Important as these change in China have been, however, it is developments in the Soviet Union – the original “homeland of the world proletariat” –that have put the final nail in the coffin of the Marxist Leninist alternative to liberal democracy. It should be clear that in term of formal institutions, not much has changed in the four years since Gorbachev has come to power : free markets and the cooperative movement represent only a small part of the Soviet economy, which remains centrally planned; the political system is still dominated by the communist party, which has only began to democratize internally and to share power with other group; the regime continues to assert that it is seeking only to modernize socialism and that its ideological basis remains Marxism- Leninism; and, finally, Gorbachev faces a potentially powerful conservative opposition that could undo many of the changes that have taken place to date. Moreover it is hard to be too sanguine about the chances for success of Gorbachev’s proposed reforms, either in the sphere of economics or politics. But my purpose here is not to analyze events in the short-term, or to make predictions for policy purposes, but to look at underlying trends in the sphere of ideology and consciousness. And in that respect, it is clear that an astounding transformation has occurred.