Word: westerner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Among superpower currencies, the Soviet ruble gets no respect. Its official value is so overstated after decades of isolation from the marketplace that even Soviet citizens treat it as funny money. In the past year Soviet economists have openly acknowledged that the ruble's official rate of exchange with Western currencies was seriously out of whack. While the Soviet state bank, Gosbank, gave visiting foreigners only 0.65 rubles for every U.S. dollar, a thriving black market offered as much as 15 rubles. An internal study done for the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party reportedly estimated the ruble...
...Western visitors will not reap many bargains from last week's step, which in practical terms will apply to a small portion of transactions. Tourists are generally asked to pay in foreign currency for lodging, transit and food. And as Soviet citizens know painfully well, the ruble is virtually worthless in the domestic economy. Moscow cabbies speed past hapless hailers unless they hold up something more enticing: a greenback or a pack of Marlboro cigarettes...
...result of the year's dramatic political changes elsewhere in the bloc. The obdurate rulers in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Rumania refuse to imitate their reformist neighbors but can't help looking anxiously over their shoulder. "They are all worried about the fallout from change elsewhere," said a Western diplomat in the region. A Bulgarian proverb captures the fears: "When the Gypsy's bear is dancing in your neighbor's yard, you know it will soon come to yours...
...block them. To make sure that shops were well stocked during the week before the anniversary, authorities released onto the market large supplies of normally unobtainable imported bananas and oranges. "They continue to dangle these things in front of the populace as an incentive for political acquiescence," said a Western diplomat in Prague. "But it is clearly becoming harder and harder for them to buy off people in this...
Perhaps Gorbachev is hoping that the East Europeans will show him the way out of his own domestic morass. If so, he may be disappointed. The key ingredients for change in the Communist world are already well identified, the recipe lifted from a Western cookbook for democracy. Separate Party from State. Add opposition parties and free elections to State. Briskly mix in press, speech and travel freedoms. Top with rights to assemble, strike and form labor unions. Bake in oven turned to Free Enterprise setting. Then hope that the inevitable spillover of chaos -- including the inevitable hard economic times -- doesn...