Masses' Patience Wearing Th

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conditions were in the seven "post-Stal- amount, but in most places the only inist countries I visited in September grocery stores are big and you have to and October-six republics of the former stand in line for at least 4U minutes. Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia), as are seething masses of hundreds of peoA visceral rejection of everything come back to places that have been associated with "socialism" is still gen- saved for them, or as they try to bribe eral. But no one is hopeful about the their way forward. people condemning the Bolshevik revo- the clerks, who bave developed an lution and everything it represented, and imperviousness, or even a vengefulness, in the next breath say that their country if not actual hostility to the public. In It was striking how similar the basic USSR (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, well as Poland.

market reforms. It is common to hear is now sinking into the situation of the third world, where there will be a tiny minority of rich and a great majority suffering total impoverishment.

Everyone expects things to get worse, and many talk about the possibility of social explosions in the winter or early spring.

The present situation obviously cannot last. It has all the hallmarks of a galloping crisis, including wild inflation and extreme distortions in the relationship of prices.

In most places, two economies exist side by side—a hard-currency (or dollar) and one in the local currency. The two economies are like two ditterent worlds, one developed and the other underdeveloped. Coffee and tea exist in one, but not in the other. In one you have a nice choice of sweaters for $150 dollars each; in the other it is hard to even find socks.

What can be found in the department stores is largely Western imports, priced lower than in the West, but still quite high for the local people. They remark, "You don't see any of our stuff anymore."

Taxi drivers at international airports in Russia and Ukraine demand and get. $20, the average monthly wage of workers. (The result of such fabulous earnings is that arriving foreigners are beset with a trenzied pack of petty enterpreneurs ready to run rough-shod over anyone who gets in their way, a quick introduction to the beauties of the "free market.")

Bread and milk still cost a minimal These lines are not calm affairs. They ple, weaving in and out as individuals Waves of frustration are focused on

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r the anti-Stalinist : in the ex-USSR of these fronts has now been accomplished. They opened up the way for the development of politics, for political debate, and the practical political experience of different views.

In the case of Democratic Russia, the first open break came when the majority of the movement opposed Yeltsin's attempt to remove the independent government of Chechen-Ingushetia, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation.

A reactionary wing split away to ally itself with neo-Stalinists in an ultra-chauvinist opposition to the Yeltsin government, which has become known as the Red-Brown alliance, that is, a bloc of Stalinists and fascistic forces.

The process of the breakdown of the national fronts in the other republics is more complex than that of Democratic Russia.

These former groups, which existed for years as mass political movements, defeated the local Communist parties on i national or at least regional scale, and took responsibility for national or regional governments. They were based on the national intelligentsias of their respective republics. It was the support of these intelligentsias that enabled the fronts to become mass movements overnight. They were able to address a mass audience immediately through the organs of the writers' and other creative workers' unions.

The national intelligentsias split The national intelligentsias were a privileged layer; in a general sense they were part of the bureaucracy. But they represented a contradiction within it, inasmuch as they had a vested interest in opposing "Russification," which was the policy of the bureaucracy as a whole.

The national intelligentsias represented a heritage of the national policy of the revolutionary Soviet state that Stalinism had been unable to liquidate; that is, the right of every nationality to have a national culture and therefore the essential apparatus of a national culture, a press and a literature in the local language.

Once Gorbachev's reform policy and the divisions in the bureaucracy over it weakened Moscow's grip, the national intelligentsias launched a battle for the national rights of the nations on which they depended.

Thus, in a number of republics, totalitarian rule was shattered, and a relatively free political debate became possible. In the process, the national intelligentsias themselves split, with most of the intellectuals recoiling from the radicalization of the fronts or being marginalized by their increasing programmatic emptiness.

Already two years ago, when I first visited the Baltic states—before independence and when Moscow was still trying to crack down—a wide spectrum of political views was represented in the press, and there was a dynamic political life. Now the democratization has lost its momentum, and there is a problem of direction.

In the first place, it has become clear that a democratic press cannot develop and become consolidated in a spontaneous way, or be assured by a free market.

Difficulty establishing press It is notable that none of the fronts have been able to develop a press of their own that could deepen and consolidate their political influence over society.

The Ukrainian front, Rukh, seeks to lead a society of over 50 million people. In the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, the only paper that more or less directly represents it, Narodna Hazeta is only a monthly, and the Rukh leaders acknowledge that they are not happy with it.

In the case of Lithuania, two editorial teams, one after the other, ran away with papers started by Sajudis. The first, the daily Respublika has tured into a sensational muck-raking journal, with no political principles. The second, the weekly Atgimimis, was taken over by a small group of intellectuals.

In Estonia, the front was never able to develop a newspaper of its own. From the outset, the development of a free press has been obstructed and distorted by an inflow of emigré money. The Estonians are a tiny nationality, about a million people, with a relatively large diaspora. (About 100,000 people fled the country during World War II).

Thus, the emigration has had a much more visible effect in Estonia than in the other post-Soviet countries. Estonia's most prestigeous dail ly controlled by the I financing for the el ended Sept. 20 came 1 The Latvian fro Frontas-LTF) had and lively paper of democratic organi: Atmoda. This news] stolen by its editor al mercial paper. The begin a new series o more modest scale.

The first issue of t read when I arrive September consisted cle by the president o: Front, Romualdas Ra It lamented the gro small section of the enriching itself as a 1 and the great majorit impoverished. Razi incumbent goverme up of supporters of th resented the "Liberal that the front conside tion to the governmer Fronts and pa I discovered that 1 elected to the Latvi under the front's ausp their own way once i they fell into represen ests of the bureaucrac!

Half the delegatio nationalist group, the l Movement (Latvias I LNKK), an historic ri There are beggars, mos