Word: gorbachevized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...before his death, Sakharov joined a handful of Deputies from a radical coalition known as the Interregional Group in calling for a "warning strike" to force Congress to debate Article 6 and a package of reform laws. The strike was a failure, a tactical error that strained relations with Gorbachev, who was already impatient with Sakharov's frequent interruptions at legislative sessions. Nonetheless, Sakharov's death left a permanent void in the ranks of the liberal opposition and deprived the democratic movement of its symbolic leader...
...Gorbachev too is likely to regret that Sakharov's prophetic voice has been silenced. Despite their differences, the two men had managed to carry on something resembling a dialogue amid all the clamor at the Congress. Seven months have passed since the new parliament held its first meeting, more than half a year in which political change has outpaced progress in solving economic problems and ethnic tensions. At times last week, Moscow's maestro tried to orchestrate the debate, cutting off talk with a curt "That's all." Still, plenty of sour notes were struck. The Armenian delegation stormed...
...time when his popularity has climbed to new heights abroad, Gorbachev must fend off growing attacks at home from two fronts: what he calls the "adventurists" and the "reactionaries." Last week the Soviet leader took on the adventurist radicals, criticizing them for racing "like firemen, with clanging bells" to abolish the constitutional guarantee of Communist Party rule. The Congress decided not to take up the contentious question of Article 6, voting 1,138 to 839, with 56 abstentions. But the margin of victory was not so comfortable that the Kremlin could indefinitely ignore the East European-like rush to multiparty...
...bluster on the left, Gorbachev's greatest challenge comes from the reactionary conservatives. They make up a bizarre patchwork quilt: hard- line trade unionists and factory workers from groups like the United Worker's Front who oppose a "return to capitalism"; military officials angered by plans to convert defense factories to civilian use; entrenched party apparatchiks who fear the loss of position and privileges; and Russian nationalists who hanker after the Czarist past, many of them aligned with the reactionary Pamyat (Memory) movement. Whatever their ideological differences, the conservatives are united by a concern that the reforms are moving...
Party conservatives who long masqueraded as yea-sayers to Gorbachev have begun to regroup. Leningrad party boss Boris Gidaspov was roundly criticized from the floor of the Congress last week for making "threats against our leader" and "sounding nostalgic notes" for the past. Surprised by the attack, Gidaspov claimed that everything going on in Leningrad was aimed at "speeding up perestroika." Gorbachev watched the whole spectacle impassively from the tribunal...