ABSTRACT
The pressure was supplied by the force of the maturing intelligentsia and the intolerable discrepancy between the regime's revolutionary pretensions and its postrevolutionary reality. The heart of Mikhail Gorbachev's response to the circumstances was to reverse the traditional relationship between the holders of power and the intelligentsia. The crack in the monolith most apparent to the outside world was the confrontation between the bureaucracy and the creative intelligentsia that marked the Brezhnev era and worsened towards its end. Confidence in science and technological innovation as forces for progress and betterment of the human condition has been axiomatic for the Soviet regime from the beginning. Samizdat and tamizdat materials were broadcast back by Western radio services and reached much wider audiences, despite Soviet efforts to jam the transmissions. The intelligentsia, for its part, saw its hopes and spirit fading, and joined in the common pursuit of material success or mere survival.
