As his country slipped deeper into domestic chaos, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev last week unveiled an "anti-crisis program" designed to reassert Moscow's central control and curb the spreading economic and political unrest. In a speech long on apocalyptic warnings and exhortations to discipline -- but, as usual, short on fresh ideas -- the President called for a moratorium on strikes and demonstrations to be coupled with additional measures to stabilize the economy. Gorbachev threatened tough action against republics that refused to cooperate, but he offered no specifics on how he planned to enforce his program.
Gorbachev's speech was immediately greeted with...
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