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The Kremlin's rulers have not been able to keep up with the emergence of such new social classes as the industrial managers, the cultural and scientific intelligentsia and the new military elite. Because they seem uncertain about just how far they want reform to go—and how much freedom Russians can be trusted with—there is a growing gap between the regime and Russian society. "The current leaders have no moral authority," says William Griffith, professor of political science at M.I.T. "They are regarded by intellectuals as a combination of bureaucratic idiots and criminals. There is a terrible alienation from the government."
Finding men able to fill the top jobs may turn out to be the party's biggest problem. The system tends to elevate men of restricted vision, the technocrats and the apparatchik! (party career men), and to submerge and frustrate the more brilliant and innovative thinkers. "The dichotomy," says State Department Kremlinologist Zbigniew Brzezinski, "is between a mediocre public leadership and an increasingly talented society." Just as they have turned against ideology, the brighter young Russians are now reluctant to go in for a party career. In an otherwise routine and un interesting anniversary speech last week, Brezhnev went so far as to refer to his regime as Russia's "New Frontier." The use of the slogan of John F. Kennedy's Administration may have been more than a coincidence: many Russian youths are admirers of the late U.S. President.
If history moves at a pace that demands quick and imaginative solutions, the Soviet Union may be in for trouble. For one thing, committee rule rarely produces a set of clear principles. For another, the collegial leaders find it difficult to move forward resolutely when they must continually look over their shoulders. The regime seems to have postponed a lot of tough decisions until after the anniversary celebrations, including the promulgation of a new Soviet constitution (the third since the revolution) and the ratification of a new five-year economic plan. Some Sovietologists feel that the stresses and strains within the government have grown so strong that the present leadership cannot survive much longer.
Russia's Relations with the World
While Russia's internal policies have long served to create a cowed and dispirited people, its foreign policy over the years has been one of the world's greatest mischiefmakers. Since World War II, it has caused countless crises and acted as a continual threat to world peace. Today, it is much more inclined to caution than before, partly because collegial leadership breeds indecision and partly because Russian foreign policy has suffered some notable defeats in recent years. One of the reasons that Nikita Khrushchev was ousted was his foreign adventurism, which led to such Soviet setbacks as the forced withdraw all of its missiles from Cuba. Since then, Russia has had to pay the cost of backing the Arabs in their Middle East debacle and has seen its onetime chief ally, China, become a vituperative and potentially dangerous enemy right on its borders.