Solution-Oriented Policy

very unrealistic policy,” Bessmertnykh said. (The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post News Service). Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Bessmertnykh, who had served as ambassador in the United States for 12 years, gave an interview to Newsday. He said that “new thinking” had taken root in both countries. Their relationship was undergoing a dramatic change and a historic shift. Earlier, American officials used to say, “We will stop the spread of communism; we will drown them in the sea.” But now they had realized this was impossible. In the past, both sides spent their time condemning and trying to undercut each other. But that policy proved completely useless. Now, people on both sides were becoming realistic. Both their team and ours, he said, had begun to think in terms of solutions: “That team and our team are solution-oriented.” What are the aims and goals of perestroika? Mr. Gorbachev explained them in typical communist language as: “More democracy and more socialism; a better life for the working man; greater glory, progress, and prosperity for the nation.” But in truth, perestroika was a retreat from socialism, not the “next step” toward it. For according to Marx and Lenin, socialism could advance only after the death of capitalism. Every step forward for socialism meant a step backward for capitalism. Yet today, under Gorbachev’s leadership, Soviet Russia was making peace with capitalism—in fact, it was dreaming of progress and prosperity by adopting its values.