Ideology and Politics in Soviet Society

A few days ago the former leader of the Lithuanian Communists, A. Brazauskas, became president of Lithuania, the republic where democratic transformations first began in the old USSR. The circle has been closed, as it were. The Party's old guard in Russia is celebrating, counting the days until it can "begin to roll" again in Moscow. The Communist Party has risen again from the ashes. On the television screens, the "Gekachepists" [members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency] are being hailed as good angels. Rumors of their impending demise—dear Tat'iana Ivanovna Koriagina, indeed you defended them so zealously—have turned out to be greatly exaggerated. There they are, all having grown a little younger, with shining eyes. …