Downing Street Years - Margaret Thatcher [294]
I prepared myself very thoroughly. On Friday 27 February 1987 I held an all-day seminar on the Soviet Union at Chequers. The two opposing tendencies among Sovietologists, which I have mentioned earlier, were apparent on this occasion. The enthusiasts stressed the scope and energy of Mr Gorbachev’s reforms. The sceptics emphasized the orthodox communist objectives which Mr Gorbachev was pursuing and the limited effect even these modest measures of reform were having. On balance, the sceptics probably had the better of the argument. The view was that fundamental change was not on the agenda, only limited change which fully preserved the powers and guiding role of the Communist Party. Although Mr Gorbachev might want to enjoy the fruits of the incentive system, he could not take the risk of adopting it. Reform would, therefore, be conducted firmly within the bounds of the socialist system. In retrospect, it is possible to see that this analysis was flawed by a confusion between the intentions of Mr Gorbachev, which at any particular time were limited both by his communist way of thinking and by the circumstances of the moment, and the effects of his reforms, which unleashed forces that would sweep away the Soviet system and the Soviet state.
The seminar was only one aspect of my preparations. I also read through in detail the — usually long and indigestible — speeches which Mr Gorbachev had been making. Even though the political language was so different from that which I would have used, I felt that something new was emerging from them. Of these, by far the most important to date was that which he delivered to the Central Committee of the Communist Party towards the end of January 1987. In this he placed a new emphasis on democratizing the Party and, at the local level, the Soviet body politic itself: the forthcoming Soviet local elections would allow the nomination of more candidates than seats available in a small number of multi-member constituencies. This would prove to be the beginning — though only the beginning — of the replacement of democratic centralism by real democracy in the Soviet Union.
Soviet politics worked on the basis of slogans. These could not be taken at face value nor given a western interpretation. But, equally, they had to be taken seriously. The slogans under Mr Gorbachev were definitely changing. Perestroika(restructuring) had taken over from uskorenie(acceleration), reflecting his understanding that the fundamental problems of the Soviet economy required not just more of the same — central controls, discipline, efficiency drives — but real radical change. Similarly, the new talk of glasnost(openness) was based on an understanding that, unless the facts were known and at least some of the truth told about what was going on, conditions could never improve.
In the two years since Mr Gorbachev had become Soviet leader, the political reforms were already more evident than the economic benefits. Although there was precious little evidence of the Soviet economy working better, there was far more discussion of the need for political freedom and democracy. Mr Gorbachev had gone to great lengths to win over some of the leading dissidents, particularly Professor Sakharov, to support his programme. The truth about the horrors of Stalin — though not yet of Lenin — began to be published. The Soviets started to show greater sensitivity on matters of human rights, allowing more — though by no means all — Soviet Jews who wished to emigrate to do so. Whatever Mr Gorbachev’s long-term goals, there was no doubt in my mind that he was making the Soviet Union something better than a ‘prison house of nations’ and we ought to support him in his efforts.
Such support was certainly needed. Although there was a freer political atmosphere and the improvements in political conditions endeared him to some of the intellectuals, ordinary Soviet citizens saw no real material progress. And though many members of the Politburo and the