The Gorbachev Regime: Consolidation to Reform

In the early days of Gorbachev’s rise to power in the SovietUnion, an international group of U.S. and Japanese authoritiesprobed the issues and forces that shaped a mammothstruggle within the Soviet Union. This book examinesGorbachev’s reforms-the extent of their dramatic changesand the sobering evidence of their limits. The contributors’assessments range from wonder at the new atmosphereand expressive possibilities, to recognition of the reforms’reversibility, increasing difficulty, and the long road ahead.This is a fascinating contemporary review of factors that ledto the demise of the Soviet Union only a few years later."Perestroika," the transformation of Soviet society andeconomic relations, epitomized Gorbachev’s remedy forthe ailing Soviet economy, which developed into a redefinition of Soviet socialism. Gorbachev emphasized that thesuccess of reform depended not only on the technologyand money, but also to succeed the reforms must overcomeStalin’s legacy of bureaucratic centralism and enlist thecreative energies of the Soviet people.This volume explains why the strength and natureof the reform coalition and anti-reform opposition, thelimits and prospects of reform, and the compatibility ofdecentralizing reforms within the centralized one-partySoviet system and the implications of reforms for Sovietrelations with the rest of the world.