Soviet system

Press, 11 September 1980, Page 14

Soviet system

Sir, — The splenetic malevolence which suffuses the “Economist” article, “Soviet system: heading for a crisis?” (September 3), was clearly prompted by the anonymous author’s comparison of the (to him) terrifying contrast between the actual conditions prevailing in the world’s two major socio-economic systems. The author’s sanguine expectations of the imminent disintegration of the socialist bloc are hardly likely to be realised, when, in fact, it is the Western, capitalist world whch exhibits the most alarming symptoms of dissolution and decay — economic stagnation, chronic inflation and mounting unemployment, (New Zealand figures are the highest since, the 1930 s depression). The author’s counterposing the Soviet Union’s European citizens to its Central Asian fellows is pure wishful thinking and betrays an ugly racist attitude towards the latter, who are at least as well

educated as the anonymous author in the “Economist,” and certainly in their attitudes to other. peoples, hismoral superiors. — Yours, etc. M. CREEL. September 8, 1980.