Shevardnadze’s Resignation

Your front-page article “Bold Rightists Press Cause in Uneasy Moscow” (Dec. 22) is confusing in its terminology. Why is it that forces in the Soviet Union intent on retaining Communism are referred to as “rightists,” “reactionaries,” “right-wing” and “conservatives”? In the next sentence, these same people are referred to as “Communist militants,” and we are told that “The right . . . ‘is now composed of a very big part of the (Communist) party apparatus. . . .’ ” On the other hand, we find that people in the Soviet Union who wish to move toward democracy and the free market are called “liberals,” “progressives” and “the left.”

People who are in favor of socialism, Communism, Marxism, etc., have always been, and should always be, identified as members of the “left.” Extremists on the “right,” however, have always been linked with fascism. This is not the time to switch references at will, depending on which country is being described.

PAUL J. CHRISTMAN, Los Angeles