The disintegration of the Soviet Union as a political entity has already begun. As an economic entity it is still intact. The following article examines the advantages and disadvantages facing the republics if they choose to break away completely.

Seventy years after the Bolshevik Revolution the Soviet Union is to embark on a new economic path which, according to Mikhail Gorbachev, will again call for revolutionary measures. What form will these measures take? What obstacles stand in the way of the planned reforms? What are their chances...