well as by the tanks of NATO nations, including the 58-ton American M60. Top speed of the T-72 is 43 m.p.h. on level ground. Some Western armor experts fear the T-72 may be able to outperform laser-equipped tanks, such as the British Chieftain, the West German Leopard 2 and the older U.S. M60 A2, now deployed in Western Europe; none of these possess as sophisticated a targeting system as the new Soviet model's. The U.S. does not expect to deploy its new-generation XM1 tank (called "the best in the world" by U.S. Army Secretary Clifford Alexander Jr.) until 1979 at the earliest. Also making a rare public appearance last week were new Soviet 122-mm. and 152-mm. self-propelled howitzers; the larger gun can fire nuclear shells nine miles.

Basking in the celebration was Leonid Brezhnev, who this year added the title of President of the Soviet Union to his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Included in the parade was a 25-ft.-tall portrait of Brezhnev, bordered by electric light bulbs; it showed the President waving in a pose made familiar by Bolshevism's chief founder, Vladimir Ilych Lenin. Earlier this year Moscow issued a postage stamp bearing Brezhnev's likeness, the first stamp to picture a living Soviet leader since Stalin. At a reception after the parade, Brezhnev, who will be 71 next month, sounded considerably more conciliatory than had Defense Minister Ustinov. Offering a toast "to lasting peace on earth," he promised to "do everything in our power to ease the threat of war, to strengthen peaceful cooperation among states."

Earlier, Brezhnev had announced that Moscow was prepared to agree to suspend "peaceful" nuclear tests as part of a total nuclear-test ban. And last week came other small signs that the tensions that had crept into U.S.-Soviet relations early in Carter's Administration were easing: in Washington, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin told a TV interviewer that "we are rather close" to a new agreement in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. When might the agreement be reached? Cautioning that it was impossible to predict "with precision" Dobrynin said he would guess "by the end of this year." The White House found Dobrynin's forecast "encouraging."

Jimmy Carter's personal letter of anniversary congratulations was handed to Brezhnev by U.S. Ambassador Malcolm Toon during a friendly, hour-long chat last week in the Kremlin. Brezhnev told Toon that there was "a definite change for the better in relations" between the two countries, but he emphasized "the urgency of finalizing" a SALT accord. Indeed, that message was underscored by the anniversary's military parade, which showed that however hopefully the Soviets talk about world peace, they are amply prepared for other eventualities.

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