ABSTRACT
The demands for the dismissal of corrupt cadres, which seemed controversial when first made in 1985 and 1986, have been overshadowed by the calls for modification of the Party’s structure and functions at the Nineteenth Party Conference in the summer of 1988. The proposed reforms call for the democraticization of Party life, with officials to be chosen from their constituencies in multiple-candidate elections, and a shifting of the role of the Party from ruling the country to supervising its economic, social, and political life. The article by K. Vaino, first secretary of the Communist Party of Estonia until June 1988, is characteristic of the types of concerns that preoccupied Party officials in the Baltic region in the early 1980s. His successor, V. Vialias, the former Soviet ambassador to Nicaragua, has few ties to the local Party leadership, but is expected to be more sympathetic to the nationalist sensibilities of most Estonians.
