Gorbachev's Russia

Library Journal

The author, a scholar of Soviet studies at the Sorbornne, provides a concise and often illuminating account of the challenges confronting Gorbachev: Creation of a market economy must lead to painful increases of food prices now kept low by state subsidies; economic reform must be accomplished by bureaucrats unsuited to independent initiative; peasants, workers, and the army are wary of assaults on hard-won privileges; and many intellectuals, though longing for a return to humanist traditions, fear the elitism inherent in reform and free markets. Can he succeed? The final and hastily written chapter is equivocal: Gorbachev made real political gains during last July's stunning Party conference, but he remains far in advance of the thinking of most of his people. A satisfactory introduction, but one that will be superseded when the events of last summer are analyzed more thoroughly.-- Mark C. Carnes, Barnard Coll., Columbia