(Archived document, may contain errors) 724 August 15,1989 G0RBAC"S BRE,CI'-IIITOVSK THE KREMLWS GRAND COMPROMISE IN EAS TERN EUROPE INTRODUCTION The Soviet-controlled part of Eastern Europe is in deep economic and political trouble. After four decades of communism, the economies of Eastern Europe are no better than those of manyThird World countries. Eastern Europe suffers from abject poverty, massive housing and food shortages, shoddy or unavailable medical care an ecological crisis, obsolete and stagnating industry, drunkenness, and falling life expectancy.
Characterizations of Gorbachev as a “quintessential apparatchik” or a blood-stained “totalitarian” who hadn’t sought “to end tyranny” and could only imagine Russia as “an empire” are truly bizarre and tell us more about the present biases of their authors than they do about the past dramas of perestroika and the Cold War’s end.
Suing Gorbachev 31 years after the USSR s collapse, a group of Lithuanians sought to hold its last leader to account — Meduza meduza.io - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from meduza.io Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.