The Glasnost-Bottom Boat

By DAVID ELLIS

There are clear signs that Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms are taking hold even in the Soviet military. According to U.S. intelligence sources, annual tank production has dropped from 3,500 in 1988 to just 800, and similar cutbacks are taking place on Air Force assembly lines. While the Soviet navy remains the lone holdout against perestroika by continuing a nuclear-carrier program, there are encouraging signs of change there too. The Severodvinsk shipyards have produced a tourist submarine, complete with large glass viewing portholes and devices for picking things up off the ocean floor.

With reporting by Georgia Harbison