ABSTRACT
Among the most consequential and bitter disappointments of the Gorbachev reform program was its almost total economic failure. That failure was rooted in the long-term imbalances and irrationalities of the Soviet economy, but it was perestroika, the attempted cure, that turned mere stagnation into outright decline. Central to this economic crisis was the growing shortage of both agricultural and consumer goods. At the heart of the shortage problem lay the unraveling of the tightly integrated Soviet economy, as individual enterprises and municipal and regional governments gained power at the expense of central authorities. The Gorbachev reforms not only occasioned the collapse of the Soviet economy; they also provoked and permitted a remarkable 'awakening' of Soviet society. A democratic awakening spoke for those who sought a 'normal' western society with its civil liberties and political competition. Perestroika and democratization likewise contributed to national awakenings.
