Word: gorbachevized
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...Gorbachev has tried to dampen the ardor for repealing Article 6, claiming that giving up one-party rule would be a capitulation. But there were signs last week that the Kremlin was willing to fiddle with the text. Noting that Article 6 was "not a taboo subject," Politburo ideologist Vadim Medvedev said the present wording should not be kept "at all cost" and ought to be "brought into line with the party's new role in society...
Once again the task before Gorbachev is to enhance his power by co-opting the demands for radical change while at the same time persuading conservative foot draggers to join his cause. But to contain the rising tide of dissent in the Soviet Union, now bubbling up through many unofficial groups and opposing factions within the party itself, before it reaches the flood levels prevailing in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, the Communist Party will have to demonstrate that it deserves the support of the people without relying on the crutch of Article...
...that statement. But as the "spirit of Malta" washes over the West, he may soon find that he is a very lonely member of a virtually silent minority. On all sides we hear that Western ideas have won and that Communism has been defeated. And yet a Communist named Gorbachev is the most popular man in Europe...
...compared with what the Soviet people had before, the changes are breathtaking. His economic reforms, perestroika, have been an abject failure. For example, in the ten years of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, the per capita income of the Chinese people has doubled. In the five years of Gorbachev's rule, the per capita income of the Russian people has gone down. But while Gorbachev has only marginally changed the Soviet Union, he has profoundly changed the world, simply by saying what many in the West want to hear after generations of Soviet intransigence...
Rather than just applauding what he has done, let us examine why. When Gorbachev came to power he found he was presiding over a military superpower and a Third World economic power. His clients in Cuba, Viet Nam, Ethiopia, Angola and Nicaragua required huge subsidies. Afghanistan was costing lives as well as money. In Eastern Europe the explosive forces of dissent were building dangerously. The stagnant Soviet economy was falling further and further behind the West. Gorbachev's only option was to reform at home and retrench abroad...