cover image Russia and the West: Gorbachev and the Politics of Reform

Russia and the West: Gorbachev and the Politics of Reform

Jerry F. Hough. Touchstone Books, $19.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-61839-1

According to Hough (The Soviet Leadership in Transition), Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalization of the Soviet Union is essentially a middle-class revolt; his immediate need is to build shifting coalitions in a multinational society with some 20 ethnic groups; and modernizing Soviet technology is possible only if he attacks the protectionism that communist manufacturers now enjoy. These are among the lively, combative conclusions presented by the author, a professor of political science at Duke and staff member of the Brookings Institution. He is critical of what he terms America's cliche-ridden foreign policy, which is based on historical anti-Sovietism. Maintaining that the U.S.S.R. has achieved far more of its socialist goals than most Americans realize, he argues that Marxism-Leninism can be an engine for drastic reformseven those some would label capitalistic. Hough further recommends that the U.S. adopt a flexible posture if Gorbachev should succeed in opening his country to the West. (April)