PERESTROIKA TO THE PEOPLE

Contrary to Marshall Goldman’s reading, I found Abel Aganbegyan’s “Inside Perestroika: The Future of the Soviet Economy” (Book Review, Nov.5) full of hope and enthusiasm.

It is a concise and illuminating picture of the process of restructuring the Soviet economy, placing perestroika in historical context and explaining how it differs from past economic reforms. It provides valuable quantitative data about the Soviet economy and explains the connections between perestroika and glasnost .

Aganbegyan’s discussion of managerial decision making is sociologically informed and of interest to any student of organizational behavior. For the socialist scholar, the book contributes to long-argued debates in political economy, such as the nature of the market under socialism.

I found nothing sad about this book; it is unapologetic, honest, and astonishingly readable.

What makes Goldman so sour about this book is perhaps a realization that his vintage brand of xenophobic “Soviet expertise”--that, with a blind eye to any positive aspect of Soviet society, served only to obfuscate Soviet life, mystify Soviet politics and perpetuate the cold war--is, at last, obsolete.

With books like this one available in the United States, the American people no longer need to depend upon the Goldmans of Harvard for their information about the Soviet Union.

ANITA M. WATERS

NORTH HOLLYWOOD