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UNQUIET ON THE EASTERN FRONT

Ever since Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, optimistic European and American political observers have tingled with excitement over the prospect that the secretary general’s reforms may bring about a truly radical change in the USSR and Eastern Europe. And a certain limited evolution has been going on lately in that part of the world. How much, though, can we expect from glasnost and perestroika? Will they, as some of these observers hope, lead to anything at all like Western-style democratic capitalism?

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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UNQUIET ON THE EASTERN FRONT

Ever since Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, optimistic European and American political observers have tingled with excitement over the prospect that the secretary general’s reforms may bring about a truly radical change in the USSR and Eastern Europe. And a certain limited evolution has been going on lately in that part of the world. How much, though, can we expect from glasnost and perestroika? Will they, as some of these observers hope, lead to anything at all like Western-style democratic capitalism?