Glasnost's price tag
1989 1989-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 11 →
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It is precisely because perestroika economic reforms will be so painful for the majority of people that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev continually stresses the importance of glasnost democratic reforms.
This is why Gorbachev says that "not a single question concerning the state, the economy or the social fabric can be decided if the Soviets are bypassed." He means that perestroika economic austerity measures can only be enforced if they are carried out under the authority of glasnost-reformed sovietshence the newly refurbished Congress of Soviet Deputies.
According to official Soviet statements, some 3 million industrial workers will be "released" during the current five-year plan while as many as 16 million may be "released" by the year 2000.
The workers are paying the costs of bureaucratic inefficiency, especially after all industrial concerns switched over to complete cost-accounting and self-financing in January.
Leonid Abalkin, director of the Academy of Science's Institute of Economics and a close Gorbachev associate, admits that the past two years of perestroika produced lower national income growth and a worsened consumergoods sector than during the Brezhnev years.
Gorbachev's agricultural reforms are no less harmful to the average Soviet citizen. All the fanfare about allowing growers to realize profits from their crops is actually compensation for the anticipated cutoff of government price-support subsidies. Last year, over $183 billion was paid to reimburse producers for keeping their food prices down.
This tremendous benefit for consumers is a direct result of the 1917 social revolution, which prioritized human needs. But if this subsidy ends, as Gorbachev strongly urges, growers will have no alternative but to pass the costs of food production onto consumers.
Gorbachev's glasnost carries a higher price tag than many Soviet citizens are willing to pay. They may insist on getting more for their money-in which case the democratic openings that have appeared will be put to good use. C.P.