Russian Hits 'Act of War'

A leading Soviet expert on international law said yesterday that the United States' move to impose a naval blockade on Cuba was tantamount to an act of war.

Interviewed while on tour of the University, S.V. Molodtsov said that according to contemporary international law, no state can carry out a blockade against another state without the sanction of the United Nations Security Council. Individual states can undertake individual action only if they are directly attacked.

Molodtsov made the tour along with 20 other Russian and American delegates to an informal peace conference meeting in Andover this week. The American delegates include Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, Philip Moseley, Margaret Mead, and Gov. Robert Meyner of New Jersey.

The principle that carrying out a blockade is an element of "pure aggressive policy" was confirmed by the 1946 General Assembly, Molodtsov said. He added that the blockade also contradicts the Convention of the Open Sea, an agreement on maritime law signed at a 1958 80-nation conference, and put into effect this year.

Molodtsov's translator, Spartak Beglov of the Moscow news feature agency Novosti, said that Soviet delegates did not see how the United States could stop another country's ships without going to war.

The touring Russians said they were impressed by Widener Library, which has 1400 first editions of Russian books. One delegate said, "I wonder if my books are here?" while he was in the library. He went to the card catalog and looked himself up, finding several cards listing his works.