Interestingly, there’s an argument that Gorbachev’s reforms may have actually reduced democracy, and the standard of living of the middle class, achieving the opposite of their intentions. Because the reforms only really got going in 1988 many historians argue that it was too late by then, as nobody under the age of 75 by 1988 had any experience living or participating in an entrepreneurial economy, unlike China where the gap was only a single generation long.
However, the party elites that lived abroad and/or had full access to western media still obviously had the savvy here and there. So the reforms effectively forced a highly stratified economic oligarchy of a few thousand into existence out of the party nomenklatura and their relatives, and some lucky hanger ons, who numbered in the tens of thousands.
Interestingly, there’s an argument that Gorbachev’s reforms may have actually reduced democracy, and the standard of living of the middle class, achieving the opposite of their intentions. Because the reforms only really got going in 1988 many historians argue that it was too late by then, as nobody under the age of 75 by 1988 had any experience living or participating in an entrepreneurial economy, unlike China where the gap was only a single generation long.
However, the party elites that lived abroad and/or had full access to western media still obviously had the savvy here and there. So the reforms effectively forced a highly stratified economic oligarchy of a few thousand into existence out of the party nomenklatura and their relatives, and some lucky hanger ons, who numbered in the tens of thousands.