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Gorbachev's missile, however, also hit the colonial administration that maintained the Soviet empire. Glasnost naturally entails talking about past injustices and that has led to a new emphasis on ethnic grievances. Local party leaders, feeling the heat from Moscow, discovered that they could keep a grip on their jobs only by throwing in their lot with the nationalist forces in their regions -- actually representing their constituents' interests in dealing with Moscow. In most republics, it has now become good politics for Communist officials to shake a fist at the Kremlin.
Once Gorbachev's democratization had lifted the lid, fiery-eyed nationalism leaped out. Azerbaijanis and Armenians fell upon one another as if centuries of Muslim-Christian warfare had never seen a truce. Moscow sent in peacekeeping troops, and Azerbaijanis denounced the government, publicly burning their red party cards. Soviet forces killed 20 demonstrators in Georgia. Fueled by anger over chronic unemployment, housing shortages and catastrophic damage to the environment, a spate of violent riots in Tadzhikistan, Kirghizia and Kazakhstan turned anti-Russian. With less bloodshed but equal vehemence, national movements in the Ukraine, Moldavia and Belorussia are demanding an end to Russian domination. Since December 1986, at least 408 people have died in clashes around the empire. No fewer than 60 million Soviet citizens live outside their home republics, and the ethnic upheavals have made 500,000 of them refugees.
Moscow is visibly scrambling to find a way to contain this spreading chaos without resorting to repression. Like every Soviet leader since Lenin, Gorbachev faced a nationalities problem; he simply did not know how to solve it. A special party Central Committee meeting on the issue was repeatedly delayed. When it finally convened last September, it was evident that the postponement had done little good, and Kremlin planners continued to underestimate the strength of rising nationalism. The policy they put forth was a vague collection of homilies on the inadmissibility of secession and the importance of economic integration. "Our party," said Gorbachev, "is in favor of a large and powerful federal state." While republics should aim for "self-management," they should remember their duty to develop "the whole country." The tendency toward independence, he said, would "have exceedingly negative consequences for those who embark on that path."
The Baltic states dismissed Gorbachev's plea. Says Valery Chalidze, an exiled dissident and editor: "I think ((the Soviet leaders)) are very far from any clear ideas on what they want in any new constitution." Peter Reddaway, senior Soviet specialist at George Washington University, agrees: "I don't think Gorbachev has any realistic design for a particular type of federation. He is under so much pressure from so many problems that trying to devise something stable is really hopeless."
In the republican elections that began last December and will continue in various parts of the country through June, the clearest campaign theme to emerge is the public's rejection of Communist Party candidates. Gorbachev hopes to save the Union by decreasing the importance of the much hated party and enhancing the powers of the central, duly elected government. Like an admiral on a sinking warship, he is transferring his flag to another vessel.