Word: gorbachevized
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...Perestroika is a revolution," Gorbachev insists, and only two weeks ago he warned a meeting of top Communist Party leaders that any official at any level who was not prepared to man the barricades would be purged. He had already proved his seriousness by ousting Leningrad party chief Yuri Solovyov and attacking the party organization there for "chewing the same stale gum" and resisting reform...
...their pits, mollified by a package of raises, consumer goods and political reform carrying no official price tag but estimated at $8 billion. In a dramatic bow to the intense nationalism of the Baltic republics, which were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, the Supreme Soviet, led by Gorbachev, approved a resolution endorsing plans to allow Lithuania and Estonia to manage their own economies freely, outside the control of central planners in Moscow. Baltic economists say they intend to develop Western-style market economies similar to those in Scandinavia, based on light industry and agriculture and free to sell...
This unprecedented loosening of central authority is a bold but risky attempt by Gorbachev to deal with the surging tide of nationalism; he has had trouble riding that particular wave in recent months. While Baltic representatives acknowledged that their economies could not yet survive under full independence, some of the more extreme Baltic nationalists hope last week's action will ultimately lead to actual secession from the Soviet Union. The Supreme Soviet seems powerfully aware of the danger. Although the enabling laws granting autonomy to the republics will not be submitted to the Parliament until October, other aggrieved national groups...
...often does in tense times, Gorbachev last week portrayed himself as both head of the government and leader of the opposition. When he saw the striking miners "taking matters completely into their own hands," he said on national television, he concluded that there was a lesson for Moscow in the situation: "We have to carry out perestroika more decisively." He amended a decision to delay local government elections and said the country's republics could hold them whenever they wish...
...threats to Gorbachev and his program, one of the most immediate comes from the conservative faction inside the party. Gorbachev has been chipping away at the conservatives since he took power 4 1/2 years ago, and now sometimes gives the impression that he is willing to destroy the party in order to save it. By creating a new legislature and making himself head of state, he has built a fallback power center from which he can bombard the party's hard-liners and, if necessary, defend against their counterattacks...