An Immensity of Change: Perestroika, Poland, Politics in Eastern Europe

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 difficulties of perestroika, as if the confirmation of conservative ideology is more important than the success of Gorbachev’s effort. Within the Bush administration there clearly are influential people who feel nostalgic for the days of cold war and are no...