Moscow Poll Finds Support for Reforms
About 71% of Muscovites believe reforms should be accelerated, but only 17.6% would call Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s perestroika a good policy, according to a new survey.
The poll was sponsored by the French economic magazine l’Expansion and state-run France Inter radio. It was conducted by the Center for Political Studies of the Soviet Union, which questioned 922 people in Moscow between Nov. 1 and Nov. 15.
Only 3.8% of the Muscovites questioned thought the economic situation had improved in recent years. But 57.6% thought Gorbachev’s policies will be successful in the next five years, against 32.5% who were doubtful they will work.
Communism still was favored by about 36% of Muscovites polled, but 29% admitted being against it, with 33% cautiously refusing to reply. As many as 34% said they favored capitalism, 37% said they opposed it and 28.2% said they were undecided.
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