As a program of economic restructuring, perestroika must be judged as an utter failure. Gorbachev knew full well the extent of the situation he inherited.īut after six years in power and despite much talk about renewal and restructuring, the economy is worse off and the Soviet Union no longer exists as a political entity. The years of Communist rule had choked the economy-stifling innovation and destroying initiative-and produced political cynicism born of overt corruption of the ruling elite. The Novosibirsk report prepared by Soviet sociologist Tatyana Zaslavskaya, published in the West in the spring of 1984, already had revealed the deep structural problems confronting the Soviet leadership.
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he inherited a political and economic mess.
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