Word: leningraders
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...major obsession in this city, haunted by memories of a grim 900-day Nazi blockade in World War II, is how to store food supplies for the coming winter. Rationing was imposed last week on meat products, sausage, butter and cooking oil to provide Leningrad residents with what city officials called a "guaranteed minimum" of scarce staples. In one downtown meat store, a middle-aged woman surveys refrigerator cases, empty of everything but boxes of sugared cranberries. "It's unbelievable!" she exclaims. "People continue to produce things, but there is nothing to buy. It's those democrats on the city...
...problem is not that simple. Evidence has surfaced of sabotage aimed at discrediting the local democrats: conservative-controlled rural regions have been holding back produce from Leningrad, and some train cars crammed with scarce goods have been left standing for months without being unloaded. But the 382-member city council deserves some of the blame for the economic mess. Even the most ardent reformers are growing exasperated with inexperienced, often incompetent deputies, who spend more time squabbling over plans to confiscate Communist property and change the name of the city back to St. Petersburg than debating bread-and-butter issues...
...claims that they have created a "wild and barbaric" multiparty system. Despite the Communists' disastrous showing in local elections, Belov believes the party has the only effective organizational structure to prevent the city -- and nation -- from plunging into anarchy. The party, for example, has carefully maintained its ties to Leningrad's powerful network of military factories...
Armaments remain a touchy issue. Gorbachev's plan to convert weapons assembly lines to the production of consumer goods will have major economic repercussions, since 70% of the city's industries work on military orders. In fact, Leningrad's future may be decided in large part by local defense- industry chiefs, who have banded together to form the Association of Directors of Industrial Enterprises. Although city-council radicals fear that the group's members are determined to restore Communist rule, Sobchak has made efforts to win these technocrats over to his side. As he acidly notes, "Unlike most...
...Leningrad's dynamic mayor does not claim that he can solve all the city's problems by himself. Sobchak believes it is up to Gorbachev to exercise his presidential powers and ensure that republics and regions make scheduled deliveries of food to the country's cities. He also wants the national Congress of the People's Deputies to take urgent measures to untangle the confusion that reigns in local government. In his view, the concentration of legislative, executive and oversight powers into the hands of city councils has become a "minefield of exploding booby traps." But he does nurture...