Perestroika:
New Thinking for Our Country and the World
by Mikhail Gorbachev
Harper & Row Publishers; New, updated Perennial Library edition
published 1988.
ISBN 0-06-091528-5
"This is an age of change; and Gorbachev has made
himself its angel and its instrument." -- George F. Kennan (CFR, TC)
Excerpts
vii "There are different interpretations of perestroika in the
West, including the United States. There is the view that it has been
necessitated by the disastrous state of the Soviet economy and that it
signifies disenchantment with socialism and a crisis for its ideals and
ultimate goals. Nothing could be further from the truth...."
p. 22 "The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it
unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist
construction both in theory and in practice."
p. 23 "Every part of our program of perestroika -- and the
program as a whole, for that matter -- is fully based on the principle of more
socialism and more democracy."
p. 25 "...the people's loyalty to the free choice which they
had made in 1917 [Bolshevik Revolution]..."
p. 27 "...collectivization was a great historic act, the most
important social change since 1917."
p. 28 "We revived and lifted the country on our own, through or
own efforts, putting to use the immense potentialities of the socialist
system."
p. 28 "We will spare no effort to develop and strengthen
socialism. I think that a minimum of the new system's potential has been
tapped so far."
p. 28 "...how can we agree that 1917 was a mistake and all the
seventy years of our life, work, effort and battles were also a complete
mistake, that we were going in the 'wrong direction'? No . . . it is the
socialist option that has brought formerly backward Russia to the 'right
place.' "
p. 37 "Perestroika is a revolutionary process for it is a jump
forward in the development of socialism, in the realization of its essential
characteristics."
p. 44 "There is only one criterion here: we will listen to and
take into consideration everything that strengthens socialism, whereas the
trends alien to socialism we will combat, but, I repeat, within the framework
of the democratic process."
p. 44 "Upon the success of perestroika depends the future of
socialism and the future of peace."
p. 49 "...The development of democracy . . . is the principal
guarantee of the irreversibility of perestroika. The more socialist
democracy there is, the more socialism we will have. This is our
conviction, and we will not abandon it."
p. 65 "There is no democracy, nor can there be, without
glasnost. And there is no present-day socialism, nor can there be,
without democracy."
p. 75 "A NEW CONCEPT OF CENTRALISM" [heading]
"In the course of perestroika a new concept of democratic centralism is
taking shape."
p. 82 "Lenin never believed that the road to socialism would be
straight. He knew how to change slogans when life required it.
p. 82 "What we need is not 'pure,' doctrinaire, invented
socialism, but real, Leninist socialism."
p. 85 "The humanistic education of the young, the aim of which
is a proper upbringing and the acquisition of adequate cultural standards, is
being improved."
p. 149 "What has world socialism achieved by the
mid-1980's? Now we can safely state that the socialist system has firmly
established itself in a large group of nations, that the socialist countries'
economic potential has been steadily increasing, and that its cultural and
spiritual values are profoundly moral and that they ennoble people."
p. 154 "We Soviet communists, as we consider the future of
socialism, proceed from Lenin's idea that this future will be created through
a series of efforts made by various countries."
p. 155 "Sometimes you have to retreat, and then advance.
it is agonizing to think, analyze, and re-analyze, but you shouldn't be afraid
of this."
p. 156 "...In the coming period socialism will, contrary to the
prophecies of all ill-wishers, reveal even more fully its real
potential."
UTAH
"Mikhail Gorbachev, one of the most influential
leaders of the 20th century, stressed the difference between Karl Marx's 
vision
and its manifestation in the former Soviet Union on Wednesday during a visit
to Salt Lake City.
"Gorbachev, the past president of the former Soviet
Union and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, defended Marx's vision of a society in
which there was no exploitation and in which all people would be able to reach
their potential, likening it to an ideal similar in some ways to the American
Dream.
" 'Let us not blame Karl Marx for what we had in our
country,' Gorbachev said during a brief news conference."
(Salt Lake Tribune,
9/28/00, p. B-2.)
KIEV, Ukraine, USSR (UPI)
"The chief purpose of Gorbachev's meeting with Kohl, German observers
believe, is for Kohl to hear the Soviet conception of a 'Grand Bargain' with
the West to bolster perestroika."
("Gorbachev greets Kohl in Ukraine," Deseret News, 7/5/91, p. A-4.)
MOSCOW (Toronto Globe and Mail)
"Gorbachev said that if he gets a chance to argue his case before the
leaders of the Group of Seven..., he will say their people need perestroika
to succeed as much as Soviets do."
("Gorbachev urges West to aid Soviet Economy," Deseret News,
5/23-24/91, p. A-8.)
MOSCOW (AP)
"China's hard-line Communist Party leader bestowed a 'socialist' blessing
on the Soviet Union's perestroika reforms on Friday and said he
intended to restore the close Chinese-Soviet cooperation of the 1950's."
("Chinese leader gives blessing to perestroika," Deseret News,
5/18/91; p. A-3)
TUCSON
Angels in America
part 1: Millennium Approaches
part 2: Perestroika
"How many shows have capture Broadway's highest honor
-- the Tony Award for Best 
Play
-- two years in a row? Only one."
--Winner of 7 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize. Best Play, 1993 Tony Award;
Best Play 1994 Tony Award. @ University of Arizona, Sept. 21-24, 1994,
Centennial Hall. (Special advertising supplement to the Arizona Jewish Post).
