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In Search of a Vision for Gorbachev's Soviet Union
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18403 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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9 / 1990 |
2,863 Words |
| Author
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Christopher Smart
Christopher Smart is a research analyst specializing in Soviet
and Eastern European politics at the Hudson Institute. |
Amid the political tornado now spinning ever faster in the Soviet Union of Mikhail Gorbachev, three truths remain unambiguous: The people hate the Russians, and don't much care for each other; and the system intended to give to each according to his wants has more and more trouble meeting the barest needs of anyone.
Within such confines, it has been difficult indeed for anyone to construct a plan (call it a vision) for the future USSR. Indeed, when it comes to “the vision thing,” the political leaders of Soviet Union make George Bush look like Nostradamus. In a stable, prosperous, and confident nation like the United States, the absence of a specific political program makes for less drama in public life, but is otherwise not crucial. Amid a volatile, impoverished, and angry populace, however, only a strong and appealing vision can stave off social chaos and civil strife. Even then, there are no guarantees.
Gorbachev, of course, claims a vision. As he closed out his party's 29th Congress earlier this summer, he thundered; “The Communist Party lives and will live…. [It] will fulfill its historic contribution to the progress of our country and of world civilization.” With rhetoric like that, is it any wonder that hundreds of thousands of Muscovites mounted antiparty demonstrations outside the Kremlin? Is it any wonder that striking miners hoisted signs that declared: “Leninism is the Utopia of the Demons of Darkness?” Is it any wonder that Boris Yeltsin walked out?
To be fair, there are other elements to the Gorbachev plan: a broadening of political participation, a readjustment in the relationship between the many nations of the union, and
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