Behind the polish of the Soviet Olympic Show case

Substitute the word "Soviet" for "Nazi" and you have almost exactly what Soviet critics are saying about the 1980 Olympics. Moscow is taking careful precautions to seal off the Soviet population from the 200,000 visitors it says are coming despite the boycott movement.

This is the defensive side of the Kremlin -- suspicious, isolationist, heir to the remote, backward, secretive czarist Russia.

For centuries Russia has been isolated from the main streams of Western thought, from Renaissance and Reformation, from the struggle of nobles and bourgeoisie against the authority of the crown. It remains today deeply suspicious of outsiders. Communist ideology reinforces the feeling of standing alone against the threats and intents of the unpredictable, cacophonous West.

Thousands upon thousands of police from outlying areas have been brought in to patrol Moscow streets and subways. Metal detectors, X-ray machines, and police baggage searchers in lobbies guard the Olympic village, the main stadiums , and tourist hotels.

The KGB has gone to considerable lengths to break contacts between tourists and Soviet dissidents. American and Brisubjected to embarrassing searches by customs agents at airports. Both governments have lodged formal protests.

About 50 dissident activists, including Dr. Andrei Sakharov, have been arrested, exiled, tried, imprisoned, or otherwise removed from the streets of the five games cities since last November. KGB agents make it clear dissidents may not remain in Moscow during the games.

The literary journal Zvezda (Star), the monthly Physical Culture and Sport, Pravda, and other publications have all warned of foreign agents posing as tourists. Some 10,000 young interpreters and guides have been subjected to rigorous party lectures with such titles as "The leading and guiding role of the Communist Party." Young people permitted to come to the games sites for any reason are screened for political loyalty.

The head of the Soviet state committe on radio and television, Sergei Lapin, warned broadcasters in Moscow last year they could expect no help in covering non-games stories, that they should stay away from political reports, and he warned particularly against conducting any "public opinion polls" -- that is, man-in-the-street interviews.

Nothing is to be allowed to mar Soviet prestige any more than the boycott has already. According to one member of the International Olympic Committee, Baron Jean de Beaumont of France, Moscow is paying all fares and hotel expenses for no fewer 40 to the 85 national teams coming to the games. These include many African and Asian countries.

As for television, the Soviets are confident the pictures will be favorable, showing only the new, world-class stadiums, smiling people, newly tended parks, flowers, showplace architecture, and other familiar landmarks. If US or European networks try to transmit film of unfavorable events, such as demonstrations, past experience suggests sudden, mysterious power failures may occur at crucial moments.

Television is central to Soviet plans to boost prestige, especially since the boycott has kept away so many countries and caused a drop in hard-currency earnings. (Estimating a loss of $2,000 per head of fares and hotel alone, and a drop of 93,000 visitors from the US, Canada, Japan, West Germany, and even from some nonboycotters, the Soviets have failed to earn at least $150 million.)

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