By VERENA DOBNIK
The Associated Press
3/11/02 9:30 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mikhail Gorbachev says the Soviet communism he served most of his life was "pure propaganda."
The former Soviet leader told a Columbia University audience on Monday that by the time he rose to power, with Soviet satellites in space, the ruling politicians "were discussing the problem of toothpaste, the problem of detergent, and they had to create a commission of the Politburo to make sure that women have pantyhose."
Speaking in Russian, Gorbachev offered his views a decade after he helped topple this "unreal system" with reforms dubbed perestroika.
Before that, he said, Soviet politicians operated with lies.
"We, including I, were saying, 'Capitalism is moving toward a catastrophe, whereas we are developing well.' Of course, that was pure propaganda. In fact, our country was lagging behind," Gorbachev said.
Change didn't come easily, either.
Gorbachev said perestroika spun out of control after Boris Yeltsin took over in 1991. Instead of a gradual shift to democracy, Yeltsin promised Russians that they "would start moving toward paradise quickly, directly," Gorbachev said.
"Well, we did move directly -- but into an abyss," with the economy collapsing and many former Soviet republics declaring independence, he said. "It is chaos that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin inherited. Chaos in the economy, chaos in the social sphere, chaos in the federation, chaos in the army, chaos everywhere."