Word: plenum
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...Kremlin walls for a rally promoting democratic change. The message was clear from the banners bobbing above the marchers: SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY, WE'RE TIRED OF YOU! . . . AWAY WITH LIGACHEV AND HIS CLIQUE . . . 72 YEARS ON THE ROAD TO NOWHERE. If reform-shy regional party secretaries gathered for the plenum needed a graphic reminder of the dangers of delaying change, they had only to look out their hotel windows at the sea of protesters...
...next day Gorbachev was outwardly composed as he delivered his opening address, but participants detected a quaver of tension in his voice. It was not his purpose, he said, "to dramatize the situation and impart a tragic character" to the fateful decisions facing the plenum, but "the party will be able to fulfill its mission as a political vanguard only if it drastically restructures itself, masters the art of political work in present conditions and succeeds in cooperating with all forces committed to perestroika." No burst of thunderous applause greeted the end of his hour-long speech. After enduring...
...unanimous show of hands. The platform, which still must be approved by the party's congress this summer, is not so much a specific blueprint as a rough sketch for reform. Some Central Committee members complained that they received the document only when they arrived for the plenum -- suggesting that it was either drafted in haste or deliberately held back to put conservative forces at a disadvantage. The major points...
...chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Gorbachev seems to spend most of his time as a speaker of the house, presiding over excruciatingly long parliamentary debates. The plenum discussed plans to invest the position with enhanced powers, creating a presidency more along the lines of the American or French model. The Soviet President's new portfolio is likely to include national security, foreign policy, the KGB and police and oversight of economic reforms. Georgi Arbatov, the country's best-known Americanologist, believes the new President should have veto powers, noting that "we should carefully study the American experience...
Gorbachev chastised the secession-minded Lithuanians for rejecting the notion of a new Soviet federation out of hand. The party platform follows the basic line worked out at last September's plenum on nationalities. It calls for the present union to be reorganized on the basis of a new voluntary contract between the republics and the central authorities, but leaves open the possibility of "diverse forms of federative ties." Thus the Baltic republics might be allowed to introduce individual clauses into the general contract that would make staying part of the Soviet Union a more attractive proposition...