ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev's tendency toward greater veracity can hardly be the result of party schooling, but rather a reaction to the unexampled mendaciousness of the Brezhnev years. Gorbachev was and is the motor for the changes in the Soviet Union. In mid-1986 Gorbachev wished to postpone a thoroughgoing clarification of the Soviet past, evidently because he feared trouble if the cruelty of the Stalin era were exposed to full daylight. From then on Gorbachev must have recognized with horror what great difficulties the party encountered in carrying out its projects. If the growth rate of glasnost continues as before, while the standard of living is more or less stagnant, a dangerous crisis of confidence will arise for Gorbachev. In late 1987, perhaps at Igor K. Ligachev's urging, Gorbachev was still praising collectivization as a great accomplishment, for which one might thank enormous harvests.
