The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

by Masha Gessen

Movement for Democratic Reform. It had three foundational principles. Politically, it would renounce the vision of the USSR as a unitary state in favor of creating a federation with a clear division of rights and responsibilities between members and the center. Economically, it would set out a clear program of transition to a market system, in which, for the interim period, the state would retain only a third of all property. Most important, it would create a safety net for those who would be hardest-hit by economic reform.30 The difference between a “movement” and a “party” was as confusing as everything else in the USSR. A movement exists to create change while a party strives to govern.