Though Mikhail Gorbachev apparently approved the Central Committee's blast against the Baltics, fans of perestroika could not be faulted for initially wondering whether the Soviet leader's conservative foes had issued the statement behind his back. After all, Gorbachev was vacationing on the Black Sea last week, and strange things often happen when he is out of town. As Soviet historian Roy Medvedev has observed, when Gorbachev "goes on vacation or goes abroad, the whole of state policy changes direction by 60 and sometimes 180 degrees."

On the eve of Gorbachev's visit to Yugoslavia last year, a vehement attack on his reform program was published in the Moscow daily Sovetskaya Rossiya. Leningrad teacher Nina Andreeva received credit for the article, but many assumed that it was at least inspired by conservative Politburo member Yegor Ligachev. The brutal suppression of nationalist demonstrations in Georgia last April, in which 20 people were killed, occurred just as Gorbachev was returning from a trip to Britain. More than one can play the game, of course. When Ligachev was on his summer vacation last year, Gorbachev secretly organized a series of meetings that led to the streamlining of the party apparatus -- and the demotion of Ligachev.