>To say that the Soviet nomenklatura had anything approaching the economic
>and social priviliges of Western elites is quite mad. They went to special
>shops and could buy Western goods. They weren't rolling around in Mercedes.
During the early perestroika days I remember reading the sad tale of the regional boss of the construction industry in Leningrad living in a smallish two-bedroom apartment. If he'd been in the west, he'd have had several penthouses and/or mansions. Didn't a lot of support for economic "reform" come from a Soviet elite jealous of the privileges enjoyed by their western counterparts?
Doug