Soviet Army

Iwan Skoczylas, 93, of Spring Garden, a leader in the Ukrainian community, died Sunday at home. For more than 20 years, until he was 90, Mr. Skoczylas assisted in the chancery of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Philadelphia and was editor of Shliakh, a Ukrainian Catholic weekly. He had been active with the Ukrainian National Association and with Plast, the Ukrainian scouting association and administered Plast scout camps for youth in New York State. His daughter Elehie said her father visited Ukraine after it became independent and closely followed the recent election.

While the world is focusing on the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, an even more stunning, but less visible implosion is going on: The union itself is coming apart. At an ever-increasing pace, the glue that holds the 15 Soviet republics together is cracking. Led by the biggest republic, Russia, more than two- thirds of the republics have declared that their laws supersede Soviet laws, and their newly elected parliaments increasingly ignore commands from the central government in Moscow.

The president of Lithuania yesterday accused the Bush administration of selling out his republic by refusing to impose sanctions against the Soviet Union for its crackdown against the Lithuanian independence movement. "We were afraid that America might sell us out. Let the people decide whether this has already happened," Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis said in a statement issued by the Lithuanian parliament's information office. Landsbergis also described the U.S. decision not to act against the Soviets as a political "Munich.

The Flyers got their first look at the 1988-89 New Jersey Devils last night, and they should have been happy that there was no sign of Soviet defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov. The Devils, who own the rights to Fetisov, one of the world's premier defensemen, thought that they had worked out a deal to have him in their uniform this season. But he wasn't around last night as the Devils shut out the Flyers, 3-0, in an exhibition game at the Richmond Coliseum. And it doesn't appear that he will be joining the Devils any time soon.

Adm. William J. Crowe, the just-retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that he believed the direct Soviet military threat to Western Europe was in the process of disappearing. In a speech to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Crowe predicted that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev would make good on his promises to cut the size of the Soviet army and would put much of its offensive conventional weaponry - such as tanks and heavy artillery - into mothballs.

Evgeni Reznik's parents and only sibling, a younger brother, were allowed to leave Odessa, in Ukraine, and come as refugees to live in Philadelphia several years ago. But Reznik, his wife and now 6-year-old son had to stay behind. The problem was that Reznik, while a draftee in the Soviet army, had killed a corporal who, according to Reznik's attorney, Lawrence H. Rudnick, had mistreated and raped Reznik because he was Jewish. Reznik, 36, was convicted in 1977 of a charge equivalent to manslaughter.

For two months this fall, the Northern Fleet of the Soviet navy - about 50,000 sailors and the crews of 36 nuclear-armed submarines - never got paid. "Somebody finally got a planeload of cash up there, so nothing major happened," said Sergei Zamascikov, a former senior lieutenant in the Soviet army. The Soviet military, 3.7 million-strong, is the last great power of a dying nation. It was a proud and privileged elite, parading its might every May Day in Red Square. Now its conscripts are ill-housed and ill-fed.

Soviet Embassy officials here yesterday defended their government's actions in Lithuania, saying Moscow was seeking a peaceful solution and was not trying to prevent eventual Lithuanian self-determination. But even as Soviet spokesman Sergei Chetverikov spoke, about 100 pro- Lithuanian demonstrators outside the embassy chanted, "Red Tanks, Go Home" and "No Trade With Bullies. " Meanwhile, the White House shied away from criticism of Soviet actions in seizing a group of Lithuanian "deserters" from the Soviet army.

While America's attention has been fixated on what to do about the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Union has been falling apart. During the last three months, even as the Bush administration has been carefully coordinating gulf policy with Moscow, the cracks in Mikhail Gorbachev's empire have been widening toward the breaking point. What makes the situation so ironic is that relations between Moscow and Washington have never been so good. The Soviets, eager to become a part of the Western economic community, have backed U.S. policy in the gulf.

General manager Russ Farwell said yesterday that he should know by early next week whether a Soviet left winger, Andrei Lomakin, is likely to join the Flyers this season. Lomakin, 27, is a 5-foot-10, 176-pound veteran of Dynamo Moscow, one of the elite teams in the Soviet Union. Lomakin, a five-year veteran, scored 16 goals and had 17 assists in 45 games for Dynamo last season. He was chosen by the Flyers in the seventh round of June's NHL entry draft, and is playing in exhibition games for the Soviet team that will take part in the Canada Cup tournament.