the existing imbalance, through the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction
(MBFR) talks. By stressing the need to look completely anew at all East–West
relationships, and to abandon stereotypical fears and expectations, Gorbachev
was offering something really significant. By linking this speech to a surprise
and unilateral troop reduction, he won considerable support in the West. His
initiative led to swiftly concluded negotiations and the conclusion of the
Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treatyin 1990.
A second aspect of new thinking was equally attractive to the West, though it
was primarily aimed at the Eastern European socialist states. This involved the
abdication of theBrezhnevdoctrine, propounded in 1968 to justify the Soviet
invasion of Czechoslovakia, which asserted that national sovereignty was less
important than socialist solidarity, and that other socialist states had the right to
intervene and prevent one of their allies overthrowing communism. Gorba-
chev recognized the right of each Eastern European country to determine its
own policy, and kept to this. Not only did he not try to stop liberalizing
movements in countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, but he also
did not attempt to force his own domestic policies of perestroikaand
glasnoston the moreStaliniststates like East Germany. New thinking was
without doubt the most successful area of Gorbachev’s reforms and much
facilitated, if it did not actually cause, the end both of the Soviet empire in
Europe and of thecold waritself.
Nomenclatura
The nomenclatura, literally just a list of names, was a vital technique for
ensuring the control of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU)over all aspects of industry, administration and other branches of
the state. At every level, from the town through the regions and republics to
the Central Committee of the CPSU in Moscow, there was a series of posts
which could only be filled with the approval of the equivalent level branch of
the Communist Party. Only candidates whose names were on the nomencla-
tura for that level could be appointed to such posts. Although it was not
necessary to be a party member to have one’s name on the list, it was extremely
unusual for any appointment above the most junior, at the most local level, not
to be a party member in good standing. It was by no means easy to become a
member of the party in the last few decades of communist rule, following a
tightening of membership requirements afterKhrushchev’slaxer policies.
Thus the party officials could rely on obedience from managers and admin-
istrators appointed to nomenclatura posts. Good party behaviour, as well as
technical efficiency, was required to get on to the nomenclatura for the next
rung in a professional career, ensuring tighter and tighter control by the party
the more senior the post. Nomenclatura came to be a shorthand way of
Nomenclatura