Word: gorbachev
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Then, the week before the summit, Gorbachev sent a 23-page letter to the leaders of the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada, telling them the time had come for the "Soviet Union's organic incorporation into the world economy." He buttressed his letter with a 31-page document outlining areas of the Soviet economy in which the West was invited to invest. Even the German government, more eager than any of the others to offer Moscow solid support, agreed with Washington, Tokyo and London that Gorbachev's $ promises were too general. They focused on creating a "mixed...
Officials in the Soviet advance party were still talking in ominously demanding terms when they landed in London before the summit. Gorbachev's personal envoy, Yevgeni Primakov, told British Prime Minister John Major that Moscow expected "grants, debt relief, investment." If they were not forthcoming, Primakov warned reporters, Gorbachev's position might be endangered and there would be "a risk of social uprising, of civil war." Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Shcherbakov claimed that "there could be turmoil in the whole world...
...understand anything in politics." They tend to equate the noise and conflict of a multiparty system with anarchy, which arose whenever the iron fist was relaxed. Though they loathe bureaucrats, ordinary citizens have great faith in the idea of a "benevolent czar" who will keep order. First Gorbachev and then Yeltsin appeared to fill the bill, but Sergeyev believes that within 18 months economic chaos will force the masses to turn back to old-line Communists because they can impose order with a "strong hand...
Will the last reformer left in the Soviet Communist Party be the man officially running it? Many of Mikhail Gorbachev's onetime allies have already turned in their party cards, and formation last week of the Democratic Reform Movement may turn the stream into a flood. Democratic-minded Communists who join don't have to quit the party, but many probably will. Others will be given no choice; the party might well have expelled Reform Movement founder Eduard Shevardnadze had he not resigned. The exodus has strengthened the hard- liners who openly aim to kick out General Secretary Gorbachev himself...
Might the supposed boss then emulate his close friend Shevardnadze and jump before he is pushed? Rumors that Gorbachev would quit as party leader have been afloat for two years, since he created the position of Soviet President for himself and stripped the party of its constitutional monopoly of power. Those moves would enable him to continue heading the government from outside the party. Speculation naturally increased last week with the founding of the Reform Movement; there was even some byzantine talk, in both Moscow and Washington, that Gorbachev might have put Shevardnadze and friends up to forming...