The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union : a report from the Airlie House conference

The 27th Soviet Party Congress convened in Moscow on February 25, 1986. It was awaited with particular anticipation both inside and outside the Soviet Union because it would indicate the directions that Mikhail Gorbachev and his new team would attempt to set for the Soviet Union in the years ahead. To identify and assess the principal developments at the Congress, and to consider the potential implications of Gorbachev's first year in power, the RAND/UCLA Center for the Study of Soviet International Behavior and Columbia University's W. Averell Harriman Institute for the Advanced Study of the Soviet Union sponsored an international conference, held at Airlie House in Virginia from April 11-13, 1986. This Joint Note from the RAND/UCLA Center for the Study of Soviet International Behavior transmits the results of that conference, which discussed the Soviet domestic social-political situation, and Soviet economics, security issues, and foreign policy.