World Notes SOVIET UNION

While the warmth of glasnost tolerates some public protests, the Soviet Union still finds ways of chilling the passions of its national minorities. The latest target is Latvia, the Soviet Baltic republic forcibly incorporated into the U.S.S.R. in 1940. As Latvian activists prepared for last week's commemoration of their lost independence, Soviet authorities sought to thwart them by trotting out an enigmatic figure from the spy wars of the 1950s: Harold ("Kim") Philby, 75, an Englishman who was the most successful Soviet mole in the British Secret Service.

Rarely seen in public since his defection in 1963, Philby appeared on Latvian television to denounce Western interference in the Baltic. Speaking English with a Russian voice-over, he charged that the West uses Latvian nationalists to sow dissension. His words carry a certain authority. Philby headed British operations against Moscow's agents from 1944 to 1947. His performance, together with police action and counterdemonstrations by Communist Party loyalists, may have had its effect. Last week's demonstrations were desultory compared with protests earlier this year.