Soviet Union Cleaning Up the Confetti

Gorbachev moves to put party-conference reforms into action

Like the host of any successful bash that at times came close to getting out of hand, the Soviet Union spent last week dealing with the confetti -- literal and symbolic -- generated by its just ended 19th All-Union Communist Party Conference. Moscow street workers pulled down the festive red bunting and banners that had decorated the Soviet capital during the conference's four days of extraordinarily open debates and disputes. More substantively, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev convened the 13 voting members of the ruling Politburo, who in turn scheduled a plenum of the 307-member policymaking Central Committee for later this month....

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