Word: localization
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...radical left been satisfied with Gorbachev's preference for staying close to the center. Party committees toppled as rank-and-file Communists vented their anger at local apparatchiks who were flaunting their privileges at a time when everyone else had to wait in line. Just before the plenum, Gorbachev got an earful from a delegation of miners, many of them activists in last summer's wildcat coal strikes. One worker advised him, "You need to determine more precisely just whose side you are on in this battle." Gorbachev seemed surprised at the criticism, asking, "You mean...
...platform affirms that farmers should have the right to lease land (with rights of inheritance) through local government councils, or soviets. This clause represents a significant shift away from the current practice of land leasing through collective and state farms, and is expected to encourage more small-scale farming. As Gorbachev stated, "All obstacles in the way of the farmer should be removed. He should be given a free hand...
Given the rapid pace of change, Ligachev's small victory last week may prove to be his last stand. Gorbachev has called another plenum for next week to discuss how to conduct party elections. The General Secretary is determined to push ahead with a complete renewal of local party organization before early summer to prevent hard-line holdovers from stacking the delegations to the policy-setting congress. As he noted in his concluding remarks to the plenum, "It is inadmissible to tarry now. It is necessary to take the lead in stormy and complicated processes...
Nothing is more fraught with risk than Gorbachev's bold gambit to devolve power from the party to the local soviets. After seven decades of Communist domination, regional party organizations have become so intertwined with the running of local economies that in some collective farms there would be no second shift to milk the cows unless the local party boss went door to door rounding up workers. Would a democratically elected mayor on a newly reformed town council be ready to take on the job? Vyacheslav Shostakovsky, rector of Moscow's Higher Party School for Communists, has his doubts...
...rushed to the scene of a car crash in the Ukrainian town of Chernigov were incensed to discover a lavish cache of meats and vodka in the trunk of the damaged official vehicle. They seized the delicacies and smashed the car to bits, then towed its carcass to the local party headquarters...