Cohen (Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution; Rethinking the Soviet
Experience; Sovieticus), Professor of Russian Studies at Princeton,
and vander Heuvel, an editor at The Nation, held intensive
conversations with 14 Soviet public officials on the policies of
glasnost and perestroika The result is as intimate a portrait of
Soviet politics, culture, and economics as we are likely to see.
Though somewhat similar in concept to the recently published
proposed yearbook, Perestroika 1989, edited by Abel Aganbegyen, the
volume at hand is superior in that those interviewed are all
prestigious figures in the Soviet hierarchy with strong connections
to Gorbachev himself. Important figures such as Yakovlev, Smirnov,
Velikhov, and Arbatov reach a consensus that, among other things,
agrees that any failure of peresstroika would be the death knell of
socialism (Smirnov: "There is no alternative that could bring good
results"); that righting the historical record about Stalinist
terror is easier said than done (Manasyev: "After all, a regime
that murdered millions of people certainly wouldn't have hesitated
to destroy pieces of paper"); and that the movement toward
democratization in the Soviet Union does have its limits - it must
be within a one-party framework: partiinost (Smirnov, again: "We
need one good party with a general line that is intelligent, not
blockheaded"). Gorbachev, in other words, still has a long way to
go in order to be secure with his position. As pictured here, two
of the biggest obstacles still ahead are the entrenched
bureaucratism (at the beginning of the Gorbachev era, nearly 18
million people were employed by the Soviet government) and the
concomitant tendency, as described by filmmaker Klimov, for
officials to "want to ration glasnost from above." Overall, one of
the more stimulating reads in a field vastly overcrowded. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers
"As intimate a portrait of Soviet politics, culture, and economics as we are likely to see."—Kirkus Reviews
"Voices of Glasnost will be referred to for years to come as a guide to the zesty personalities of the latest Russian revolution."—Newsweek
"A sharp challenge to both those who think that nothing has changed in the Soviet Union and to those who think that everything has."—New York Times Book Review
"Much is said here that is admirable, thought-provoking, even poignant. . . . A complex portrait of a group of unusual people."—Washington Post Book World
"Stands above the heap of recent Gorbyiana. . . . Contains a spectacularly lucid introduction by Stephen Cohen. . . . The 14 interviews themselves are of permanent interest."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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