Communism and Corruption

‘”Mr. Andropov’s attempts to ease the shortages of goods by tightening labor discipline and punishing corruption reached a chilling fulfillment at the Gastronom, a cavernous hall of fading gilt columns and glass chandeliers that was the delight of nineteenth-century aristocrats and merchants. Yuri K. Sokolov, manager of the Gastronom and a one-time friend of Leonid L Brezhnev, whose family larder was stocked from the Gastronom, was executed by firing squad last year in one of a series of corruption trials.”

—New York Times, Feb. 11, 1984

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Tom Bethell

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‘”Mr. Andropov’s attempts to ease the shortages of goods by tightening labor discipline and punishing corruption reached a chilling fulfillment at the Gastronom, a cavernous hall of fading gilt columns and glass chandeliers that was the delight of nineteenth-century aristocrats and merchants. Yuri K. Sokolov, manager of the Gastronom and a one-time friend of Leonid L Brezhnev, whose family larder was stocked from the Gastronom, was executed by firing squad last year in one of a series of corruption trials.”

—New York Times, Feb. 11, 1984