ABSTRACT
Basic trends were accompanied by the increasing "dollarization" of the economy, especially in the urban areas, as the waning purchasing power of the ruble no longer provided an adequate incentive to work hard and well. The country was in a moral crisis; economic conditions continued to worsen; the left, long in disarray, began to pull together and organize, under the threat of new repression. The Soviet economy was perhaps the area of greatest failure for the Mikhail Gorbachev reforms. In examining the Soviet transition from authoritarianism in comparative perspective, we notice a number of elements that distinguish the Soviet case from other transitions, such as those experienced in Spain and Greece, Brazil and Argentina, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union is unique in facing the challenge of simultaneously undergoing a political, an ethnic, and an economic revolution. Meanwhile the Soviet transition process has presented the West with unprecedented dilemmas and opportunities.
