THE REFRESHING ZEST of recent days apparently would not have surprised Karl Marx, although presumably he would have been amazed at the changes in the former Soviet Union and the assertiveness of its constituent states following August’s failed coup and the collapse of the Communist party. He would not be alone, as policymakers and analysts everywhere adjust to the transformed political and economic landscape, in which the former republics dominate. Even Grigory Yavlinsky, the talented and most ubiquitous all-union reformer, has concluded that there “is no place for reform on an all-union level.” Certainly part of the aftermath of the failed coup will be a wider acceptance of the necessity of recognizing and accommodating parallel economic reform efforts in the sovereign states that will now emerge.
