ABSTRACT
Democratization must promote the maintenance and consolidation of the Soviet socialist system, the socialist economic structure, our social and cultural achievements, and socialist ideology. Democratization should be gradual in order to avoid possible complications and disruptions. At the same time it should be thoroughgoing, carried out consistently in accordance with a carefully worked-out program. Noneconomic coercion, limitations on the exchange of information, restrictions on intellectual freedom, and other examples of the antidemocratic distortion of socialism which took place under Stalin were accepted in our country as an overhead expense of the industrialization process. A statement from the highest party and government bodies on the necessity for further democratization and on the rate and means of achieving it. The publication in the press of a number of articles containing a discussion of the problems of democratization. Restoration of the rights of those nationalities deported under Stalin.
