(FORTUNE Magazine) – No changes we make in the economic area are worthwhile without price reform. Everybody knows we have to do it; everybody is afraid to do it. We have to raise prices of food, rent, transportation. But people don't even want to hear about higher prices. For Gorbachev, the most dangerous opposition is among regional party leaders. We have some quite influential young, middle-ranking leaders who don't like perestroika. There is also serious resistance at lower levels, at the grass roots. It will take years, maybe decades, to overcome it. We have three million supervisors on farms. What should we do with them? Still, I don't see any insurmountable obstacles to Gorbachev. In my youth I knew Nikita Khrushchev quite well. He was a big figure in our history. But Gorbachev has some indisputable advantages over him. He is much more literate, much more educated, much more shrewd. He is a serious politician. I think Westerners know more of his good qualities than our people do. They judge mostly by empty shelves in shops. What we need is simple peasant common sense. Gorbachev is trying to revive this great country.