During its early decades in power, the Soviet regime was the most radical and innovative in the world.

By the 1960s, however, extreme conservatism became a hallmark of its internal policies. Fearful of the unpredictable and undesirable consequences of change, the aging, bureaucratic elite of the USSR opted for maintaining, in a somewhat milder form, the system that Stalin had put into place.

Yet even the omnipotent and omnipresent Soviet governing apparatus could not exert complete control over society. Dissent, impossible in the Stalin years, emerged among the intelligentsia. More surprising was that the views and policies of the Ukrainian Communist party leadership diverged clearly, if only briefly, from those of the men in the Kremlin. Although the Soviet system remained firmly in place, skepticism about its effectiveness, especially its ability to raise living standards, spread among the populace. By the mid 1980s, the need for change was undeniable and pressing. Consequently, the Soviet oligarchy chose one of its own to usher in reforms – carefully. In Ukraine the impact of these changes was slow in coming and limited in extent. It was enough to reveal, however, that many of the political, cultural, and economic problems the regime claimed to have eliminated in Ukraine were far from resolved.