An Immensity of Change

The following dialogue between Abraham Brumberg and Irving Howe took place in early October 1989. Abraham Brumberg is a widely published authority on Soviet and Eastern European affairs and editor of the forthcoming Perestroika: Chronicle of a Revolution, published by Pantheon Books—Eds.

IH: Some questions about the fate of perestroika: There is a general sense that, although the achievements of glasnost are remarkable, perestroika as a socioeconomic transformation is facing grave difficulties. Boris Yeltsin recently said that he gives Gorbachev a year. If there are no significant improvements, there could follow serious dislocations. I notice also among some commentators a kind of anticipatory glee at the diffic...