Notes from the Left

Now that the exhilaration of glasnost is wearing off and the problems of perestroika grow acute, there is a striking change of response to
Gorbachev. Wise men shake their heads. They mutter, with crocodile regret or burbling delight, that he won’t succeed, the Soviet Union will fall apart, its nationalist passions can’t be contained, its economy is beyond salvage.

Perhaps so; who can say? Still, I find myself irritated when I read articles that revel in the tho...