Soviet Union Face-Off on Reform

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A two-stage Five-Year Plan to improve the economy that Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov unveiled last week reflected the tug-of-war going on within the leadership. Ryzhkov made clear that his approach represented a "third alternative" to making minor corrections in central planning or plunging headlong into a free-market economy. Over the next two years, he said, the state intended to use "rigid directive measures" to reduce the national deficit from about 10% to 2.5% of GNP and increase supplies of consumer goods. A real market with varied forms of property ownership would take shape after 1992, he added, when the state would begin to rely primarily on credits, investments, pricing, taxation and other levers for regulating the economy.

Liberals labeled the Ryzhkov proposals a "defeat for perestroika and a victory for central planning." Radical economist Gavril Popov dismissed the new Five-Year Plan as a return to "administrative socialism." Noting that the plan even sets goals for egg production, he quipped, "It's time for the comrades in charge to leave our laying hen in peace so she can provide us with enough eggs by her own efforts."

To keep his reform spirit alive, Gorbachev has continually sought out the middle ground. He feints left, moves right and usually lands in the center. But such compromise policies come at a price, contributing to a widespread feeling that Gorbachev has no clear policies for the future. As Deputy Nina Dedeneva, a textile worker from Omsk, complained at last week's session, "People have ceased to believe in perestroika because the difficulties have only increased, while the period for overcoming them has become too long." Now the Kremlin has asked the people for another five years, and that could prove to be more time than Gorbachev can afford.