Jerry F. Hough

"Bolshevism was the unnatural product of a dislocated population at the beginning of the century", and conditions now favour "the return home of Russians to Europe". Soviet society has matured, with an educated middle class demanding better material conditions and closer links with the West, and less willing to tolerate the patent failure of one-party rule. This coincides with the view of the Soviet leadership, which sees the prime threat to their union as coming from Asia. Gorbachev's policy is one of 'controlled chaos', which aims to balance the public's desire for progress against its fear of a break-up of the union.

When Yuri Andropov died in February 1984, the Central Committee waited four days to name his successor. It is not clear whether this resulted from a real struggle for power or was simply because of an intervening weekend. In either case, the delay symbolized the stagnation and even the retrogression during Konstantin Chernenko's year in office.