The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost

When Mikhail Gorbachev speaks of democratic reforms, he really means an ``enlightened'' dictatorship under continued one-party rule, asserts Laqueur ( Terrorism ; Weimar Culture ). It is this historian's view that the Soviet Union's move toward liberalization ( glasnost ) and economic restructuring ( perestroika ) has peaked, and that the next few years may see a partial retreat, especially if promised consumer benefits do not materialize. In this calm, level-headed appraisal, Laqueur looks at ferment in the arts, the crisis in Soviet health care, the public acknowledgment of shoddy goods and a ``shadow'' economy and social problems like alcoholism and crime. While glasnost has not triggered a renaissance of liberal-left thought in the U.S.S.R., it has, Laqueur notes, sparked a Russian nationalist revival among those who scorn or fear modernism, liberalism, big-city life, Jews, a permissive society and alternative youth culture. His diagnosis is a sobering antidote to rosy views of glasnost. (Apr.)