The short-term economic prospects of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), following their achievement of political independence from the USSR in September 1991, are assessed. They face both the general difficulties of transition to the market and a special problem of...

Why did the Soviet economic system fall apart? Did the economy simply overreach itself through military spending? Was it the centrally-planned character of Soviet socialism that was at fault? Or did a potentially viable mechanism come apart in Gorbachev''s clumsy hands? Does its failure mean...