Word: gorbachev
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...that accompanied them set loose ethnic strife, rampant nationalism and separatist movements in the republics. In March 1990 Lithuania declared its independence, and Moscow was faced with the possible breakup of the Soviet Union. This threat changed the entire debate about the country's economic and political future, for Gorbachev was not prepared to endorse the dissolution of the Union...
Restoration of order became the slogan of the day, and Gorbachev seems to believe in it as much as the party, the army and the KGB. "In some ways," says a U.S. State Department official, "it was the resurgence of nationalism that justified the resurgence of the right." Gorbachev has replaced his original team of reformers with hacks from the party Central Committee. He has shown the fist to separatists in the Baltics, and he has put joint army and police patrols onto the streets of the cities...
...Sverdlovsk and several republics began talking of secession. Those developments apparently mobilized the army and its allies in the giant military-industrial production network. After 46 representatives of eight defense-related ministries signed an open letter last September warning that new laws threatened to destroy the defense industry, Gorbachev changed course. He dropped the radical 500-day economic reform plan he had praised earlier and adopted still another muddled plan for piecemeal changes...
...series of unexplained military maneuvers around Moscow last fall fueled rumors that the army had used scare tactics to pressure Gorbachev. A much repeated story speaks of a tense meeting of the Communist Party Politburo at which the President was forced to back away from economic reform and crack down on separatism...
...Gorbachev's two liberal economic advisers, Stanislav Shatalin and Nikolai Petrakov, who were among the chief architects of the 500-Day Plan, say their handiwork "horrified" and "galvanized" the conservatives and led to a crisis session of the party leadership. According to Shatalin, one of the strongest opponents of his plan was Valentin Pavlov, who was then Finance Minister. It was Pavlov, recently appointed Prime Minister, who last month cast a chill on investors from abroad by accusing Westerners of plotting to flood the Soviet market with billions of rubles, wreck the economy and ultimately overthrow Gorbachev. Two weeks...