ABSTRACT
A new Soviet political system is being created from day to day. Political reform is, of course, proceeding much faster and more successfully than economic reform. The combination of freedom to criticize and lack of economic progress is undoubtedly an important factor in the Soviet political equation. New ways of thinking and speaking about Soviet politics as well as new ways of behaving have emerged in Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union, especially since 1987. The most important point about reform of the Soviet political system is that it is not an event but a process and, in all probability, a long-term process if the reform wing of the Communist Party continues to prevail, as it has increasingly done since Gorbachev became general secretary. Taking the elections as a whole, they must be seen as a remarkable landmark in the process of the democratization of the Soviet political system.
