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Article: Doing it their way. (Soviet Union's Communist Party still in power)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 2, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Doing it their way
IT IS back-handed tribute to Mr Mikhail Gorbachev's revolution that the Soviet Union now shares with Stalinist Romania the distinction of being one of only two Warsaw pact states not to have had its Communist party leadership overthrow this year. The Soviet leader has watched as first Poland, then Hungary, East Germany and now Czechoslovakia have started to shrug off one-party rule. He seems to accept that, within some pretty loose constraints, the countries of Eastern Europe will have to find their own way to political and economic revival. And so, argues Mr Gorbachev, must the Soviet Union. But when it comes to his own party's survival, he ...