Gorbachev's Economic Reforms in the Context of the Soviet Political system

Abstract

Since the Spring of 1985 a warm wind of change has begun to envelop the Soviet Union. The social temperature has already increased far enough to raise the hopes of some, and the eyebrows of others, that the 'icy heart' of the country's immensely centralized institutional structure may soon begin to melt. This institutional structure has changed remarkably little since the 1920s and the 1930s. It was established to serve the implementation of a new social order by a relatively small group of single-minded revolutionaries in a political environment, initially, at least, very much hostile to it an, therefore, in a manner exceptionally unpleasant for a large number of the Soviet people. That manner changed much for the better after Stalin's death in 1953. However, Khrushchev's de-Stalinization process was effectively stopped when Brezhnev came to power in 1964.